Rockaway Artists Alliance Hosts Dzieci's Makbet

Dzieci 'gypsy' invites the audience in. The Rockaway Artists Alliance hosted the Dzieci theatre troupe as they presented Makbet, a chamber verson of Macbeth, at the sTudio 7 Gallery at Fort Tilden. Dzieci, pronounced djyeh-chee and translated from Polish as meaning 'children,' brought the powerful William Shakespeare play to passionate life with a minimum number of actors and very few well chosen props, notably a blood red cloak and a deep black hat.

Acted out as if being performed by a traveling band of gypsies, Dzieci's rendition comes alive through words and gestures, dance-like movement and music. This ageless tale of greed, corruption, omens and foul deeds, and patriotism, loyalty and valor, is told through the unflinching performance of a handful of actors who take turns trading off parts during the play. Witches and ghosts, Scots warriors and noble women, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are all played with sound, fury and subtly shadow without losing track of characters or their purpose. The dramatic force strikes its peak as six actors, two men and four women, fluidly pass through the character of Lady Macbeth

Setting the stage and awaiting Macbeth. as she descends into madness.

Like most Shakespeare plays this version of Macbeth was full of rousing action and music. The ensemble punctuated their performance with songs that wove rhythms and chants together with haunting Eastern European flavored melodies and words. Sometimes joining eight or more voices, they achieved some otherwordly harmonies, without instruments.

Dzieci's Makbet was adapted and directed by Matt Mitler and featured Megan Bones, Yvonne Brecht, Andrew Eldredge, Heidi-Marie Ferren, Jesse Hathaway, Juliana Huestis, Elsa Lam, Matt Mitler and David Rothauser.

"We are very happy to welcome this group of actors and we celebrate this joining of the arts. Definitely look forward to more of this in our future," said an RAA spokesman. Coinciding with this event, the RAA is expanding its definition of the arts it encompasses by adding a Performance Arts Committee to the organization. The committee, open to all, meets on the fourth Monday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in sTudio 7. For more on Dzieci visit www.dziecitheatre.org or for information about RAA, call 718-474-0861, e-mail rockart116@aol.com, or visit www.rockawayartistsalliance. org

An actor already in character waits for the play to begin.