Essentially Macbeth News Today

Yet thats the way shakespeares plays were originally done. >> your authority, it is i hecatie with an awesome sight. bow down and acknowledge my might. it has by magical words i shall give the illusions of spirits with much nerve -- >> as the actors were performing, i looked over my shoulder and i noticed iris was silently reciting every word of the play. so i just focused the camera on him and i thought it was pretty cool that he was getting to see his own words come to life and enjoying it so ...

Having feces or urine thrown on you. spit, blood, semen, anything you can think of has happened in this building. >> but for inmates in the shu, the monotony breeds a horror of its own. they told us what it was like to spend 23 hours a day in a windowless concrete cell. sometimes for years at a time. >> youre always trying to find a way to come up for air. the place suffocates you. you know what im saying? >> its a tone, for me, you know? its like the tomb. its like a tomb, a concrete tomb. >> w...

Its crazy to hear it, to see the words come to life. make you want to continue to do it. its like art imitates life. oh, man, it looked good, i like it. they did good. i want to see some more of it, though. >> for iris white, the playwright, it was the first time he had seen a performance of it, and he was really happy. so it was, you know, like the greatest day of his life. >> but whites elation was not to last. the day ended in bitter disappointment. >> and then an hour later he got into a fig...

Your authority. it is i, hecatie with an awesome sight. bow down and acknowledge my might. it has by magical words i shall give the illusions of spirits with much nerve -- >> as the actors were performing, i looked over my shoulder and i noticed iris was silently reciting every word of the play. so i just focused the camera on him and i thought it was pretty cool that he was getting to see his own words come to life and enjoying it so much. >> he shall bury it. i tell you hags that this is -- >>...

>> but for inmates in the shu, the monotony breeds a horror of its own. they told us what it was like to spend 23 hours a day in a windowless concrete cell. sometimes for years at a time. >> youre always trying to find a way to come up for air. you know? the place suffocates you. you know what im saying? >> its a tomb for me, you know? its like the tomb. its like a tomb, a concrete tomb. >> what if they sent these punk ass dudes against and he would have succeeded in killing them -- >> during ou...

You used, you read my eyes like parables. thats almost something like shakespeare himself would write. so i really like that. >> im from the hood you know. not to separate the hood from anything else, because the hood commercial now, whatever, right? but shakespeare was something, you know, i never thought that i would experience in my life. since i came into contact with shakespeare, i see a lot of those parallels that correlate with urban life. >> essentially macbeth and the rest of the charac...

Inmate iris white had completed a 3 1/2 year shu term, and had been transferred to general population. he was allowed to return to the shu to finish his work on the script. now he gets to join this group of general population inmates, who will bring the script to life. >> it was really funny, because some of the inmates were playing witches in macbeth, kind of dancing around, these big old guys, big, dangerous, scary-looking guys going whoo! [ laughter ] >> an all-male cast is something we need ...

Shakespeare in the shu was born. >> and theyre going against banroll. >> still did not answer the question about the third murder. >> i guess you can look at him as being like -- >> the program has inmates rewrite shakespeare in a way that reflects their own experiences. during our shoot the group was working on macbeth, a play about ambition, assassination, and a warlords lust for power. >> i took macbeth to the streets and what he did, he went, to the hood, to the housing projects, you know, g...

I want to see some more of it, though. >> for iris white, the playwright, it was the first time he had seen a performance of it, and he was really happy. so it was, you know, like the greatest day of his life. >> but whites elation was not to last. the day ended in bitter disappointment. >> and then an hour later he got into a fight in the yard and got busted and sent back to the shu. so it shows how fast things can fall apart, even when things are going good, prison can take it all away from yo...

>> im from the hood, you know, not to separate the hood from anything. shakespeare was something, you know, i never thought i would experience in my life. you know, since i came in contact with shakespeare, i see a lot of those parallels that correlate with urban life. >> essentially macbeth and the rest of the characters are committing either immoral, unethical or criminal acts. where we would say criminal acts, right? of course, thats what were in here for, committing criminal acts. so its mad...