Press
The Boston Globe
A ‘Macbeth’ for the senses
by Terry Byrne
As a psychologist with a background in theater, Wendy Lippe’s Psych Drama Company produces plays that “go for the emotional jugular,” she says. “We need these stories that speak to joy and pain.”
Finding those connections often means the company’s in-person performances blur the boundaries between actors and audience, making the experience more intimate and the audience more complicit in the action onstage. Rather than allow the pandemic to frustrate her efforts, Lippe says it offered new opportunities.
“Lots has been written about how bombarded we are by overstimulation,” she says, “and how it is killing our imagination. We decided we can tell great stories by focusing on the language with an audio play, heightening the experience by relying on the imagination to conjure the images.”
While many local theaters have turned to an audio format, Lippe says her company has stayed true to its immersive experience by creating a “3-D audio surround-sound experience.” This month, Psych Drama is presenting two audio dramas, “Macbeth” (Sept. 10-24) and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (Sept. 11-25).
Psych Drama’s 90-minute “Macbeth” is produced in association with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik and features the music and sound design of Zarko Dragojevic. Far from simply performing the play to a microphone, Dragojevic’s original music, and the use of what Lippe calls “whispers,” add to the dramatic tension.
As Lippe was considering how to explore the lushness of a performance with no visual stimulation, she happened on the website ArtLifting, which featured the vivid, abstract paintings of Nick Morse.
“I looked at this abstract painting and when I flipped it, I saw Macbeth, holding his sword with the Witches and the fires of hell behind him,” says Lippe. “Normally, I might worry about offending the artist by flipping it, but Nick’s dad, [former Globe pop music critic] Steve Morse, said Nick doesn’t mind which way you want to hang his art, as long as you love it.”
While Lippe connected with one of Nick Morse’s paintings specifically for “Macbeth,” she says she was drawn to many of his works on the ArtLifting website.
“We decided the opportunity to see many of his paintings provided the perfect ‘intermission’ in the play,” Lippe says. “It also allows more people to see Nick’s work and learn more about ArtLifting, a platform for artists “impacted by housing insecurity and disabilities.” Nick Morse, who is on the autism spectrum and nonverbal, communicates through painting.
“Nick’s paintings are so full of color and emotion, they allow you to get lost in other worlds,” says Lippe. “We hope our audio adaptation of ‘Macbeth’ allows audiences to do that, too.”
For ticket information, go to www.thepsychdramacompany.com. To see Nick’s artwork, go to www.artlifting.com/collections/nick-morse.
by Terry Byrne
You may also read this on The Boston Globe website
A ‘Macbeth’ for the senses
by Terry Byrne
As a psychologist with a background in theater, Wendy Lippe’s Psych Drama Company produces plays that “go for the emotional jugular,” she says. “We need these stories that speak to joy and pain.”
Finding those connections often means the company’s in-person performances blur the boundaries between actors and audience, making the experience more intimate and the audience more complicit in the action onstage. Rather than allow the pandemic to frustrate her efforts, Lippe says it offered new opportunities.
“Lots has been written about how bombarded we are by overstimulation,” she says, “and how it is killing our imagination. We decided we can tell great stories by focusing on the language with an audio play, heightening the experience by relying on the imagination to conjure the images.”
While many local theaters have turned to an audio format, Lippe says her company has stayed true to its immersive experience by creating a “3-D audio surround-sound experience.” This month, Psych Drama is presenting two audio dramas, “Macbeth” (Sept. 10-24) and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (Sept. 11-25).
Psych Drama’s 90-minute “Macbeth” is produced in association with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik and features the music and sound design of Zarko Dragojevic. Far from simply performing the play to a microphone, Dragojevic’s original music, and the use of what Lippe calls “whispers,” add to the dramatic tension.
As Lippe was considering how to explore the lushness of a performance with no visual stimulation, she happened on the website ArtLifting, which featured the vivid, abstract paintings of Nick Morse.
“I looked at this abstract painting and when I flipped it, I saw Macbeth, holding his sword with the Witches and the fires of hell behind him,” says Lippe. “Normally, I might worry about offending the artist by flipping it, but Nick’s dad, [former Globe pop music critic] Steve Morse, said Nick doesn’t mind which way you want to hang his art, as long as you love it.”
While Lippe connected with one of Nick Morse’s paintings specifically for “Macbeth,” she says she was drawn to many of his works on the ArtLifting website.
“We decided the opportunity to see many of his paintings provided the perfect ‘intermission’ in the play,” Lippe says. “It also allows more people to see Nick’s work and learn more about ArtLifting, a platform for artists “impacted by housing insecurity and disabilities.” Nick Morse, who is on the autism spectrum and nonverbal, communicates through painting.
“Nick’s paintings are so full of color and emotion, they allow you to get lost in other worlds,” says Lippe. “We hope our audio adaptation of ‘Macbeth’ allows audiences to do that, too.”
For ticket information, go to www.thepsychdramacompany.com. To see Nick’s artwork, go to www.artlifting.com/collections/nick-morse.
by Terry Byrne
You may also read this on The Boston Globe website
Kilian Melloy: Psych Drama Company Paints a Vivid 'Macbeth' with Sound
'The dark, chilling result is all the more effective for Psych Drama Company's skill in allowing the audience to take an active part, making this production a collaboration with one's own imagination... the most effective form of theater.'
Director Wendy Lippe revises and lightly re-mixes the text of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for this Psych Drama Company audio production, creating a taut 90-minute radio play that focuses on the work's psychological horrors.
The story is the same: An ambitious Scottish nobleman, Macbeth (Mark Prokes), hears a prediction from three Witches (a nicely gender-diverse trio comprised of Bryan Sabbath, Lindsay McAuliffe, and Michael Mazzone) that he will rule the land. He and his even more ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth (Lippe), immediately conclude that they are meant to assassinate the current king, Duncan (Zachary D. McConnell), and seize power — a gambit that entails a rising spiral of murder and triggers a revolt.
Shakespeare's play is rife with acute observations about greed, aggression, and the mind's ability to rationalize wickedness. But Lippe, in revising the text, chooses to concentrate on the risks to the soul, and edits out most of the play's political power dynamics. What she comes away with is a haunting parable about Fate, embodied in the spectral forces that guide (or manipulate) Macbeth and his ruthless Lady. A deal with the devil, after all, is a slippery thing; Lippe crystallizes this truism, and frames her take in the style of a Greek tragedy.
The production's deep, effective subtext is realized by crisp, well-engineered "soundscape designs" (the work of McConnell) as much as by the actors' vocal performances. Macbeth's qualms may be mocked by his wife, but his surrender to brutality and bloodlust is driven by the voices of the Witches, who, we feel, are constantly monitoring both the actions taking place in the physical world and also the metaphysical currents in the characters' hearts and minds. Countervailing agencies — "The Whisperers" — act as better angels [the dark side, and the voice of reason]… but they [the angels] are drowned out.
The cost of Macbeth's ambition and treachery is enormous, of course, but the relevance and potency of this production is not just a matter of a tyrant facing impossible predictions (a forest's trees on the march; a foe "not born of woman") as they manifest themselves in some of the Bard's cleverest work; it's also a matter of Macbeth's choosing to lose his humanity for the sake of pure power — a theme we see writ large all around us in today's world.
Lippe's abridgment is all but seamless, and her distillation powerful. One does miss a few snippets of the excised text: While the atmospherics are neatly tightened up with the wholesale omission of Macbeth's campaign of slaughter against the nobles who oppose him (aside, that is, from the murder of Banquo [Michael Blunt], which is too essential to the play's horror to lose), the play's not quite the same without Macduff's (Brian Dion) anguish at the news of his entire family having been slain.
Such are the tradeoffs when making such an adaptation, which, in this case, is still entirely successful. The cast, sound design, and original score by Zarko Dragojevic work in concert to paint vivid pictures in the mind of the listener. The dark, chilling result is all the more effective for Psych Drama Company's skill in allowing the audience to take an active part, making this production a collaboration with one's own imagination... the most effective form of theater.
Review: Psych Drama Company Paints a Vivid 'Macbeth' with Sound | EDGE Media Network
Kilian Melloy, EDGE Media Network
The Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor, National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, and The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association.
'The dark, chilling result is all the more effective for Psych Drama Company's skill in allowing the audience to take an active part, making this production a collaboration with one's own imagination... the most effective form of theater.'
Director Wendy Lippe revises and lightly re-mixes the text of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for this Psych Drama Company audio production, creating a taut 90-minute radio play that focuses on the work's psychological horrors.
The story is the same: An ambitious Scottish nobleman, Macbeth (Mark Prokes), hears a prediction from three Witches (a nicely gender-diverse trio comprised of Bryan Sabbath, Lindsay McAuliffe, and Michael Mazzone) that he will rule the land. He and his even more ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth (Lippe), immediately conclude that they are meant to assassinate the current king, Duncan (Zachary D. McConnell), and seize power — a gambit that entails a rising spiral of murder and triggers a revolt.
Shakespeare's play is rife with acute observations about greed, aggression, and the mind's ability to rationalize wickedness. But Lippe, in revising the text, chooses to concentrate on the risks to the soul, and edits out most of the play's political power dynamics. What she comes away with is a haunting parable about Fate, embodied in the spectral forces that guide (or manipulate) Macbeth and his ruthless Lady. A deal with the devil, after all, is a slippery thing; Lippe crystallizes this truism, and frames her take in the style of a Greek tragedy.
The production's deep, effective subtext is realized by crisp, well-engineered "soundscape designs" (the work of McConnell) as much as by the actors' vocal performances. Macbeth's qualms may be mocked by his wife, but his surrender to brutality and bloodlust is driven by the voices of the Witches, who, we feel, are constantly monitoring both the actions taking place in the physical world and also the metaphysical currents in the characters' hearts and minds. Countervailing agencies — "The Whisperers" — act as better angels [the dark side, and the voice of reason]… but they [the angels] are drowned out.
The cost of Macbeth's ambition and treachery is enormous, of course, but the relevance and potency of this production is not just a matter of a tyrant facing impossible predictions (a forest's trees on the march; a foe "not born of woman") as they manifest themselves in some of the Bard's cleverest work; it's also a matter of Macbeth's choosing to lose his humanity for the sake of pure power — a theme we see writ large all around us in today's world.
Lippe's abridgment is all but seamless, and her distillation powerful. One does miss a few snippets of the excised text: While the atmospherics are neatly tightened up with the wholesale omission of Macbeth's campaign of slaughter against the nobles who oppose him (aside, that is, from the murder of Banquo [Michael Blunt], which is too essential to the play's horror to lose), the play's not quite the same without Macduff's (Brian Dion) anguish at the news of his entire family having been slain.
Such are the tradeoffs when making such an adaptation, which, in this case, is still entirely successful. The cast, sound design, and original score by Zarko Dragojevic work in concert to paint vivid pictures in the mind of the listener. The dark, chilling result is all the more effective for Psych Drama Company's skill in allowing the audience to take an active part, making this production a collaboration with one's own imagination... the most effective form of theater.
Review: Psych Drama Company Paints a Vivid 'Macbeth' with Sound | EDGE Media Network
Kilian Melloy, EDGE Media Network
The Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor, National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, and The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association.
‘Macbeth’ Review: Shakespeare, Featuring Your Imagination
The Harvard Crimson
Read the glowing review of Wendy Lippe's immersive adaptation
and Zachary D. McConnell's brilliant audio and soundscape design
The Psych Drama Company’s audio drama adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” captivates its audience in — to use the show’s words — “one fell swoop.” In this reimagined version of the tragedy, featuring Harvard alum Lindsay T. McAuliffe ’20 as a witch, director Wendy Lippe immerses listeners in the world of these well-known characters through an aural experience. As an easily accessible yet enchanting experience, this chilling 90-minute adaptation epitomizes the appeal of audio dramas in that it is an easily accessible and low-pressure enchanting experience available to stream online from Sept. 10 until Oct. 22.
“Macbeth” is at heart a story of ambition and paranoia, feelings conveyed immediately by composer Zarko Dragojevic’s original music and [Zachary D. McConnell's audio and] soundscape design. The background music is suspenseful and violin-heavy when tensions are mounting, and raucous and rich during war and death. As audiences follow the trials and tribulations of Mark Prokes’s Macbeth, a Scottish general who will do anything to be king, the music guides our interpretation of his aspiration and guilt.
Even beyond music, sound is not just the medium through which listeners hear the story but also a key factor in their emotional experience. Macbeth’s paranoia in Act III, for example, translates to irregular sounds that unnerve listeners, as if warning of imminent danger. The aural experience also allows for a riveting dramatization of the witches in the play, two of which are voiced by McAuliffe. The wide range in their voices — one speaks in a higher register, and another in a baby-like voice — magnifies the group’s chaotic nature. Complemented by the echoes often used on their voices and the lively soundscape of the show, these witches, who have been reimagined countless times in the play’s long history, terrify anew in the psych drama production.
The true magic of the show, though, lies in how these sounds spark audiences’ imaginations. When the witches speak to Macbeth in Act I, for example, an echo effect is paired with their overlapped voices, giving listeners the impression of being surrounded by them. Their whispers are persistent, imitating Macbeth’s inner turmoil. This curated acoustic environment gives the audience the context they need to imagine the scenes in whatever way suits them. Still, the plot alone is drama-filled and entertaining, with each character’s distinct voice playing into its progression.
The medium was certainly used well by the cast, who convincingly portrayed their roles without the help of physicality. Wendy Lippe’s Lady Macbeth has a honeyed and demanding voice that conjures a character who cannot be trusted to resist the temptation of power, and who will resort to violence to get it. Brian Dion’s Macduff has a gruff voice that implies his superiority to the doomed Macbeth, portraying him as being both more powerful and virtuous than Mark Prokes’s villain.
Listeners may expect the lack of visuals in “Macbeth” to be a hindrance, but it amplifies the effects of the sound in a way that seeing characters on stage (separate from the audience) cannot. Instead, the drama’s intermission, a virtual art gallery of pieces by Nick Morse, provides a visual experience. Morse’s colorful and emotive art encourages deliberation on the themes about human fallibility conveyed in the show. “Macbeth” puts audience members in the characters’ heads, allowing them to empathize while giving them agency over how to picture the narrative. This aligns with the psychological frame of the Psych Drama Company, which aims to use theatre to explore the human psyche and encourage reflection. This auditory production serves as a reminder that all listeners need to experience a stirring production is a pair of headphones and an imagination.
Read the interview on the Harvard Crimson website >
The Harvard Crimson
Read the glowing review of Wendy Lippe's immersive adaptation
and Zachary D. McConnell's brilliant audio and soundscape design
The Psych Drama Company’s audio drama adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” captivates its audience in — to use the show’s words — “one fell swoop.” In this reimagined version of the tragedy, featuring Harvard alum Lindsay T. McAuliffe ’20 as a witch, director Wendy Lippe immerses listeners in the world of these well-known characters through an aural experience. As an easily accessible yet enchanting experience, this chilling 90-minute adaptation epitomizes the appeal of audio dramas in that it is an easily accessible and low-pressure enchanting experience available to stream online from Sept. 10 until Oct. 22.
“Macbeth” is at heart a story of ambition and paranoia, feelings conveyed immediately by composer Zarko Dragojevic’s original music and [Zachary D. McConnell's audio and] soundscape design. The background music is suspenseful and violin-heavy when tensions are mounting, and raucous and rich during war and death. As audiences follow the trials and tribulations of Mark Prokes’s Macbeth, a Scottish general who will do anything to be king, the music guides our interpretation of his aspiration and guilt.
Even beyond music, sound is not just the medium through which listeners hear the story but also a key factor in their emotional experience. Macbeth’s paranoia in Act III, for example, translates to irregular sounds that unnerve listeners, as if warning of imminent danger. The aural experience also allows for a riveting dramatization of the witches in the play, two of which are voiced by McAuliffe. The wide range in their voices — one speaks in a higher register, and another in a baby-like voice — magnifies the group’s chaotic nature. Complemented by the echoes often used on their voices and the lively soundscape of the show, these witches, who have been reimagined countless times in the play’s long history, terrify anew in the psych drama production.
The true magic of the show, though, lies in how these sounds spark audiences’ imaginations. When the witches speak to Macbeth in Act I, for example, an echo effect is paired with their overlapped voices, giving listeners the impression of being surrounded by them. Their whispers are persistent, imitating Macbeth’s inner turmoil. This curated acoustic environment gives the audience the context they need to imagine the scenes in whatever way suits them. Still, the plot alone is drama-filled and entertaining, with each character’s distinct voice playing into its progression.
The medium was certainly used well by the cast, who convincingly portrayed their roles without the help of physicality. Wendy Lippe’s Lady Macbeth has a honeyed and demanding voice that conjures a character who cannot be trusted to resist the temptation of power, and who will resort to violence to get it. Brian Dion’s Macduff has a gruff voice that implies his superiority to the doomed Macbeth, portraying him as being both more powerful and virtuous than Mark Prokes’s villain.
Listeners may expect the lack of visuals in “Macbeth” to be a hindrance, but it amplifies the effects of the sound in a way that seeing characters on stage (separate from the audience) cannot. Instead, the drama’s intermission, a virtual art gallery of pieces by Nick Morse, provides a visual experience. Morse’s colorful and emotive art encourages deliberation on the themes about human fallibility conveyed in the show. “Macbeth” puts audience members in the characters’ heads, allowing them to empathize while giving them agency over how to picture the narrative. This aligns with the psychological frame of the Psych Drama Company, which aims to use theatre to explore the human psyche and encourage reflection. This auditory production serves as a reminder that all listeners need to experience a stirring production is a pair of headphones and an imagination.
Read the interview on the Harvard Crimson website >
"The Psych Drama Company unveils a marvelously layered and detailed production of Shakespeare’s 'Macbeth' in its new audio drama presentation."
"Macbeth" - a compelling streaming audio drama
The Psych Drama Company unveils a marvelously layered and detailed production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in its new audio drama presentation.
In association with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, Psych Drama presents a reimagined audio drama adaptation of Macbeth, with original music and soundscape composed by Zarko Dragojevik, a musician and composer for the Marin Drzic Theater in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The blended results are compelling as one listens to the finished product.
While losing the visual, the strength in Shakespeare’s plays has never really been inexorably linked to the visual and the Psych Drama presentation proves that quite admirably.
The audio drama never strays from the show’s main theme where chaos ensues when ambition goes unbridled by basic human morality.
The story of "Macbeth", as narrated efficiently by Zachary D. McConnell (who also portrays the characters of Malcolm and Duncan), concerns a daring Scottish general Macbeth (Mark Prokes), who sacrifices his own morality for power and advancement.
Urged on by his ambitious wife, aptly named Lady Macbeth (Wendy Lippe), Macbeth murders his way toward that country’s throne only to meet his own impending doom.
Lippe also was responsible to the adaptation of the Shakespearean text for this production and deserves high praise.
As is the case in most Shakespearean recitals, there is poetic language that flows conversationally, which is executed quite impressively by the performers. Strong elocution and annunciation permeate the presentation and infuses the characters with added psychological complexity as, by losing the visual, one must decipher intent and reactions based solely on the word of the Bard and the actors throughout.
Other performances worthy of note was the trio of Bryan Sabbag, Lindsay McAuliffe and Michael Mazzone as the Witches, Michael Blunt as Macbeth's brave and noble best friend, Banquo, and Brian Dion as the play’s avenging hero MacDuff.
The show is ideal for any classroom use where Shakespeare is being explored or for one’s own enjoyment and personal Shakespearean exploration. Either way it is a do not miss.
by Kevin T. Baldwin
Reviewer for METRMAG
"Macbeth" - a compelling streaming audio drama
The Psych Drama Company unveils a marvelously layered and detailed production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in its new audio drama presentation.
In association with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, Psych Drama presents a reimagined audio drama adaptation of Macbeth, with original music and soundscape composed by Zarko Dragojevik, a musician and composer for the Marin Drzic Theater in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The blended results are compelling as one listens to the finished product.
While losing the visual, the strength in Shakespeare’s plays has never really been inexorably linked to the visual and the Psych Drama presentation proves that quite admirably.
The audio drama never strays from the show’s main theme where chaos ensues when ambition goes unbridled by basic human morality.
The story of "Macbeth", as narrated efficiently by Zachary D. McConnell (who also portrays the characters of Malcolm and Duncan), concerns a daring Scottish general Macbeth (Mark Prokes), who sacrifices his own morality for power and advancement.
Urged on by his ambitious wife, aptly named Lady Macbeth (Wendy Lippe), Macbeth murders his way toward that country’s throne only to meet his own impending doom.
Lippe also was responsible to the adaptation of the Shakespearean text for this production and deserves high praise.
As is the case in most Shakespearean recitals, there is poetic language that flows conversationally, which is executed quite impressively by the performers. Strong elocution and annunciation permeate the presentation and infuses the characters with added psychological complexity as, by losing the visual, one must decipher intent and reactions based solely on the word of the Bard and the actors throughout.
Other performances worthy of note was the trio of Bryan Sabbag, Lindsay McAuliffe and Michael Mazzone as the Witches, Michael Blunt as Macbeth's brave and noble best friend, Banquo, and Brian Dion as the play’s avenging hero MacDuff.
The show is ideal for any classroom use where Shakespeare is being explored or for one’s own enjoyment and personal Shakespearean exploration. Either way it is a do not miss.
by Kevin T. Baldwin
Reviewer for METRMAG
“NO, WE’RE NOT DOING ZOOM.” PSYCH DRAMA COMPANY BRINGS THE STAGE TO YOUR EARSWRITTEN BY CHRIS FARAONEPOSTED SEPTEMBER 12, 2021FILED UNDER: A+E, INTERVIEWS
Psych Drama Company Founder Wendy Lippe on her company’s two ambitious new audio productions
Wendy Lippe climbs over hurdles with the same grace and enthusiasm that she has stepping onto theatrical stages.
When the founder and producing artistic director of the Brookline-based Psych Drama Company saw a missed opportunity in how much lovers of theater could learn about not only shows but themselves after the curtain drops, she flipped the format and started a philanthropic-minded troupe that’s celebrating its decade anniversary this year. So it’s fitting that while some stage companies went dark in 2020, Lippe, a practicing clinical psychologist, found a way to keep the box office open through the pandemic, virtually and with significant vision.
“We wanted to do something really big and it was in the middle of COVID,” Lippe said in a recent interview. “We were aware of a lot of artists and painters being underemployed and unemployed, and we wanted to do an interdisciplinary program and have collaborators come together across platforms.”
In seeking a silver lining for her company, for their 2021 outings Lippe recruited partners including ArtLifting, a “social enterprise that champions artists impacted by homelessness or disabilities through the sale and celebration of their artwork,” and Zarko Dragojevic, an accomplished composer from the Marin Držić Theater in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Psych Drama Company’s core mission is to “unite creative artists across the world in profit-sharing collaborations,” and their current (virtual) marquee speaks to that end and then some.
We chatted with the former Harvard Medical School faculty member about their online audio dramas, Macbeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, both of which have streaming dates via onthestage.com through late September and “will allow actors, directors, composers, sound designers and fine artists, specifically painters—all of whom have been unemployed or underemployed during the pandemic—to share in the profits generated.”
What came before this? How did you build up this company and program?
I have been a theater person since I was little and went to a high school for performing arts and went to a BFA program at Syracuse University. I thought that was going to be my life and then I changed course and became a clinical psychologist. But I never stopped performing. When it’s in your blood, you can’t stop. Stage was my thing, always. Even through graduate school and everything, I kept performing. And then when I was established with my postdoc, I still never stopped performing.
In 2010, I was at a conference in Sicily on Greek tragedy and psychoanalysis … held in this huge amphitheater. … We had these conversations that were fantastic—about artistic direction, and psychoanalysis. But none of the creative people [from a performance they watched together] were there. We were talking about the productions without the creative team. And as someone who deeply identified with both groups, I felt we should all be sitting on that stone stage and engaging with each other. And so it clicked. I said, I am going to form a drama company and I am going to integrate creative artists with academics and clinical psychologists and we are going to delve deeper into the psyche of the characters. It’s going to be integrated, it’s going to be interdisciplinary.
How do most theater companies address these issues, if at all?
They’ll have a psychoanalyst come and discuss the production after [the show’s run is over]. With ours, every single performance has a clinical psychologist to lead a discussion afterward, and some have also worked with our actors and creative team during the rehearsal process. At our last production, we had people from Harvard Medical School and social workers leading a discussion after every performance. The mission was to help people think more deeply about relationships and their lives.
What kind of plays lend themselves well to this approach?
We love Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams—we do hardcore stuff, serious dramas. I think the greatest writers of all time speak to elements of human nature that we can all relate to forever. In Hamlet, in Macbeth, we can watch them again and again.
Tell me a little bit more about the pivot to audio dramas during the pandemic.
I can’t tell you how much porn addiction I treat—fantasy and imagination have gone out the window. [For last year’s production], I said, No, we’re not doing Zoom. There’s something that is deadening about it. I said we’ll go back to something older.
We got rave reviews for a radio drama … that aired in December 2020. What I loved about it as a clinical psychologist was you could lay back and just listen and fantasize about the imagery and have this experience where you’re not bombarded by too much stimulation.
And now you’re doing two plays at once, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Macbeth. And you’re doing them as audio dramas, complete with original music and artwork. Is this the new direction that your company is moving in?
I’m always going to do live theater—I’m either going to die on stage, or talking to a patient. But I’ve fallen in love with this other medium.
With Macbeth, you are going to have a 3-D audio experience. It’s surround-sound. This is not your standard stuff—you have to listen with headphones. It’s like the story is brought to life. It’s immersive. So the visuals are your imagination, but the audio is so rich.
I adapted it, it’s a 90-minute adaptation I created only using Shakespeare’s language. It’s fully reimagined. I tried to capture just a little bit more about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s inner-turmoil. I wanted to flesh them out in a three-dimensional way. If you look at them separately, they’re not fully fleshed out humans in the way Hamlet is.
How did the musical collaboration with Zarko Dragojevic come about?
This was the best time to collaborate, and I had met him and we recognized that we shared some artistic sensibilities. I said that I wanted to do another adaptation of a Shakespearean drama and that I wanted it to have an original score. We stayed in contact for a while and during the pandemic. He’s created tons of original scores for shows in Europe.
It’s amazing, all of the characters have their own theme music. And he is in Croatia, so he’s coming to rehearsal at 3am.
How exactly does the format work for the audience?
You buy the ticket and you have a 24-hour period to listen to it.
These are not readings. We had Zoom rehearsals for three to four months, and then we had rehearsals in person, rented professional recording equipment, and we got together after a week of meeting in person and recorded it with everybody in the same room. So these are fully rehearsed productions and when you hear them you will hear the quality of the work.
And I take it you can reach people you never dreamed of reaching in your usual format?
We can stream in multiple zones across the world.
I found out about these shows as a fan of Nick Morse’s art. He’s not an actor, how did he get involved?
I was on his site scrolling through paintings and reading about how he doesn’t speak, but his paintings speak. And it said that Nick doesn’t mind the orientation that you hang his paintings on. And I saw one and it just grabbed me. It looked like an abstract figure of Macbeth grounded looking up into the sky, and then a figure of either one of the witches or the dead souls he killed floating to the sky, and he’s on the ground and the fires of hell are all around him.
Nick’s self-esteem was suffering during the pandemic, and his father and agent [Nick works with ArtLifting] said it was uplifting to him [to get involved]. [In addition to the poster art], we have a bunch of his paintings, and while people are listening to the audio drama, they will also be able to look at Nick’s art during the Macbeth intermission. For Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, we have paintings from three artists that capture the play’s motifs of sexuality and mortality.
What else should people know?
The money from the ticket sales go directly into the pockets of artists. The pandemic continues and they need it.
Read More >
Upper Cape Performer Will Take Part In Audio Drama Production Of 'MacBeth'
By JOANNE BRIANA-GARTNER Aug 31, 2021 Arts & Entertainment
Dr. Wendy Lippe and Linda Monchik, two of the performers in the Psych Drama Company’s upcoming audio drama production of “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”
When the pandemic first shut down live theater last year theaters turned to Zoom to reach audiences with performances both adapted for Zoom and written specifically for the new medium.
The Psych Drama Company of Brookline chose a different approach. “I had a look at different Zoom performances and it just felt like a deadening experience,” said Wendy Lippe, founding director of the company now in its 10th season. “It had nothing to do with the actors or directors, many of whom were fantastic, it was just so two-dimensional.”
Rather than work with Zoom, Dr. Lippe suggested that the company, which had been rehearing for an upcoming performance of James Goldman’s “The Lion In Winter,” perform the equivalent of a radio drama. Recalling the childhood experience of listening to records with her grandmother, Dr. Lippe said, “I wanted people to be able to lay back and just listen, to let their minds get flooded with imagery and hear the sounds and the voices and create their own internal landscapes. I feel like we don’t have enough of that in our world.”
The Psych Drama Company performed “A Lion In Winter” last December as an audio drama, receiving positive feedback. Next up the company, in conjunction with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, will present audio drama adaptations of both Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Tennessee Williams’s “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”
The dramas will be available for streaming September 10 through the September 24 (MacBeth) and September 11 through September 25 (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof).
A clinical psychologist, Dr. Lippe said she hopes people will be able to decompress while listening to the audio and see the scenes play out in their imaginations. “In therapy I try to help people develop more of their internal landscape,” she said. “I see the benefits of technology but as a psychologist I’m concerned about the way our imaginations are suffering by getting bombarded by so much stimuli all the time and what happens to our imagination in terms of the human condition over time.”
The cast of eight for “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” will feature Cape performer Linda Monchik in the role of Big Mama. Ms. Monchik is well-known among Cape audiences, having performed on Upper Cape stages, including the Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Woods Hole Theater Company. She may be best remembered locally for her performance of Rose Kennedy in the one-woman show “Rose.”
Ten years ago Ms. Monchik performed as Gertrude in the Psych Drama Company’s inaugural production of “Hamlet.”
Performing two audio dramas at once was unintentional and happened through serendipity.
Having put in for the rights to perform “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but doubtful they would secure the rights to stream it, the company was off and running on its adaptation of “MacBeth,” when they got the news that they’d been approved to perform the Tennessee William’s classic.
“Two plays at once is a lot but we were so hungry to create art and we didn’t want to turn down the opportunity,” Dr. Lippe said.
In addition to the spoken word of the performers, the audio performances will include sound effects and original music. “Macbeth” will feature music specially composed for the performance by Croatian composer Zarko Dragojevic, founder of Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik. “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” will feature an original music score by Adam Elliott Rush, who also performs in the show.
During the intermission portion of each show there will be an online art show featuring work by members of ArtLifting, a Boston-area benefit corporation that serves as a platform for artists who have traditionally been underrepresented in the contemporary art market.
During “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Dr. Lippe and Addison Spearman of ArtLifting selected evocative images that resonate with the play’s motifs of sexuality and mortality. Work by Watertown artist Nick Morse, who is also represented by ArtLifting, will be shown at intermission during “MacBeth.” A painting by Mr. Morse also serves as the poster artwork for the play.
While the casts of both shows rehearsed online, they traveled to Boston to do a week of in-person tech rehearsals with two days of full recording for each show. “Being in person helped with getting the essential timing correct,” said Dr. Lippe.
In adapting “MacBeth” for an audio drama Dr. Lippe said she altered the script but stayed with Shakespeare’s text by “cutting it and moving it and having different characters say different lines,” although she did add a narrator to the play in order to explain stage direction when necessary. She hopes the adaptation will heighten feelings of inner conflict among the main characters of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.
Using compositions created by Zarko Dragojevic, the music itself might help to shape the characters. Dr. Lippe connected with Mr. Dragojevic while visiting Croatia, sending him updated scripts for the composer to use for inspiration in creating the music. “He would attend our Zoom rehearsals, waking up in the middle of the night sometimes because of the time difference,” said Dr. Lipp.
Zachary McConnell, audio designer for the performances, also appears as a character in “MacBeth.” Dr. Lippe described Mr. McConnell as a brilliant magician. “He’s in the play and he’s doing the full audio design, bringing all the pieces together.”
In her work as a psychologist, Dr. Lippe said she often helps her patients “find creative pursuits in their lives as a source of healing.”
“People who have that creative bug, they cannot be stopped. Nothing will hold you back. You will find a way. There have been all these different ways people have worked and come together in new ways to work and support each other with this craft. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Cost is $30 per performance for individual viewings of “MacBeth” and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” and $40 for families to tune in on more than one device. Once a ticket is purchased, there is a 24-hour window for tuning in to the performance. Proceeds from the sale of tickets will help support local performers, directors, composers and others involved in the arts and in these two productions who lost opportunities to work during the pandemic.
To best experience the three-dimensional quality of the audio and musical accompaniment, Dr. Lippe recommends listening to the performances on headphones.
Tickets to both “MacBeth” and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” can be purchased through the Psych Drama Company’s website.
While the Psych Drama Company plans to return to live theater later this year, Dr. Lippe hopes to integrate audio performances into the company’s seasonal offerings. “Going forward, I think we’re going to integrate either audio dramas or audio books done with professional sound equipment with sound effects and music.”
The two audio dramas created by Psych Drama Company are immersive, rich and full. For “MacBeth” the haunting quality of the play is intensified with music and snippets of inner dialogue interspersed with the characters’ emotional words. Because imagination takes over, the audio may lead to a more intense experience than a live performance might be able to evoke.
“I hope people fall in love with this art form again and that it comes back stronger,” said Dr. Lippe. “There’s just something different about it. Something about imagination and internal landscape.”
Read More >
By JOANNE BRIANA-GARTNER Aug 31, 2021 Arts & Entertainment
Dr. Wendy Lippe and Linda Monchik, two of the performers in the Psych Drama Company’s upcoming audio drama production of “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”
When the pandemic first shut down live theater last year theaters turned to Zoom to reach audiences with performances both adapted for Zoom and written specifically for the new medium.
The Psych Drama Company of Brookline chose a different approach. “I had a look at different Zoom performances and it just felt like a deadening experience,” said Wendy Lippe, founding director of the company now in its 10th season. “It had nothing to do with the actors or directors, many of whom were fantastic, it was just so two-dimensional.”
Rather than work with Zoom, Dr. Lippe suggested that the company, which had been rehearing for an upcoming performance of James Goldman’s “The Lion In Winter,” perform the equivalent of a radio drama. Recalling the childhood experience of listening to records with her grandmother, Dr. Lippe said, “I wanted people to be able to lay back and just listen, to let their minds get flooded with imagery and hear the sounds and the voices and create their own internal landscapes. I feel like we don’t have enough of that in our world.”
The Psych Drama Company performed “A Lion In Winter” last December as an audio drama, receiving positive feedback. Next up the company, in conjunction with the Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, will present audio drama adaptations of both Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Tennessee Williams’s “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”
The dramas will be available for streaming September 10 through the September 24 (MacBeth) and September 11 through September 25 (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof).
A clinical psychologist, Dr. Lippe said she hopes people will be able to decompress while listening to the audio and see the scenes play out in their imaginations. “In therapy I try to help people develop more of their internal landscape,” she said. “I see the benefits of technology but as a psychologist I’m concerned about the way our imaginations are suffering by getting bombarded by so much stimuli all the time and what happens to our imagination in terms of the human condition over time.”
The cast of eight for “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” will feature Cape performer Linda Monchik in the role of Big Mama. Ms. Monchik is well-known among Cape audiences, having performed on Upper Cape stages, including the Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Woods Hole Theater Company. She may be best remembered locally for her performance of Rose Kennedy in the one-woman show “Rose.”
Ten years ago Ms. Monchik performed as Gertrude in the Psych Drama Company’s inaugural production of “Hamlet.”
Performing two audio dramas at once was unintentional and happened through serendipity.
Having put in for the rights to perform “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but doubtful they would secure the rights to stream it, the company was off and running on its adaptation of “MacBeth,” when they got the news that they’d been approved to perform the Tennessee William’s classic.
“Two plays at once is a lot but we were so hungry to create art and we didn’t want to turn down the opportunity,” Dr. Lippe said.
In addition to the spoken word of the performers, the audio performances will include sound effects and original music. “Macbeth” will feature music specially composed for the performance by Croatian composer Zarko Dragojevic, founder of Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik. “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” will feature an original music score by Adam Elliott Rush, who also performs in the show.
During the intermission portion of each show there will be an online art show featuring work by members of ArtLifting, a Boston-area benefit corporation that serves as a platform for artists who have traditionally been underrepresented in the contemporary art market.
During “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Dr. Lippe and Addison Spearman of ArtLifting selected evocative images that resonate with the play’s motifs of sexuality and mortality. Work by Watertown artist Nick Morse, who is also represented by ArtLifting, will be shown at intermission during “MacBeth.” A painting by Mr. Morse also serves as the poster artwork for the play.
While the casts of both shows rehearsed online, they traveled to Boston to do a week of in-person tech rehearsals with two days of full recording for each show. “Being in person helped with getting the essential timing correct,” said Dr. Lippe.
In adapting “MacBeth” for an audio drama Dr. Lippe said she altered the script but stayed with Shakespeare’s text by “cutting it and moving it and having different characters say different lines,” although she did add a narrator to the play in order to explain stage direction when necessary. She hopes the adaptation will heighten feelings of inner conflict among the main characters of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.
Using compositions created by Zarko Dragojevic, the music itself might help to shape the characters. Dr. Lippe connected with Mr. Dragojevic while visiting Croatia, sending him updated scripts for the composer to use for inspiration in creating the music. “He would attend our Zoom rehearsals, waking up in the middle of the night sometimes because of the time difference,” said Dr. Lipp.
Zachary McConnell, audio designer for the performances, also appears as a character in “MacBeth.” Dr. Lippe described Mr. McConnell as a brilliant magician. “He’s in the play and he’s doing the full audio design, bringing all the pieces together.”
In her work as a psychologist, Dr. Lippe said she often helps her patients “find creative pursuits in their lives as a source of healing.”
“People who have that creative bug, they cannot be stopped. Nothing will hold you back. You will find a way. There have been all these different ways people have worked and come together in new ways to work and support each other with this craft. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Cost is $30 per performance for individual viewings of “MacBeth” and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” and $40 for families to tune in on more than one device. Once a ticket is purchased, there is a 24-hour window for tuning in to the performance. Proceeds from the sale of tickets will help support local performers, directors, composers and others involved in the arts and in these two productions who lost opportunities to work during the pandemic.
To best experience the three-dimensional quality of the audio and musical accompaniment, Dr. Lippe recommends listening to the performances on headphones.
Tickets to both “MacBeth” and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” can be purchased through the Psych Drama Company’s website.
While the Psych Drama Company plans to return to live theater later this year, Dr. Lippe hopes to integrate audio performances into the company’s seasonal offerings. “Going forward, I think we’re going to integrate either audio dramas or audio books done with professional sound equipment with sound effects and music.”
The two audio dramas created by Psych Drama Company are immersive, rich and full. For “MacBeth” the haunting quality of the play is intensified with music and snippets of inner dialogue interspersed with the characters’ emotional words. Because imagination takes over, the audio may lead to a more intense experience than a live performance might be able to evoke.
“I hope people fall in love with this art form again and that it comes back stronger,” said Dr. Lippe. “There’s just something different about it. Something about imagination and internal landscape.”
Read More >
Alumni Spotlight: Lindsay McAuliffe ’15
Walnut Hill Arts News
This month, we connected with Lindsay McAuliffe, a graduate of our Theater Department, to catch up on her life and career after her Walnut Hill graduation in 2015. We also heard about her recent work with the Psych Drama Company, where she recorded two audio dramas: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as Mae) and Macbeth (as a Witch). Both shows are streaming now—tickets are available on the Psych website.
Tell us about the work you've been doing recently with the Psych Drama Company. How did you get involved, and what was your experience like working on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Macbeth?
Working with the Psych Drama Company on Macbeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been one of the highlights of my 2021. It was such a joy to be making theater again! I discovered the company after coming across an audition listing on StageSource’s website. I auditioned for both shows over Zoom and soon thereafter was cast as a Witch in Macbeth and Mae in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Both shows started rehearsing in March 2021, and each rehearsed twice a week for three hours. As per tradition, we spent the first month and initial rehearsals doing table work, diving deep into character analysis and development, and discovering the world of the plays. We then transitioned to focusing our efforts on bringing the texts to life with the same energy, urgency, and magic as live theater. While most of our rehearsals were on Zoom, I constantly felt so grateful to be able to collaborate with other hungry artists and relish my first experience rehearsing for and performing an audio drama! I loved the challenge of working on these classic plays without the visual aspect traditionally associated with them.
Both Wendy Lippe and Larry Segal stressed the importance of clarifying the intentions, actions, and tactics of our characters during the early stages of the rehearsal process. To captivate the audience’s aural attention and achieve the same clarity, power, and gravitas as live theater, we had to make sure that textual and character choices we made were specific, clear, and matched the high-stakes nature of each piece. I often thought, how could I, and the cast, bring these monumental and widely known plays to life without relying on our most dominant sense: sight? It was a fun puzzle to wrestle with. Taking on these audio dramas was akin to Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire. If Fred was live theater and Ginger an audio drama, then our work creating these dramas was like doing everything Fred did but backwards and in heels.
Before recording both shows, each cast met for in-person rehearsals at Wendy’s Brookline apartment to polish and solidify the work we’d done on Zoom. Upon meeting one another, the joy in that rehearsal room was palpable; everyone was keen to be off Zoom. We recorded both shows in Psych Drama’s new performance space in Attleboro. It was such a blessing to work with talented performers and wonderful people, engage in a new theater-making process, and work on my first professional Boston show! I am excited for friends and family to listen to these audio dramas and experience classic shows in a completely new context!
Where do you see yourself going from here? Do you have any other projects coming up?
Great question! Currently, I am pursuing performance work as an actor and a director in theater, film, and TV in the Greater Boston area and around New England. I am also very interested in pursuing arts administrative opportunities at nonprofit theater companies and organizations and exploring teaching theater and theater education. Truthfully, I am trying to keep myself open to anything and stay curious regarding almost any artistic opportunity that would enable me to hone my craft, challenge my artistry, and meet like-minded, passionate artists. I am just thrilled to bits that the theater world and performing arts, in general, are safely opening back up again (fingers crossed). Just thinking about the incredible work that will emerge from this past year and a half fills me with immense joy, gratitude, and pride!
If you had to give a few words of advice to our current seniors or recent graduates who are just entering their post-Walnut Hill life, what would they be?
Take a deep breath. Whether you are a senior or recent graduate, know that you are well-prepared and more than ready for what lies ahead. Walnut Hill has set you up for academic and artistic success. Do not doubt this. You will leave Walnut Hill equipped with a strong work ethic, resilient spirit, unwavering focus, and grateful heart. Trust that you have everything you need to succeed inside of you. Stay curious and be open to anything and everything that pushes you to take your artistry to the next level. Lastly, hold your friends close. The friendships you made at Walnut Hill are some of the most special and profound relationships you will forge. No one will truly understand your time and journey at Walnut Hill quite like the people you met here. My friends from Walnut Hill are still some of my closest and dearest friends in the world. Lean on these people, stay in touch with them, and support their personal and artistic growth and journeys. And always remember Non nobis solum--Not for ourselves alone.
Read the interview on the Walnut Hill Arts website >
Walnut Hill Arts News
This month, we connected with Lindsay McAuliffe, a graduate of our Theater Department, to catch up on her life and career after her Walnut Hill graduation in 2015. We also heard about her recent work with the Psych Drama Company, where she recorded two audio dramas: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as Mae) and Macbeth (as a Witch). Both shows are streaming now—tickets are available on the Psych website.
Tell us about the work you've been doing recently with the Psych Drama Company. How did you get involved, and what was your experience like working on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Macbeth?
Working with the Psych Drama Company on Macbeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been one of the highlights of my 2021. It was such a joy to be making theater again! I discovered the company after coming across an audition listing on StageSource’s website. I auditioned for both shows over Zoom and soon thereafter was cast as a Witch in Macbeth and Mae in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Both shows started rehearsing in March 2021, and each rehearsed twice a week for three hours. As per tradition, we spent the first month and initial rehearsals doing table work, diving deep into character analysis and development, and discovering the world of the plays. We then transitioned to focusing our efforts on bringing the texts to life with the same energy, urgency, and magic as live theater. While most of our rehearsals were on Zoom, I constantly felt so grateful to be able to collaborate with other hungry artists and relish my first experience rehearsing for and performing an audio drama! I loved the challenge of working on these classic plays without the visual aspect traditionally associated with them.
Both Wendy Lippe and Larry Segal stressed the importance of clarifying the intentions, actions, and tactics of our characters during the early stages of the rehearsal process. To captivate the audience’s aural attention and achieve the same clarity, power, and gravitas as live theater, we had to make sure that textual and character choices we made were specific, clear, and matched the high-stakes nature of each piece. I often thought, how could I, and the cast, bring these monumental and widely known plays to life without relying on our most dominant sense: sight? It was a fun puzzle to wrestle with. Taking on these audio dramas was akin to Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire. If Fred was live theater and Ginger an audio drama, then our work creating these dramas was like doing everything Fred did but backwards and in heels.
Before recording both shows, each cast met for in-person rehearsals at Wendy’s Brookline apartment to polish and solidify the work we’d done on Zoom. Upon meeting one another, the joy in that rehearsal room was palpable; everyone was keen to be off Zoom. We recorded both shows in Psych Drama’s new performance space in Attleboro. It was such a blessing to work with talented performers and wonderful people, engage in a new theater-making process, and work on my first professional Boston show! I am excited for friends and family to listen to these audio dramas and experience classic shows in a completely new context!
Where do you see yourself going from here? Do you have any other projects coming up?
Great question! Currently, I am pursuing performance work as an actor and a director in theater, film, and TV in the Greater Boston area and around New England. I am also very interested in pursuing arts administrative opportunities at nonprofit theater companies and organizations and exploring teaching theater and theater education. Truthfully, I am trying to keep myself open to anything and stay curious regarding almost any artistic opportunity that would enable me to hone my craft, challenge my artistry, and meet like-minded, passionate artists. I am just thrilled to bits that the theater world and performing arts, in general, are safely opening back up again (fingers crossed). Just thinking about the incredible work that will emerge from this past year and a half fills me with immense joy, gratitude, and pride!
If you had to give a few words of advice to our current seniors or recent graduates who are just entering their post-Walnut Hill life, what would they be?
Take a deep breath. Whether you are a senior or recent graduate, know that you are well-prepared and more than ready for what lies ahead. Walnut Hill has set you up for academic and artistic success. Do not doubt this. You will leave Walnut Hill equipped with a strong work ethic, resilient spirit, unwavering focus, and grateful heart. Trust that you have everything you need to succeed inside of you. Stay curious and be open to anything and everything that pushes you to take your artistry to the next level. Lastly, hold your friends close. The friendships you made at Walnut Hill are some of the most special and profound relationships you will forge. No one will truly understand your time and journey at Walnut Hill quite like the people you met here. My friends from Walnut Hill are still some of my closest and dearest friends in the world. Lean on these people, stay in touch with them, and support their personal and artistic growth and journeys. And always remember Non nobis solum--Not for ourselves alone.
Read the interview on the Walnut Hill Arts website >
Audio Versions of Plays by Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams on Offer from Alum’s Local Drama CompanyTickets on sale now for Psych Theatre Company’s Macbeth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Joel Brown
September 9, 2021
“I believe, as a psychologist, that technology and immediate gratification and all the stimulation that we get have taken away from our ability to fantasize, to use our imaginations,” Wendy Lippe says. “A radio drama encourages people to use their imagination while they listen.”
A clinical psychologist with offices in Brookline and Cambridge, Lippe (GRS’93,’96) says she’s been busier than ever during the pandemic. She is also producing artistic director of the decade-old nonprofit Psych Drama Company. Last year, the company had planned to stage James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, but then COVID came along and they turned it into an audio-only “radio play” last December.
“It went fantastic, we got really good reviews, and we thought, this is kind of cool,” Lippe says. “We never thought we’d really enjoy doing audio dramas, but we did, and we don’t know how long COVID is going to be here, so let’s keep going.”
So this month Psych is debuting audio versions of two classic plays that have more than a little psychology: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. “Both Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams—in their own different forms of poetry—write beautifully about the human condition, and that’s what the Psych Drama Company is about,” Lippe says.
Shakespeare’s tragedy, believed to have first been produced in 1606, tells of the bloody ambition of the Scottish general Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to ascend to the Scottish throne, what they do to achieve their goal, and the price they pay. The Psych version “is all Shakespeare’s language, but reimagined to delve even deeper into the psyches of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth,” says Lippe, who cut the play to run about 75 minutes, plus intermission.
Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Cat, first produced in 1955, which traces one long evening in the life of a wealthy, deeply dysfunctional Mississippi cotton-growing family, chief among them the dying patriarch Big Daddy, his son Brick, and Brick’s wife, known as “Maggie the Cat.” Asked why Cat, Lippe laughs. All Williams plays are “just chock-full of psychological richness and themes, and the writing is deeply psychological and poetic at the same time,” she says.
“We didn’t think we were going to get the rights,” she adds. “Many of the major American playwrights and/or their estates were just not giving virtual rights. And it fell into our laps. So we decided, let’s do two! We were rehearsing both at the same time.”
And both feature women who want to stir their men to action in one way or another. Lippe plays both Lady Macbeth and Maggie the Cat. A psychological nexus? “That is so brilliantly insightful,” she says, laughing. “Even though consciously I’m aware of that, I had not put it together for myself. I’ll have to think about that.”
Most of the others involved in the project are local theater veterans. Macbeth, directed by Lippe, stars Mark Prokes as Macbeth and Michael Blunt as Banquo. Directed by Larry Segel, Cat’s stars are Eric McGowan as Brick and David Lee Vincent as Big Daddy, also experienced local actors.
In her private practice, Lippe uses both cognitive therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. From 2000 to 2019, she was an adjunct faculty member or a visiting researcher at the BU Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders, but basically functioned as a clinical supervisor for students in the clinical psychology doctoral program, she says. She stopped teaching in 2019, because the time demands were simply too much on top of her private practice and the theater company, but now she consults as needed and gives guest lectures in the psychological and brain sciences department.
The two new productions are not script readings, but fully rehearsed audio dramas that were each in rehearsal for over three months prior to being recorded in August.
“I couldn’t believe Macbeth was written after Hamlet, which is his masterpiece in the creation of the inner landscape of the human psyche, of the internality of the characters,” Lippe says. “I’ve been struck by the two-dimensionality of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in comparison. As a psychologist, I felt they were not as fleshed-out in terms of their internal landscape. What I wanted to do in my adaptation was experiment with ways of creating more internal conflict for them using just Shakespeare’s text.” She uses sound design and fragments of the text to give viewers what she hopes is an expanded insight into their internal struggles.
The two new shows also include some “really cool collaborations,” she says. Traveling in Croatia to attend a workshop a year before COVID, Lippe met theater-focused musician and composer Zarko Dragojevic, of Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, who was a workshop copresenter. The two wanted to collaborate, and then pandemic life on Zoom made it seem more sensible to work together long distance. “I said we’re doing virtual theater, doing these audio dramas now; what are you doing?” she says. “And he said, ‘Not much of anything. We’re also in a bind. Maybe this is the time to collaborate.’”
He provided an original score and “soundscape” for Psych’s production of Macbeth, which also features sound design by Zachary McConnell, who plays Duncan and Malcolm and provides narration. Macbeth also includes a streaming art exhibition by Nick Morse, of Boston’s ArtLifting organization, during intermission. (That’s his art on the Macbeth poster.)
Lippe was so moved by the struggles all of these artists faced during the pandemic that this production will have profit-sharing, she says, after Psych covers its costs.
The Psych troupe is also planning live performances of The Lion in Winter in November, venue TBA. Arrangements are still under discussion, but the troupe is already rehearsing. Performing for a live audience again, Lippe says, she will feel “fully alive, exhilarated, like I’m home again. My eyes are filling up with tears thinking about it.”
Read More >
Joel Brown
September 9, 2021
“I believe, as a psychologist, that technology and immediate gratification and all the stimulation that we get have taken away from our ability to fantasize, to use our imaginations,” Wendy Lippe says. “A radio drama encourages people to use their imagination while they listen.”
A clinical psychologist with offices in Brookline and Cambridge, Lippe (GRS’93,’96) says she’s been busier than ever during the pandemic. She is also producing artistic director of the decade-old nonprofit Psych Drama Company. Last year, the company had planned to stage James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, but then COVID came along and they turned it into an audio-only “radio play” last December.
“It went fantastic, we got really good reviews, and we thought, this is kind of cool,” Lippe says. “We never thought we’d really enjoy doing audio dramas, but we did, and we don’t know how long COVID is going to be here, so let’s keep going.”
So this month Psych is debuting audio versions of two classic plays that have more than a little psychology: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. “Both Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams—in their own different forms of poetry—write beautifully about the human condition, and that’s what the Psych Drama Company is about,” Lippe says.
Shakespeare’s tragedy, believed to have first been produced in 1606, tells of the bloody ambition of the Scottish general Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to ascend to the Scottish throne, what they do to achieve their goal, and the price they pay. The Psych version “is all Shakespeare’s language, but reimagined to delve even deeper into the psyches of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth,” says Lippe, who cut the play to run about 75 minutes, plus intermission.
Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Cat, first produced in 1955, which traces one long evening in the life of a wealthy, deeply dysfunctional Mississippi cotton-growing family, chief among them the dying patriarch Big Daddy, his son Brick, and Brick’s wife, known as “Maggie the Cat.” Asked why Cat, Lippe laughs. All Williams plays are “just chock-full of psychological richness and themes, and the writing is deeply psychological and poetic at the same time,” she says.
“We didn’t think we were going to get the rights,” she adds. “Many of the major American playwrights and/or their estates were just not giving virtual rights. And it fell into our laps. So we decided, let’s do two! We were rehearsing both at the same time.”
And both feature women who want to stir their men to action in one way or another. Lippe plays both Lady Macbeth and Maggie the Cat. A psychological nexus? “That is so brilliantly insightful,” she says, laughing. “Even though consciously I’m aware of that, I had not put it together for myself. I’ll have to think about that.”
Most of the others involved in the project are local theater veterans. Macbeth, directed by Lippe, stars Mark Prokes as Macbeth and Michael Blunt as Banquo. Directed by Larry Segel, Cat’s stars are Eric McGowan as Brick and David Lee Vincent as Big Daddy, also experienced local actors.
In her private practice, Lippe uses both cognitive therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. From 2000 to 2019, she was an adjunct faculty member or a visiting researcher at the BU Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders, but basically functioned as a clinical supervisor for students in the clinical psychology doctoral program, she says. She stopped teaching in 2019, because the time demands were simply too much on top of her private practice and the theater company, but now she consults as needed and gives guest lectures in the psychological and brain sciences department.
The two new productions are not script readings, but fully rehearsed audio dramas that were each in rehearsal for over three months prior to being recorded in August.
“I couldn’t believe Macbeth was written after Hamlet, which is his masterpiece in the creation of the inner landscape of the human psyche, of the internality of the characters,” Lippe says. “I’ve been struck by the two-dimensionality of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in comparison. As a psychologist, I felt they were not as fleshed-out in terms of their internal landscape. What I wanted to do in my adaptation was experiment with ways of creating more internal conflict for them using just Shakespeare’s text.” She uses sound design and fragments of the text to give viewers what she hopes is an expanded insight into their internal struggles.
The two new shows also include some “really cool collaborations,” she says. Traveling in Croatia to attend a workshop a year before COVID, Lippe met theater-focused musician and composer Zarko Dragojevic, of Audiovisual Center Dubrovnik, who was a workshop copresenter. The two wanted to collaborate, and then pandemic life on Zoom made it seem more sensible to work together long distance. “I said we’re doing virtual theater, doing these audio dramas now; what are you doing?” she says. “And he said, ‘Not much of anything. We’re also in a bind. Maybe this is the time to collaborate.’”
He provided an original score and “soundscape” for Psych’s production of Macbeth, which also features sound design by Zachary McConnell, who plays Duncan and Malcolm and provides narration. Macbeth also includes a streaming art exhibition by Nick Morse, of Boston’s ArtLifting organization, during intermission. (That’s his art on the Macbeth poster.)
Lippe was so moved by the struggles all of these artists faced during the pandemic that this production will have profit-sharing, she says, after Psych covers its costs.
The Psych troupe is also planning live performances of The Lion in Winter in November, venue TBA. Arrangements are still under discussion, but the troupe is already rehearsing. Performing for a live audience again, Lippe says, she will feel “fully alive, exhilarated, like I’m home again. My eyes are filling up with tears thinking about it.”
Read More >
Croatian Press
| zarko_dubrovacki.pdf |
| zarko_dulist.pdf |
| zarko_ltv.pdf |
01. Dubrovački Vjesnik / Slobodna Dalmacija - the biggest daily newspaper in the southern part of Croatia: LINK
02. DuList - interview on 3 pages in the printed edition
03. Croatian National Radio / HR1
04. Croatian National Radio / Dubrovnik Station - 40 minute interview about the production, previous works and inspiration
05. Libertas TV - regional station, 15 minute interview, starting at 16:05, LINK
06. Morning TV show, here was an announcement LINK, live (not recorded)
07. http://www.kazaliste.hr - Davor Mojaš
02. DuList - interview on 3 pages in the printed edition
03. Croatian National Radio / HR1
04. Croatian National Radio / Dubrovnik Station - 40 minute interview about the production, previous works and inspiration
05. Libertas TV - regional station, 15 minute interview, starting at 16:05, LINK
06. Morning TV show, here was an announcement LINK, live (not recorded)
07. http://www.kazaliste.hr - Davor Mojaš
Audience Praise
"Spectacular production. Very well conceived, acted, directed, and produced! Lippe, as Lady Macbeth, was terrific, with excellent phrasings, pacing, and emotion. The other actors in the production also did a wonderful job. Lippe’s direction of the cast including the innovative use of the Whisperers and the heightened energy of the witches from the beginning was a great way to make the audio so accessible. And the art during the intermission by Nick Morse was lovely – using his visual work for the background art was inspired. The music by Dragojevic worked beautifully to complement the text so kudos to him as well."
– Joseph Shay, Ph.D.
"I was fascinated by The Psych Drama Company’s performance of MacBeth and look forward to hearing other performances by your group of dedicated professionals.
The 90 minutes flew by very quickly because your interpretation was gripping, the actors were engaged, and the sound design was terrific. It was great to hear the voices coming from various positions. The accompanying original music and sound effects were very professionally executed.
From your particular production of Macbeth, we can reflect upon inner turmoil in new ways and learn a great deal. Many of the events in the play open doors to many emotions on different levels. This panoply of feelings requires deep engagement and the actors’ relentless understanding of the emotions they have to express. All the actors in this production did that splendidly! I am very much looking forward to listening to other performances by The Psych Drama Company!"
– Carl Nisser
“Though a classic I’ve seen many times, this time, listening in the dark to this version of Macbeth I went back in time to the first time I was entranced with the mythic, haunting story of lust for power and inevitable guilt at imposing one’s will —under cover of night. The gorgeous sounds of the music and “whispers” added a depth and dimension to make this timeless story so vivid. Give yourself or someone else, young or old, the pleasure of a theatre experience unique and primal!”
– Goldie Eder, LICSW, BCD
“You've got to hear this production of Macbeth. It is beautiful, haunting, and innovative. Please take my word, no spoilers here!”
– Terry Martineau
"Macbeth was a tour de force! It was so engaging! Even for me… someone who is not well versed in Shakespeare!"
– Donna Bertolotti, LICSW
“[Macbeth was] Impressive. Beautiful. Distinctive.”
– Eric Richardson
“Just this moment finished Macbeth, only this time with the Sony noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones. Didn't even know what I was missing. It sounded great, I believe it was well worth the money…You make theater of the mind time well spent!”
– Justin Carr
– Joseph Shay, Ph.D.
"I was fascinated by The Psych Drama Company’s performance of MacBeth and look forward to hearing other performances by your group of dedicated professionals.
The 90 minutes flew by very quickly because your interpretation was gripping, the actors were engaged, and the sound design was terrific. It was great to hear the voices coming from various positions. The accompanying original music and sound effects were very professionally executed.
From your particular production of Macbeth, we can reflect upon inner turmoil in new ways and learn a great deal. Many of the events in the play open doors to many emotions on different levels. This panoply of feelings requires deep engagement and the actors’ relentless understanding of the emotions they have to express. All the actors in this production did that splendidly! I am very much looking forward to listening to other performances by The Psych Drama Company!"
– Carl Nisser
“Though a classic I’ve seen many times, this time, listening in the dark to this version of Macbeth I went back in time to the first time I was entranced with the mythic, haunting story of lust for power and inevitable guilt at imposing one’s will —under cover of night. The gorgeous sounds of the music and “whispers” added a depth and dimension to make this timeless story so vivid. Give yourself or someone else, young or old, the pleasure of a theatre experience unique and primal!”
– Goldie Eder, LICSW, BCD
“You've got to hear this production of Macbeth. It is beautiful, haunting, and innovative. Please take my word, no spoilers here!”
– Terry Martineau
"Macbeth was a tour de force! It was so engaging! Even for me… someone who is not well versed in Shakespeare!"
– Donna Bertolotti, LICSW
“[Macbeth was] Impressive. Beautiful. Distinctive.”
– Eric Richardson
“Just this moment finished Macbeth, only this time with the Sony noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones. Didn't even know what I was missing. It sounded great, I believe it was well worth the money…You make theater of the mind time well spent!”
– Justin Carr