Performance of “‘Enter Ghost’, Shakespeare’s Preternatural Universe” at the Rockland Library

Rockland, Maine - The Shakespeare Society of Rockland, in partnership with the Rockland Public Library, will present “‘Enter Ghost’, Shakespeare’s Preternatural Universe”, on Thursday, October 30 at 6:00 PM  in the Library’s Community Room.  The performance, created and performed by seven members of the Society, will be a collage of vignettes containing various supernatural elements, from nine different plays, contrasting some of the scariest and most dramatic scenes in all of Shakespeare.  Members of the ensemble are Gretchen Donchecz, Marianne Griffith, Alan Hall, Frances Keene, Carole Leporati, Marty Schindler and Trish Weisbrot. This performance is part of the year long celebration of the Shakespeare Society of Rockland’s 125th year of continuous existence.

In the 16th century, James I of England, determined to rid England of witches, published his
Daemononlogie.  The treatise sought to resolve the doubting hearts of many as to the evils of witchery and demanded severe punishments.  In Shakespeare’s time, many people believed that we share the earth with nonhuman intelligences.  Some were benign nature spirits as we will find in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and the Tempest.  Others were more serious demons as called forth from hell as seen in the work of the three Witches of Macbeth. A third category is the ghosts of departed souls, often the product of a guilty conscience, who visit in dreams. One famous exception is the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father, who was visible to all.

The ensemble has created this curious collage of ghostly and supernatural bits and pieces as a Halloween gift for the Midcoast.