September 20, 2022
The WHHS Senior High play Macbeth will have show dates from Nov. 3-5.
James Overton, ‘25 is one of the actors called back for Macbeth.
Overton has been doing theater for six years, and of those years, two have been within the WHHS theater department.
Overton has been called back for the role of Banquo, however, Overton mentioned he would not mind being Malcolm or Macduff, all very influential characters.
“I’d like to be a ghost. He seems like a cool guy. I typically play silly roles and I’d like to do a more serious one,” Overton said.
Banquo, as described by Overton, is Macbeth’s friend, but urges Macbeth to not do the various dastardly acts he does.
When asked to describe the audition process, Overton said, “We read a monologue in front of our director and Mr. Sherman.”
Dwyer has done theater for three years, totaling three productions.
Dwyer hopes to get the part of Macduff, believing it will be fun to be one of the main characters.
”It’d be fun to be a larger part of the production than I was last year,“ Dwyer said.
Throughout the play, Macduff acts as a moral compass that Macbeth ignores.
”Macbeth comes to all this evil, greed and desire and Macduff is eventually like, ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ so he goes out and lobs off Macbeth’s face,” Dwyer said.
When asked about the interview process, Dwyer described it as fairly easy.
“You sign up online for a time and then you go in and say what part you want…You go out there and you read up to the directors. If they like you, they call you back,” said Dwyer.
“I’m really excited for this year’s lineup. I think I like all the shows, it’ll be pretty awesome.”
Clare Graff, ‘24 has been a part of the theater community for nine years, five of which have been at WHHS, totaling
11 years of theater production.
Graff would prefer getting a role as a witch, however, she would ultimately be satisfied with any part.
“I think they’re [the witches] a really cool role… it’s sort of like one entity that moves three different people… they [the witches] sort of act as like a hive mind,” Graff said.
The witches play an important role in the play, essentially acting as fortune tellers.
Graff describes them as, “Truth Sayers of the show, they guide our lead Macbeth sort of on a wild goose chase…they are like the narrators in a sense that they drive the show along.”
Graff explained the interview process as pretty streamlined.
“I went to just auditions that were open to anyone, and then I did a monologue,” Graff said.
As of August, the roles have been cast and can be found on the WHHS’s theater website.
“I was called back for a witch, so we’ll see how it goes.”
While this is Clark Sayre’s, ‘26 first year of being a part of WHHS theater, he was called back for the parts of Malcolm, or an apparition.
“On my application… I didn’t audition for anyone in particular, but I think Malcolm would be very fun to play because he is a fairly influential character,” Sayre said.
Malcolm is the son of Duncan, the king who Macbeth murdered to take the Scottish throne.
“He retakes the throne of Scotland… And marks the end of Macbeth’s reign of terror,” Sayre said.
When auditioning for a character, Sayre described the audition process as easy.
“So, you fill out a form on the WHHS website… If you want to audition for a specific character, you fill out which character and when, so it fits your schedule. And then you come in and they send you to audition in groups of five. And then one at a time you’re called inside and you perform the monologue,” Sayre said.
The WHHS theater program has the One Acts Festival for junior high and Carrie for senior high up next
and has updates for upcoming shows.
Your donation will support the student journalists of Walnut Hills High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover our annual website hosting, printing costs and offset competition and conferences fees for students.