It was all part of the director's vision to show events from before the play in a short movie before the opening curtain of the play. (Projected onto a screen.) We staged various moments of a wedding, and the party afterward, for the camera. They will be spliced together later, and put to some kind of music. (The actual audio of the recordings not being used.)
Here's a picture of me, dressed as Malcolm for this event. (Please note this is not my costume for the play itself, as I will be in army fatigues for that. But for the wedding images, we were to wear "cocktail" formal as it were. Here's what I came up with.
Simple jacket and my standard tie for such costumes in the theatre. But the added nuance, as you can see, are the decorations on my jacket pocket. I wanted to get creative, and suggest Malcolm's royal nature with some badges and such. The one on the left is a series of attendance badges belonging to my late father, commemorating his childhood attendance in Sunday school. The star is simply a cheap plastic earring that looks metallic from a distance.
It's the little touches. The extra little bits of character that can add more than their weight in character development. I won't be wearing any of this in the performances, but my small moments in the small video will be enhanced because this choice.
It's not just about the large choices and overall arc in a play, but the details. Fall in love with details, and so long as you don't overlook the most important aspects of your work, you'll give more depth to your art.
Most of the footage for this fake wedding was of course focused on the "Macbeth's." (The vows. Wedding cake cutting, throwing the bouquet.) But various shots of all of us socializing were also taken. We did not, strictly speaking have to stay "in character" as we would in the show, but I did make efforts to walk and position myself as Malcolm, even if not everything I said was related to him.
Some of it was, though. I gave a quick toast to the couple, without much poetry or sentimentality. My version of Malcolm is never exactly fond of the Macbeths, even before the murders, so this was consistent. King Duncan was not in attendance, in our little universe, so Malcolm was there as the official representative of the royal family, along with Donalbain. (A sister in this show.) So his toast reflected his presence; out of duty more so than pleasure.
Over all, we were there about two hours or so, and it was fun. I have to admit, however, that I'm ready to get back to straight-up rehearsals of the whole show now. We've had a barbecue, a night at the bar, and then the wedding, all of which help, but not as much as will the concentrated effort of repetitive rehearsing. Many of my hang ups with my lines are smoothed over now, or close to it, but I still need work, as does the show as I whole. Starting tomorrow we will, from now on, run the entire play each night.
So it's getting close. In some ways the most draining, but in other ways my favorite part of the rehearsal process...doing everything each night.
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