NewTechReview: Home
| Deals | Articles | Downloads
(Free Software) | Videos | Newsletter (FREE) | Issues
| News | Reviews | Recommend
| Contest | 
RSS
Feed
 |
| VOODOO MACBETH arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital January 17 from Lightyear Entertainment | ||||||
 Based on the true story of young Orson Welles – 20-years-old and just starting out -- and Broadway star Rose McClendon managing a group of committed artists as they set out to create a landmark event in theater history, VOODOO MACBETH unspools the incredible tale of the Negro Theatre Unit’s revolutionary 1936 production of “Macbeth”. Following a triumphant run at more than 20 film festivals and a 2022 major market theatrical release, VOODOO MACBETH will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD and all digital/transactional outlets. It will also be available for digital rental, including on cable and satellite VOD.With FDR’s New Deal providing funding for the Federal Theatre Project, legendary theater actress and leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance Rose McClendon, with a young John Houseman, who helmed the Harlem Negro Theater Unit together, decided to bring “Macbeth” to the community at the Lafayette Theater -- with an all-Black cast. For this groundbreaking production, they’d turn to an incredibly gifted but untested Welles who was just beginning his career in New York. With Welles-ian panache, he reimagined Shakespeare’s Scottish classic, moving the setting to Haiti and exchanging witchcraft for Caribbean voodoo. The production was highly controversial, provoking heated protests from Harlemites who considered it exploitative, and by politicians who thought it subversive. However, the play debuted to packed audiences and was wildly successful, playing for 10 weeks and then touring across America. In a 1982 interview, Welles said, “By all odds, my great success in my life was that play, because the opening night there were five blocks in which all traffic was stopped. You couldn't get near the theatre in Harlem. Everybody who was anybody in the black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors. And that was magical." VOODOO MACBETH marks the first theatrical release from USC Originals in association with Warner Bros., and features a powerful ensemble cast, headed by Inger Tudor (“Goliath,” “On Time”) as Rose McClendon and Jewell Wilson Bridges (the national tours of “My Fair Lady” and “La Cage Aux Folles”) in his feature film debut as Orson Welles. The film also featured 10 directors, eight writers and three producers. Overseen by veteran producer and USC professor John Watson, (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Backdraft” and “The Outer Limits”), began in a writers' room where screenwriters collaborated on each facet of the writing process. Then the film’s directors who each embody different perspectives, styles, and tastes came together to form a common vision, delivering a powerful period drama called “entertaining” and “a story well worth retelling” (Will Coviello, The Gambit). BONUS FEATURES - Audio Commentary with actors Jewell Wilson Bridges and Inger Tudor, producers Miles Alva and Jason Phillips, writer Erica Sutherlin, and director Zoë Salnave - Actual 1936 footage of the original play, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration * Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FYsHc0 * Trailer: youtube.com * Website: Lightyear.com |
