In December 2022, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world.
This was an absolutely incredible and joyous occurrence.
The challenge for Delaware Shakespeare, the Wilmington theater company I have served as producing artistic director since 2012, is that medium-sized non-profit arts organizations aren’t really set up to easily transition into paternity leave coverage.
Luckily, Del Shakes has the Artistic Squad, a four-member collective who help set the programmatic vision for the company. The Squad jumped in to help keep the artistic ship moving forward, implementing a series of events and planning our summer and fall productions.
One Squad member, Mariah Ghant, has been part of an amazing collaboration that will culminate in her playing Macbeth in our Summer Festival production of “Macbeth” in July at Rockwood Park.
Mariah is an absolute powerhouse. In 2021, she directed and hosted our summer event “Rosalind x 3,” which explored three different cultural interpretations of the lead character in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” Later that year, Mariah played Titania in the magical production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” offered for free by Del Shakes at Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington.
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During my paternity leave this spring, Mariah has stepped up her game even more — which I didn’t think was possible. She played The Soldier in our collaboration with Delaware Symphony Orchestra on Stravinsky’s musical drama “The Soldier’s Tale.” She directed and produced an evening of poetry readings at Lewes Public Library, featuring selections from Caroline Randall Williams “Lucy Negro, Redux,” which uses Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” sonnets as a launching pad to explore issues around Black femininity. And then, just for fun, Mariah also produced our “ShakesBeer in Spring” event with Wilmington Brew Works and a Shakespeare Game Night at The Chancery Market.
But, as Shakespeare would say, what’s past is prologue. All of Mariah’s endeavors so far for Del Shakes are just setting the stage for her to take on the murderous Macbeth this summer.
Mariah’s casting as Macbeth was not a predestined artistic choice. Artistic Squad members commit to a two to three-year period of service to Del Shakes, contributing to artistic, management, fundraising and marketing efforts. In return, Del Shakes commits that each Squad member will be featured in at least one artistic project during that time, and 2023 was Mariah’s year.
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As the Squad was deciding how my duties would be divided up among them during my paternity leave, Mariah was assigned to work with director AZ Espinoza on casting “Macbeth.” AZ was informed that Del Shakes was committed to Mariah appearing in “Macbeth,” but the specific role would be up to their discretion.
AZ asked Mariah to record video auditions for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. As soon as AZ saw Mariah’s video for Macbeth, the casting search was over. AZ was ecstatic about the creative vision of Mariah in the central role of Macbeth, and a unique theatrical collaboration began.
Normally, actors are cast in roles but are not part of the process of building an ensemble for a production. In her Squad role, Mariah was tasked with assisting AZ cast the production. But she was now doing so from the perspective of the actor who would be playing Macbeth.
Mariah and AZ had many creative discussions about how different casting choices would impact the storytelling, and that evolved into discussions about what story this group of artists wanted to tell. Mariah was present for all auditions, and served as a key sounding board for AZ as they made their final decisions. This very rarely happens in theater processes, and I firmly believe it will set Mariah up to give a performance as Macbeth that is powerfully connected to a magical storytelling vision.
One of the aims of the Squad is to develop long-term relationships with artists, rather than the one-off projects which dominate the current American theater landscape. By embedding artists in the organization and the community over time, Squad members’ talents can unfold in a wide variety of ways and they can build unique relationships with audiences.
Many of the great things Del Shakes has done over the last few years have had Mariah Ghant at their center. I know “Macbeth” will be another thrilling evening of theater. We hope you’ll join us July 21 to Aug. 6 at Rockwood Park. More info can be found at delshakes.org.
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My paternity leave is over and I’m back at work now. But I’m looking forward to my son seeing Mariah play Macbeth as part of his first Shakespeare production. (To those of you questioning my parenting choices, I’m counting on his bedtime arriving before “Macbeth” starts plotting violence to children. Witnessing Mariah strut and fret her hour upon the Rockwood stage will be worth it!)
David Stradley is the producing artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare, a Wilmington-based theater company celebrating its 21st season. Del Shakes brings people together from all walks of life to celebrate and explore their shared humanity through Shakespearean works.
