originally published: 09/26/2025

Karen Alvarado and Justin Hofstad

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Thinkery & Verse returns to the Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick with the World Premiere of The Tragedy of Macbeth, adapted by Dr. J.M. Meyer and Karen Eliza Alvarado and directed by Dr. J.M. Meyer. The production has a three-week limited engagement at the Assembly Hall at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist from October 8-25, 2025.

Set in colonial Middlesex County during the first wave of Scottish immigration into New Jersey, Meyer and Alvarado's adaptation uses Shakespeare's classic play to examine issues of race, gender, and war in Early America. Taking inspiration from Early American history and Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, Shakespeare's classic drama unfolds as a fable for the New World.

The year is 1700. The Dutch have lost their grip on the New World, and the first wave of Scots immigrants (including radical Quakers and Jacobite glory-seekers) are struggling for a foothold in the ancestral lands of the Lenape.

Lazarus Simmons, Alex Scoloveno, Carl Muhler, and Justin Hofstad

Drawing inspiration from Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, this Macbeth is both hauntingly familiar and startlingly new, where witches, war, and ambition unfold against the backdrop of race, gender, and early American identity.

Tickets are available for purchase online. Church of Saint John the Evangelist is located at 189 George Street in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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According to co-artistic director K. Elisa Alvarado, "Our historic re-telling is funny, earthy, violent, and poetic. An American Macbeth is the perfect play for staying grounded in 2025." K. Elisa Alvarado plays Lady Macbeth in the play, but with a twist: "Like my own people in South Texas, the Karankawa, this Lady Macbeth is caught up in waves of colonization that leave morality and spiritualism and language in a muddle. A lot of the play's highs and lows hinge on fatal misunderstandings: code-switching gone wrong."

Co-Artistic director J.M. Meyer adds: "By leaning into the historical accuracy of a specific place and time period, we find that the struggles of Shakespeare's characters align in surprising ways with the diverse people of the Mid-Atlantic. In our adaptation, Macbeth is a Scottish immigrant in the New World. Lady Macbeth is a Lenape Native who is hyper-aware of the dangers around her. The Macduffs are free people of color in a tumultuous landscape. The witches are replaced with Dutch widows."

Devon Borkowski, Jasmine Carmichael, and Karen Alvarado

K. Elisa Alvarado continues: "American history can be dark, complex, and scary, and no witchcraft is needed. It's like the old cat in the adage -- reality is scarier than fiction."

The production stars a cast that draws from the Rutgers Mason Gross conservatory, with Justin Hofstad as Macbeth and K. Elisa Alvarado as Lady Macbeth. The cast also features Alexander Sculli as Banquo, Lazarus Simmons as Macduff, Jasmine Carmichael as Lady Macduff, Carl Muhler as Malcolm, and Kaitlin Ormerod Hutson as Dinah–Duncan reimagined as a Quaker. Thinkery & Verse are pleased to introduce Devon Borkoswki as Sasakomowah, Sean McDonald as Ross, and A.M. Teo as Fleance.

The production features scenic design by Ashley Basile (2025 Count Basie Award for Outstanding Set Design of a Musical), lighting design by Ashley Houke (2025 Count Basie Award for Outstanding Lighting Design of a Musical), music by Carl Muhler, and choreography by Kaitlin Ormerod-Hutson. Devon Borkowski (enrolled member of the Rappahannock Tribe) serves as Indigenous Advisor. Steven Thomas will serve as historical advisor, Sofia Feggulis is the stage manager. Publicity by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR.

Carl Muhler and Karen Alvarado

K. ELISA ALVARADO (Co-Artistic Director, Co-Playwright, Lady Macbeth) is a theater artist from south Texas with Latina and indigenous ancestry. Alvarado received her MFA in acting from the conservatory at Rutgers Mason Gross. Her artistry draws on Meisner-based acting, Ping Chong + Company methods of devising, Williamson movement, as well as culturally rich and history-inspired storytelling. Alvarado has been an instructor of acting at Rutgers University, George Street Playhouse, NJPAC, Luna Stages, and Poetic Theatre Productions.

As an actor, she has appeared in repertoire as Thea Elvstead in Hedda Gabler and Camillo in The Winter's Tale (Bedlam/Irondale Center), earning her a stellar acting review from The New York Times, as well as playing Mistress Quickly in BEDLAM: the Series, and Johnna in August: Osage County (Delaware REP). As the co-artistic director of Thinkery & Verse, she has produced critically acclaimed shows like Thou Shalt Not in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Back in Austin, her production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus was named one of the top-ten plays of the season in The Austin Chronicle, and while at Rutgers Mason Gross she earned the Phillip J. Levin scholarship. Her direction of Bride of the Gulf at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe led to four-star reviews from The Scotsman and The List UK.

DR. J.M. MEYER (Co-Artistic Director, Co-Playwright, Director) works as a playwright-performer in Austin and New York. His work as a playwright has been featured in the BBC Online, Austin Chronicle, The Austin American-Statesman, KUT radio, and Humanities Magazine. His stage play "American Volunteers" won the 2010 Mitchell Award at the University of Texas, and subsequently made the long-list for the Dylan Thomas Prize in the United Kingdom. He performed at the White House thanks to Aquila Theatre's ongoing outreach program, "Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives." His plays have also received support from The Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Cohen New Works Festival, Austin Scriptworks, University Co-Op, Fort Pointe Theatre Channel, and Frontera Fest. In 2024 he served as the associate artistic director of BEDLAM for the productions of Medea Re-Versed, Wake Up, Tina Packer's Women of Will, and Music City.

Lazarus Simmons and Jasmine Carmichael

Thinkery & Verse seek to perform classically inspired, politically aware plays that challenge us to be empowered, globally-oriented citizens with a keen awareness of the high stakes of modern life. While their primary mission is to create new plays, one of their key creative methods is to perform plays in repertory with classic works, thereby challenging their writers and actors to achieve new heights of creativity and aesthetics.

Thinkery & Verse have been producing new and classical work since 2017 and are based out of New Brunswick, New Jersey, although they also create and perform in New York, Texas, and Edinburgh. In 2024, they helped bring Ania Upstill's brilliant, charming, and subversive Transhumance to the Kennedy Center—a performance later derided by President Trump as justification for firing the board of the Kennedy Center. They collaborated again with Ania Upstill to bring Five Comes After Six to The Nature of Cities Festival in Berlin, Germany.

Thinkery & Verse LLC is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Thinkery & Verse must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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