Sigma Tau Delta, an English honors fraternity on campus, has partnered with the Department of English Department and Stage Left to host a staged reading of Macbeth this season. 

In honor of the holiday weekend, the free event will be held on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. in a decked-out Bachelor Hall courtyard, complete with refreshments and seating for attendees to enjoy. It is open to all.

Sigma Tau Delta is an active organization, providing English students with a social setting to cultivate their skills and collaborate with peers. 

“It's a co-ed academic fraternity that accepts all English majors and minors including Education and Journalism,” said Sigma Tau Delta President Kenzie Custer, an English Literature and Political Science major. “We have some really exciting and fun events, but we also do professional development.” 

Weekly chapter meetings allow students an opportunity to socialize and converse about literature. 

“We’re kind of just a community of people who love reading and writing," English Literature and Creative Writing major Chelsea Hoy said. “It’s just so supportive. You can do your creative writing in class, but you have to have time outside of it to do it as well. So you gotta do it on your own time, and Sig Tau supports that.”

Additionally, Sigma Tau Delta hosts numerous events over the course of the year, including the popular Literary Ball, which raises money for the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ youth. This season’s event is a new addition to the fraternity’s lineup, and it had an interesting origin story. 

“There’s this book called If We Were Villains, and it’s a dark academia novel about these theatre kids who go to a very prestigious theater arts school,” said Hoy. “They do a performance of Macbeth, and it’s like a murder mystery. We wanted to take that inspiration and put it into a Halloween-inspired event.” 

Excited to breathe new life into one of Shakespeare’s most popular works, Hoy and Custer are contextualizing the scenes of Macbeth into a digestible way for all attendees. With the help of their organizations, they are continuing the tradition of presenting classical works, but adding some fun twists. Shakespeare, along with other historic literature, doesn't have to be a bore.

“The reason Macbeth is so relevant is because of how Shakespeare has structured our modern idea of a story,” Custer said. “My professor, James Bromley, said, ‘The play is a set of instructions, and as long as you have the spine of the instructions, you can do whatever you want with it, and that’s what it was intended to do.’ That’s why we can do different interpretations of the story and it doesn’t get boring.” 

Custer added that scheduling the event on the Sunday before Halloween will help create a spooky, fun experience for everyone.

“We're going to have a chill night with some fall snacks, some fall drinks, some really nice seating, and so many Halloween decorations,” she said. “It’s going to be a moment for the Miami community to come together in a different way for Halloween.”