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McBeth memorial may add to legend The plaque dedicated to the shooting victim goes up in OSF's New Theatre, which is showing 'the Scottish play' By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune A plaque in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's New Theatre in Ashland is dedicated to the memory of John Alan McBeth. Some say it marks another chapter in a bad-luck story going back four centuries. McBeth had been working on the New Theatre when he was shot to death in November. The first play scheduled for the facility was Shakespeare's "Macbeth," a drama long associated with bad luck. "Macbeth" is about a Scottish nobleman whose path to the throne began and ended in blood. This time, the tragedy was real. "I'm not superstitious," McBeth's mother, Peggy Hulse, of Medford, said Wednesday. "I just found it ironic." In late November, with the holidays fast approaching, workers were hurrying to finish construction of the $11.4 million theater in time for it to open March 1. McBeth, 35, a project manager with Pacific Electrical Contractors of Medford, was supervising the installation of the theater's complex electrical system. Hulse said McBeth was in the middle of the stress of a divorce when he was asked to take on the project, and he may have had second thoughts. "He was hesitant," she said. "He knew it would be demanding." McBeth was shot and killed Nov. 20 at a home he owned in the Applegate Valley. A grand jury ruled Feb. 19 that Gary Lake, 38, of Medford shot McBeth in self-defense. A belief in bad luck associated with "Macbeth" goes back to Shakespeare's day. Hal Beridge, a boy actor playing Lady Macbeth, died on what is traditionally said to have been the day of the play's first performance, Aug. 7, 1606. Bad things have come in the play's wake ever since. In 1937, a stage sandbag fell and narrowly missed the great actor Lawrence Olivier. The "Macbeth" superstition is strong enough that some actors refuse to speak the play's name, calling it "the Scottish play." Members of a Jackson County grand jury last month heard testimony that McBeth on Nov. 20 went to the home where his wife, Molly McBeth, lived with the couple's 3-year-old adopted son. The two were divorcing after seven years, and Molly was moving out of the house. According to testimony, Molly McBeth asked John to leave, but he attacked Lake, who was helping Molly move. Lake was trying to shove McBeth off when a .357-caliber Magnum Lake was holding went off, shooting McBeth in the belly. McBeth was dead when police arrived. Lake's face and back were severely bruised, and marks on his neck were consistent with having been choked, Deputy District Attorney Tim Barnack said. A grand jury three months later ruled Lake acted in self-defense. District Attorney Mark Huddleston characterized the decision as difficult and rare. An OSF spokeswoman said Wednesday the festival allowed the plaque to be placed in the facility's electrical room, which is not a public space, at the request of McBeth's co-workers. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.