Cinema Salem's 'The Stage' Live-Performance Venue Opens With Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

SALEM, MA — The newest live-performance venue is coming to one of its most venerable art houses this week as Cinema Salem launches "The Stage" to go along with its continued film screenings.

Cinema Salem will host the Cambridge University theater company's "Macbeth" on Thursday and Friday, in the culmination of efforts to bring another theater and music home to the Witch City.

Owner Marshall Strauss said "The Stage" has already been running as a soft opening with recent performances from the Boston-area Big Deal! Theater Company, the Nauti Burlesque Festival's sold-out production of "Shiver Me Tassels" and the Teseracte Players' "Rocky Horror Picture Show" shadowcast.

The September schedule is:

• Saturday, Sept 6 — Young Adult Novelist Panel, Salem Lit Fest
• Saturday, Sept 13 — MOON Over Salem Music Festival
• Sunday, Sept. 14 — Reset Button Brass Band, performing music from the beloved video
game Undertale while the game is played on the cinema’s screen
• Saturday, Sept. 20 — Screening of Evil Puddle, with live intro and Q & A by the film’s
director, Matt Farley
• Saturday, Sept. 20 — Salem Witchery Film Fest organized by The Spooky Picture Show
and Welcome to Trivia Time, Bitch!
• Saturday, Sept. 20 — Rocky Horror Picture Show, shadowcast by Teseracte Players
• Sunday, Sept 21 — Screening of the silent classic Nosferatu, with live performance of the
original 1922 score by Arpeggione chamber orchestra
• Friday, Sept. 26 thru Sunday, Sept. 28 — An Evening of Hocus Pocus, a live cabaret, with
Orlando Summer and others
• Sunday, Sept 28 — Whodunnit, interactive murder mystery, led by Cinema Salem’s own
Kate Scott

Macbeth performances will be on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. with tickets available here.

"We are delighted to welcome these skilled Shakespearean performers as they commence their fall tour of the U.S.," said Strauss. "The group visited Cinema Salem for the first time in September 2024 and their performance of Julius Caesar was received enthusiastically."

Strauss said local donors are generously underwriting the troupe's visit to Salem.

"Their support is allowing us to make free tickets available to local nonprofits like Brookhouse Home, Plummer Youth Promise, the Salem Pantry, and the YMCA," he said.

Cinema Salem also screens more than 200 films a year, from the latest releases to century-old black-
and-white classics to the Salem Film Fest and the International Jewish Film Festival.

New films are generally shown Friday through Monday. Older films are often showcased through such series as Wednesday Classics, Night Light, and Weirdo Wednesdays.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)