This fall, Shakespeare is leaving the stage at UB and heading into the community.

As part of a new pilot program, the Department of Theatre and Dance is launching its Mobile Shakespeare Lab and taking a reimagined production of “Macbeth” to venues throughout Buffalo.

Danielle Rosvally, assistant professor and creator of the project, hopes the initiative will make the department’s work more accessible and encourage new audiences to attend university productions.

“I would love for people in the community to be more curious about our productions and stages, as well as the work we do here at UB,” Rosvally says.

For its inaugural tour, the Mobile Shakespeare Lab will present a streamlined, remounted version of the department’s popular spring 2026 production of “Macbeth,” adapted specifically for touring.

The adaptation centers on three college students in the United States who are struggling with a world in which political discourse and legislative action have placed their identities, communities and safety in jeopardy. They turn to “Dungeons & Dragons” as an escape, using role-playing to process the world around them and imagine what a better one might look like. The three students take on the roles of the witches, guided by their Dungeon Master, Hecate.

The production will travel to three community partners during its pilot year: Irish Classical Theatre Company on Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m., the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Central Library on Nov. 7 at 1 p.m., and Amherst High School for a closed performance. The community performances are general admission and no tickets are required.

Irish Classical Theatre Company will host the Mobile Shakespeare Lab’s first community performance, building on a longstanding relationship between the professional theater company and UB. Co-founded by UB Professor Emeritus Vincent O’Neill, ICTC has become one of Western New York’s homes for classical theater.

“The department has a very close relationship with this theatre,” Rosvally says. “It seemed like a logical place for us to have our first community performance.”

The Central Library offers a different connection between Shakespeare and the community through its rare books and special collections, which include Shakespearean materials and copies of all four rare Shakespeare Folios.

The library performance will be accompanied by a community program led by Rosvally highlighting materials from the collection. The program, to be held Oct. 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., will also feature UB students and faculty speaking Shakespeare’s words at the library’s Ring of Knowledge.

“We are excited to be working with the library to make theatre more accessible at one of the places where art meets the public,” Rosvally says.

The third performance, hosted by Amherst High School and co-sponsored by the New York State Theatre Education Association, will bring the Mobile Shakespeare Lab directly to younger theater students. The performance will be open to high school students attending NYSTEA schools and followed by a talkback, giving them an opportunity to connect with UB students.

Those partnerships demonstrate the community’s appetite for accessible arts programming, Rosvally says.

“When you’re offering something that is valuable and has a low access cost, people are excited to be part of it,” she says.

In addition to reaching new audiences, the Mobile Shakespeare Lab gives students another way to learn what it means to be a working artist, including how to adapt to unfamiliar spaces, audiences and circumstances outside a traditional campus production.

“The students are looking forward to doing this kind of work and developing their craft in new ways,” Rosvally says. “This is the first time the department has done anything like this, so our students are excited to be the first generation of students to participate.”