Macbeth

For the next four nights, the legendary Macbeth, long-deceased high king of Scotland, will stride about Woolly Mammoth Theatre's stage with Homer Simpson and Barack Obama. MacHomer, the 70-minute solo show that Rick Miller, a Canadian actor, has been performing on and off for the past 13 years, is always a delightfully bizarre concoction. Only Miller would bring audiences the Bard's spooky, 11th-century tale of murder and ambition as narrated by more than 50 characters from The Simpsons.

VILNIUS, Lithuania - The curtain rises on a "Macbeth" with much of the dialogue and half the characters thrown out, and it was already Shakespeare's shortest play. No matter. The curtain doesn't fall again for another four hours. It's the spaces between the words that count when director Eimontas Nekrosius puts on a play - and there are plenty of them. Once, when he was a young man and his foes were Soviet censors, his audiences could fill those spaces with sharp and revelatory political meanings.

South Carroll residents are criticizing as unsafe and impractical a 25-year-old plan to use "connector" roads to ease traffic congestion in the county's most heavily populated area. The proposed roads, which would run parallel to Routes 26 or 32, Eldersburg's major arteries, could increase traffic in their neighborhoods, draw commercial vehicles onto residential streets and threaten the safety of children, residents said. The Freedom Area Citizens' Council has organized a discussion with the county commissioners and their planning staff on the issue of connector roads tomorrow night in Eldersburg.

In her fourth year leading the Naval Academy's Masqueraders theater troupe, Christy Stanlake again is offering extraordinary theatrical fare with Hannah Cowley's 18th-century romantic comedy, The Belle's Stratagem, opening tonight in the academy's Mahan Hall. Stanlake, 33, has established a reputation for her exceptional theatrical choices of works not often done. In her first year with the Masqueraders, Stanlake brought George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan to the overwhelmingly male academy because, she said, she wanted "to get students thinking of theater as reflective of their lives, with a military leader connected to her troops leading in battle but serving her people."

Kimberley Lynne's "Socks" takes place in the uncharted territory where Shakespeare meets the late Erma Bombeck. One of four short plays by the Women's Project, "Socks" sets up a situation as simple as it is silly: During a performance of "Macbeth," scads of stray socks suddenly come flying on stage.When a hysterically laughing on-stage theatergoer (Melissa Sharlat) asks if the socks are part of the play, the enraged actor playing Macbeth (Tony Reda) shouts at her: "What in the name of God could hundreds of single socks signify?"

The Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission gave approval yesterday for an Eldersburg commercial center that will house a Pizza Hut restaurant.The vote to approve the site plan for the $1 million project at Route 32 and MacBeth Way was unanimous."

CENTER STAGE should pause during its production of "Twelfth Night" this evening. It's William Shakespeare's birthday, or at least the day on which it's traditionally celebrated. And of course Shakespeare is synonymous with High Art.Shakespeare's name connotes great acting, lyrical poetry, noble themes of love, sacrifice, passion. In other words, Shakespeare is serious business. Shakespeare is performed in the live theater, however, and thus his plays have suffered from all the expected hazards of live performing.

An investigation into a string of car thefts in a North Baltimore neighborhood has ended with the arrests of three young men and led to suspects in two shootings, one of a pizza shop clerk, police said yesterday.The arrests were made March 20 after police said they saw three people in a stolen car on MacBeth Drive in Cedarcroft. Other charges related to a shooting were filed this week after an investigation, said Northern District Lt. Paul Abell.One of the young men had a 9 mm Ruger semiautomatic handgun when he was caught, Abell said.

Anne Arundel college has show by five on facultySharon Edwards-Russell's "Caduceus" is one of a group of works in which she uses black and white motifs to refer to symbolic forms from earlier civilizations. She is one of five artists in "Abstractionists and Esthetes," an art faculty show at Anne Arundel Community College. Others are Marie Linnekin, whose paintings and prints also refer to early cultures; Richard Malmgren, whose ceramics reflect Greek and Asian influences; Judith Paris-Wear, whose charcoal drawings explore the subconscious; and Peg Swartout, who collaborates with Paris-Wear on a work called "Stations of the Cross," a reinterpretation of the traditional series of Christian images.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Northern District Arrest: Dwayne Vanlandingham, 20, of the 6100 block of MacBeth Drive was arrested Wednesday at his home by members of the Warrant Apprehension Task Force on a charge of attempted murder in the July 23 shooting of David Ferguson, 42, on a basketball court in the 5900 block of Chinquapin Parkway. Also arrested -- and charged with hindering police and obstruction of justice -- was Vanlandingham's father, Richard Partlow, also of the MacBeth Drive address.