Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Six years after he fired his last photon torpedo, Patrick Stewart isn't sitting around waiting for the communicator to ring.

On Tuesday the 67-year-old classically trained actor, best- known as the heroically cerebral Jean-Luc Picard in the ``Star Trek'' franchise, began performances of ``Macbeth'' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The acclaimed production originated at the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, south of London, and is his fourth Shakespeare role in a year. He plays opposite the Lady Macbeth of Kate Fleetwood, an actress more than 30 years his junior who is married to the show's bushy- haired director, Rupert Goold.

Stewart, mustached and gracious, talked to me in the BAM Cafe a few hours before a rehearsal last week.

Boroff: I understand the production was inspired by Joseph Stalin. Had you always thought of a connection between Stalin and Macbeth?

Stewart: Not at all. It was only when Rupert talked to me about his interest in exploring the play from the point of view of the Iron Curtain and a Soviet-type state. We never say this is Russia, this is Stalin, we're in the Kremlin. But the images make it fairly clear we're in the late 1940s, early 1950s. I feel it illuminates the play and gives it historical resonances most people can understand.

Vision Thing

Boroff: Was there any moment when the director was explaining his vision and you thought, ``What am I getting myself into?''

Stewart: Of course. There is in any production.

Boroff: I was watching the last movie, ``Star Trek: Nemesis'' last night. Will you reprise the role?

Stewart: I think it's very unlikely they will invite me to. There is a new ``Star Trek'' movie, but it's a prequel to the original series. I would certainly consider it, because I love that character.

Boroff: Do you feel any temptation to do a Broadway musical?

Stewart: Temptation doesn't describe it. I have high ambitions to sing and be in musicals. It's been talked about many times and for different reasons it hasn't happened. Stephen Sondheim came to see ``Macbeth'' in London and was very kind about it. To have been alive and in the theater when this man was writing has been something that I should for all time be grateful for.

Boroff: As Jean-Luc Picard, were you doing Pilates or sit- ups? Or was that just part of the role that that captain had fantastic posture?

Stewart: I was trained as a classical stage actor. The outline that you make on the stage has an impact on the audience. And I work out pretty much every day. You have to. Laurence Olivier once said, ``You're going to do the classics, you got to be fit like an athlete.''

`Trek' Warehouse

Boroff: Did you save any ``Star Trek'' memorabilia?

Stewart: I have a small warehouse full of it in L.A. I'm going to do something with it in the near future.

Boroff: Put it up for auction?

Stewart: Something like that.

Boroff: You don't feel any rivalry with William Shatner (Captain Kirk), do you?

Stewart: Bill is one of my dear friends. He's an absolutely stupendous individual and I adore him.

Boroff: Do you joke around?

Stewart: Of course we do. The important thing is not to take it too seriously. I'd been an actor for 27 years before I put on that spacesuit. I'm so grateful for it. It meant when the series ended I had a career that wasn't connected to it that I could return to.

`Macbeth'' runs through March 22 at 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Information: +1-718-636-4100; http://www.bam.org.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 14, 2008 00:15 EST