Shakespeare's The Tempest

 A littler over 5 years I was in the play by the beloved, sick mined Shakespeare as Ariel. I loved it, not so much the costume or set but the fact that I was in this play as Ariel was what made it wonderful for me and all the laughs I shared with the cast. Ariel so happens to be one of the biggest parts in the play next to Prospero in Tempest. This was also one of my big brakes into the threatre back home.

Now, I have been in this city for a good 3 years trying to find the time to become involved with the theatre troupes here but sadly I never had the time till this year. And THIS was the show I chose over the others that were going on. I didn't plan on reviving the role of Ariel again, but part of me loved the idea to play that part again. Instead I got one of the smallest part (Shakespeare LOVED small parts, I swear), Ceres. Although this was a blessing for me; this has been a very busy summer.

Encase you have not read the last play written by Shakespeare, in short it is about revenge and forgiveness.

In more detail, Prospero who has been stranded on an island with his young daughter for many years till he notices the king's ship with his brother who plotted to kill him before he came to this island to escape and takes his revenge on them with a tempest. Fairing for their lives they abandon the ship and the ship's crew and passengers are then split in many groups around the island as Prospero commands Ariel (his spirit) to tournament some and help others. Wile his young daughter, Miranda finds love with the king's son as the king believes him to be drowned. And all the while this is going on Caliban, an orphan of the island adopted by Prospero, who plots to kill him with the help of two members of the king's own court as Prospero's brother and the brother of the king plot to kill the king and those who would tell others of there deed.

I strongly URGE you to read it for yourself! The first time I read this play I thought, "this will be cool" I was not so passionate about it then as I am now. It was my first Shakespeare and when I saw that it was going to be at the park I decided that there was no better time to tryout then for this show that I loved. And now I love it even more with how this one was done!

The first one I did 5 years ago, was done in the time period and the set was a black shadow in the back leaving the actors the color in the show. I was strict Shakespeare show, no words were changed and none were cut out. This show is a strong male cast, like most shows in that time. (Of-curse not alloying women to play in the theater would affect that.)

There are 4 spots for women, the daughter, and the 3 goddess. The rest were for the men. This version though we had the 4 women, and made Ariel and Caliban, the Spirit and the "misshapen naïve". These two were also played by females, me being one. We left the lines alone with "he" and "him", becoming more of an "it". As the others were played by guys.

Now to the one I just finished over the weekend, this one was very lade back not so, "This has to be!" The one that just closed was leaning on the steam-punk side (with what small theatre budgets allowed). We had 2 cane-swords and a grungy Caliban with steam-punkie spirits, or the Hocus Pocus sisters.

The set was a tropical paradise, every one and thing was bright and colorful. We changed some of the people and it help the story to become (I think) even better. The King Alonso's brother Sebastian became Sabina, the king's sister and Trinculo was changed to a women. Any and all pronouns geared towards Ariel were changed to "her". To my surprise I liked it done like this so that Sabina and Antonio were lovers and that Trinculo would have a sexual tensions with Stephano. All this was done with only changing the pronouns, nothing ells was changed, okay so some lines were cut to help with the flow of the story but they were fluffy stuff.

So now after reading it again for the hundredth time with the ideas that were placed into my head I can see myself doing different versions with this same scrip.

One of which was having Sebastian be the gay lover to Antonio. Changing the time and place or making it a "true" steam-punk version.

Another way is putting it into the Endo Era making some of them samurais with names that would be well placed in syllables count and time period.

Now, with two versions of the Tempest and two different characters played, I hope that once again I will be able to preform this play again but under another character so that each one will have there own life for others to see! There is not a big audience in my head to they need to be let out every so often. ^_^



PS: To read this for free and to find cool historic facts about the play go to this web site www.william-shakespeare.info