Shakespeare's play The Tempest, is this year's the mainstage production of the eighth annual Shakespeare Festival.
The production launches the festival with performances September 28-October 7. Featured are student, faculty and guest artists in 11 shows at the Louis Armstrong Theatre, located in the Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus.
Penned at the end of Shakespeare's career, The Tempest tells the tale of Prospero, exiled Duke of Milan, who lives as a castaway on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda. The tempest is the storm Prospero conjures with his magical arts, ordering his fairy spirit attendants to sink the ship of his rival ¿ his brother Antonio ¿ and strand him on the island as well. Antonio and his followers wander the island encountering spirits and monsters, and learning important life lessons in the process. By the end of the play, Miranda has fallen in love, evildoers have been punished, and loyalties are rewarded.
Producing The Tempest is Karen Libman, assistant theater professor in the GVSU School of Communications. Two guest artists-in-residence are bringing their talents to GVSU. Bob Hall, recently a resident director with the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, has worked numerous repertory stages in his 30-year career, including productions in New York, Chicago and the West Coast. Guest actor Mel Cobb, taking the lead role of Prospero, has an extensive theatre background, including roles with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Mass., at the Shakespeare Globe in London, the New York Shakespeare Festival and the American Shakespeare Festival.
The cast includes GVSU theater students Christina Hoffman and Dan Kennedy as Miranda and Ferdinand (Miranda's love), Brian Quakenbush as Caliban, and Heather Hartnett as the fairy spirit Ariel. Almost a dozen other students round out the cast.
The production will be set in an abstract locale that suggests the historical period of the 1930s, with strong touches of circus and clownery. Scenographer Alfred Sheffield is providing set design and lighting; costuming is by Jill Dole Hamilton; technical director is Paul Collins.
Tempest performances are scheduled as follows:
- Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on September 28, 29 and 30 and October 3,
5 and 6; and at 2 p.m. on September 29 and October 7. A free
reception follows the opening-night performance on September 28.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 for GVSU staff/faculty/alumni,
$7 for senior citizens, $5 for all college students, and $2.50 for K-12.
- There will also be special matinees for K-12 schools, at 10 a.m.
on September 28 and October 2 and 4, by reservation only.
