We
are currently sitting in tech rehearsal for THE TEMPEST at American
Rep, a show that we built and sent to Vegas earlier this year. With
magic designed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and music written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, this production
promises to be a blast.
The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespeare shows. It is widely
regarded as Shakespeare's farewell to the playwrighting world, a
remarkable example of authorial self-representation in a fantastical
work. Prospero, the Duke of Milan, was betrayed 12 years ago and
stranded on an island with his young daughter Miranda. His love of
knowledge and constant study allows Prospero to use magic to employ
spirits (the mischievous Ariel) and to manipulate the forces that be to
restore his daughter to power and cast down his enemies. Among the many
themes in this show, the ones that have always stood out to me are
forgiveness and redemption.
ART's production of The Tempest is already a hit. The music is dark and
striking. The magic is eerie and hair-raising. The acting is superb, for
an American Shakespeare. And call me biased, but the set and lighting
are pretty awesome.
Coming home to Cambridge is very exciting for everyone involved. Moving
from the Vegas space to the Loeb center certainly presents some
challenges-- a different show deck, some elements of the set used in one
space but not the other, changes in lighting angles and sound levels,
some blocking changes for the actors, but overall it's fairly nice to
mount a show that has already been assembled once.
This has been a long week! I started Sunday with the electrics crew,
unloading trucks from Vegas and rental gear. Luckily, most of the lights
were hung in advance for the show since ART's last big show (The Shape
She Makes) was in a different space, so all we had to put in the air
were some moving lights, color scrollers, and cabling. Sunday was also a lot
of organizing what came off of the trucks-- props and scenery, costumes,
lighting equipment, sound gear. On Monday and Tuesday I worked for the
scene shop loading the set itself in. It was a fair amount of heavy
work. The theater is set up as a big proscenium, complete with raised
deck (this was a process to create with ART's moving seat wagons and the various
elevator portions of what could be stage space). There is a beautiful
show deck, second and third levels, spiral stairs and various things for
the cast to climb on and play on. Without giving too much away, I will
say there are pillars sloping outward giving the set a fantastic,
sprawling feel. Add exotic touches like a high crow's nest and
clamshells, and we've got a dark, watery scene for the show.
Since Tuesday I've been working on electrics again. I'm also a spotlight
operator on the show, so having myself and the other spot op, Kevin, be
familiar with the hang and focus for the show is a good idea so we can
fix things and perform maintenance during the run. Electrics has been
challenging because there are a lot of pieces that light up in the set
and also, the set is extremely tall and therefore the lights are very
high in the air and hard to get to! Here on day 3 of technical rehearsals we're in good
shape, but everything from complex LED's getting wired to confusing
changes from Vegas to our rental spotlights being cruddy, have really
made this load in a challenge. Rehearsals are going smoothly however,
since we're all working on inserting the show into a new space instead
of doing it for the first time.
These busy weeks are the best! The Tempest runs for one month here in Cambridge. Don't miss out! For production photos, videos, and tickets, please visit the A.R.T. website here.
