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08/10/2022 07:00 AMAs the curtain opens on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero has waited more than a decade to pay back the enemies who sought to destroy both him and his daughter. He has anticipated this, he has prepared for this, he is at the peak of his powers as the stars align, and he is granted an opportunity to wreak havoc on his adversaries. Prospero manipulates his enemies to get them right where he wants them, knowing that if he does not act, and act now, the opportunity to gain revenge will be lost to him forever.
And then…
What Prospero decides to do, and why, speaks volumes about hatred, grudges, jealousy, justice, and whether revenge really is the ultimate reward many of us imagine it to be.
That, says Elm Shakespeare’s Producing Artistic Director Rebecca Goodheart, makes it a play perfect for our times, when it often feels like rage and revenge is the right response to life’s many injustices.
“It is a story of a man who has been really wronged. Right? He undeniably has had bad things done to him. He’s had his life ripped away. He is consumed with a rage about that, a completely justifiable rage,” she says. “It is a play that speaks to our world right now.”
This production of The Tempest, will be performed Thursday, Aug. 18 through Sunday, Sept. 4 (with the exception of Mondays), at 7:30 p.m., at Edgerton Park, 75 Cliff Street, New Haven. That it is being performed after Elm Shakespeare’s Shakespeare in the Park has been on a two-year break due to the pandemic, and that it is being performed on a brand new Elizabethan-era stage built through the generosity of a North Haven businessman makes this production all the more special, says Goodheart.
Plotting A Path Forward
Having to skip two years of Shakespeare in the Park, to be prevented from sharing the work on stage that they loved, was difficult for Elm Shakespeare, Goodheart says.
And, like many other area organizations, they put the time to good use.
“Emotionally it was incredibly difficult, yes. To not produce, to not do what we do. But it also, because of the way theater works, meant that we were not doing the one thing that takes up most of our resources, that one large show a year” she says. “So that allowed us to do several other things, and to develop new programs, and to grow our capacity.”
The organization started a discussion and event series Building A Brave New Theater, which acknowledged Shakespeare’s place at the tippy top of the “Euro-centric classical canon” and the fact that some of the specific content in the plays is demeaning or is an appropriation of other cultures. By exploring those issues while at the same time celebrating the “transformative power of these plays,” the events asked participants to come up with ways to answer the question of how Shakespeare’s works can best serve Elm Shakespeare’s community.
Those discussions can be found online on Elm Shakespeare’s website: elmshakespeare.org.
The organization also hosted a youth festival, and worked with New Haven-based Ice The Beef, a non-profit that works to curb gun violence in cities by teaching young people that their voices and decisions matter.
Elm also underwent a rigorous strategic planning process. “And that was really gratifying because we got proof that in some ways we are doing what we are trying to do. The consultants came back and said from your stakeholders to your audience to your staff to your board you are really doing your mission,” she says. “And the mission is Shakespeare as a way to bring people together, to bring the community together over these great works.”
Armed with the experience of the past two years and the new strategic plan, the organization continues to build programs that will allow it to connect with the community through Shakespeare’s works, interpreted through a lens that allows the community to be both seen and heard.
“Having our community come together is the most important thing for us, Shakespeare’s plays give us a particular opportunity to do that, and so we will continue to do that,” she says.
Next steps include infrastructure and capacity. “We have to build these other programs. We have the expertise. We have the artistry. But we don’t have the staff. We need more boots on the ground. And that is our calling right now, to build more capacity to be able to do all of the things that the community loves.”
Elm Shakespeare is coming out of the pandemic ready to perform and to get back on stage.
“But now we also have an expanded base and an expanded connection to the community,” she says. “And we have a thoughtful, planned way forward that will allow us to grow so that we will always be more than a one-show-a-year theater.”
An Incredible Gift
Elm Shakespeare also is coming out of the pandemic with an incredible gift of The Alexander Clark Playhouse Stage, thanks to a generous donation from Technolutions Founder and CEO Alexander Clark, who works in New Haven and lives with his family in North Haven. The stage is now being built in Edgerton Park under the inspired guidance of award-winning Ismir Ickbal, who designed the two-story stage to harken back to traditional Elizabethan theaters and to fit gracefully within the park’s enchanted surroundings.
“So it’s an Elizabethan stage and it’s not,” says Goodheart. For example, instead of all wood, the materials being used include both wood and aluminum. “Structurally it is the playhouse that all of Shakespeare’s plays were written for. It has two side entrances and you can enter below and above.” Two staircases have been added, there are side galleries on the top, along with a full top floor and full bottom floor.
The part that is not Elizabethan-era? “This is not to disparage Renaissance festivals in any way, shape, or form. I grew up playing with them and love them. But this is not a Renaissance festival stage. This is not a lath and plaster, ‘oh! this feels like The Globe!’ This has been designed very carefully to make sure it fits in the park.”
There are stylized art nouveau railings that Goodheart says will pop in this production, “because they sort of look like vines,” among other design elements that highlight the relationship of the stage to the park.
“It is both Elizabethan and eclectic,” she says. “Its structure is Elizabethan, and it’s eclectic in that it fits the park and gives us a lot of flexibility. How it serves the theater is that we now have a starting point from which to build every year. We are not building from scratch. It makes things more sustainable and portable. It becomes our home even though it’s not always in one place.”
While it is portable, Elm Shakespeare remains faithful to the magical surroundings of Edgerton Park.
“That is our home,” she says.
A Play With Emotional Resonance
With all of that exciting news, right now of course, the play’s the thing to catch a guilty king, to paraphrase Hamlet.
Goodheart says she is beyond thrilled to be working on The Tempest with L. Peter Callender, a native of Trinidad, West Indies, who is the artistic director of African-American Shakespeare Company, along with being a director and actor with a long list of credits and awards to his name. He will be Prospero.
“He’s a brilliant actor. He’s just a brilliant actor. He is at the height of his powers. He has done this play multiple times. This is part he has always wanted to play. He has a child himself, a child who is entering the world and growing up. And so he’s at a place in his life when you’re not done, but you are looking backwards as well as forwards,” she says. In other words, we cannot, and Prospero cannot, and the other characters in The Tempest cannot forget that “what’s past is prologue,” as one of the characters suggests. Our histories inform what is to come for us all.
“This play has emotional resonance for him” she says.
Tyler Cruz will be his daughter, Miranda.
“She is going to be a name that we all will know,” Goodheart says. “She’s at Yale School of Drama right now. And she is a delightful, talented, grounded, creative young actress. It’s just been such a pleasure to get to know her. She has just the perfect combination of intellect and forthrightness for Miranda. Also, both she and Peter are from Trinidad.”
The Tempest also has cast and crew members drawn from the ranks of Elm Shakespeare’s youth programs, designed to give young performers the opportunity to work alongside professionals. “It’s a chance for them to both train and grow. We want to meet them where they are, they come from a host of schools, and some of them actually started with us in our Players Camp,” she says.
She adds that she cannot wait for opening night, which will, as with the other performances, kick off with music about a half hour beforehand.
“We are just so excited. We are back with the live music a half hour before the performance. It’s such a lovely thing. People can bring their picnics and get settled in for the play.”
For more information about the performance and Elm Shakespeare, visit elmshakespeare.org.
Prospero (L. Peter Callender) and Ariel (Sarah Bowles).