design by Maggie Blaisdell 96th Season • 672nd Production Rochester Community Players: Shakespeare Program In cooperation with Monroe County Parks Department presents THE TEMPEST By William Shakespeare Directed by Luane Davis Haggerty SHAKESPEARE-IN-THE-PARK Highland Park Bowl Rochester, New York July 9 – 25, 2021 THE CAST The Production Team asl actor • voice actor Director LUANE DAVIS HAGGERTY, PhD Production Managers RACHEL PAZDA Prospero, the rightful duke of Milan JESSE LANSNER MALIK C. PARIS • PETER HAGGERTY Set Designer JOSEPH FOX Miranda, daughter to Prospero Costume Designer SHELLY JO STAM TAMARA CHAPMAN • ELIZA McDANIEL Lighting Designer JEREMY DOMINIK Ariel, an airy spirit Sound Designer DAN ROACH DAKOTA NICOLE HALLIBURTON • BRIANNA HICKEN Movement Consultant ANDREAS GABRIEL WOERNER Production Stage Manager ADAM URBANIC Caliban, a savage slave Assistant Stage Managers LEE CHARLIER TROY CHAPMAN • BENJAMIN LEYER DAVID KENSEK Ferdinand, son to the king of Naples Technical Director KELLY FLEGEL SAMUEL LANGSHTEYN • TYLER LUCERO Assistant Lighting Designer KENNETH DeBOT Trinculo, a jester Sound Manager KEN DAUER MATTHEW ANNIS • LIZZ deSIMONE Master Carpenter MATT VEIGARD Properties Manager SHELLY JO STAM Stephano, a drunken butler Publicity Manager SALLY MILLICK JAMAL JONES • DAVID BROADNAX Light Board Operator KENNETH DeBOT Antonio, Prospero’s brother, usurping duke of Milan Sound Board Operator LILY FELDMAN ARTHUR PARSLEY • BRODIE McPHERSON Running Crew MATTHEW PARSLEY Alonso, king of Naples EDDIE SWAYZE JOHNNIE DUARTES • SIMON MOODY Poster Designer MAGGIE BLAISDELL Program Designer & Editor THOMAS M. BOHRER Gonzala, an honest counsellor Website Program Designer JESSE LANSNER CAMILLE UADAILE • JILLIAN S. CHRISTENSEN Social Network Promoter EDDIE SWAYZE Sebastiana, the king’s sister Photographer DAKOTA NICOLE HALLIBURTON ABIGAIL SMITH • NICKY SUDYN Rehearsal Interpreters SAMANTHA NYKOLE BRIGANTI Spirits of the island RENEE BURN BEN LEYER ANDREA JANEL BROWN JOSHUA HOWELL- LEYER ELIZA McDANIEL EVAN J. MILLER CARL WEBSTER JULIA WEATHERHOLTZ UNDERSTUDIES Concessions Manager CAROL THOMPSON ANDREA JANEL BROWN (Gonzala) NTID Technical Director ERIC MOSLOW JOSHUA HOWELL-LEYER (rehearsal swing all roles) NTID Stagecraft Manager JOSEPH HAMILTON EVAN J. MILLER (Ferdinand) NTID Development Officer AARON KELSTONE CARL WEBSTER (Stephano) NTID Office Assistant DENISE MORGAN CAMILLE UADIALE (Miranda) This project is made possible with funds from the THIS PRODUCTION IS DEDICATED TO Rochester Area Community Foundation and with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of Mieke Davis Frishman the New York State Council on the Arts with the support Olena Lylak of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Terrell Sharron Higgs Legislature and administered by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts. Ashton Hinchcliffe Timothy Holmes Kenneth Roy Moody Kate Sherman Bob Weeks Yvonne Stephiane Williams: “Aunty Rochester Community Players Board of Directors Stephanie” MICHAEL C. KRICKMIRE, president KENNETH DAUER, co-president Special Thanks to THOMAS M. BOHRER, secretary JOYCE CURRAN, treasurer RIT/NTID Performing Arts Program ANNA BECK RACHEL PAZDA SUNY Brockport, Dept. of Theatre and Music Studies JEAN GORDON RYON ELAINE SAUER Annette Dragon for performance photographs Off-Monroe Players RCP Shakespeare Program Committee Applied Audio THOMAS M. BOHRER KENNETH DAUER Peter Haggerty PHILIP FREY JEFFERY JONES Mary Krickmire JESSE LANSNER DANIELLE LATTIERE Thomas M. Bohrer & Mitzie Collins for printed programs RACHEL PAZDA JAMIE TYRRELL Simon Moody for allowing us to raid his costume closet Rochester Community Players is a member of Mitzie Collins for pre-show music Susie Kieran for pre-show music AACT (American Association of Community Theatre) Ben David Aronson for pre-show music TANYS (Theatre Association of New York State) Snowbelt Morris for pre-show entertainment Tyler Winegamer for Videotaping Set Build and Concessions Volunteers Rachel Pazda Jeff Jones Carol Thompson Lily Feldman Terri Zebrak Justin Rielly Cole Cassano Natalie Parker Jan Feldman Elaine Sauer Julia Cilano Arthur Parsley Matthew Parsley THE SCENE an unknown mystical island originally inhabited only by magical Spirits. THE CHARACTERS Those on the island before the play begins Those washed ashore following a shipwreck PROSPERO – The rightful Duke of Milan who was ALONSO – The king of Naples, who aided in deposing deposed by his brother and exiled. Banished to sea Prospero from his dukedom along with his daughter, they arrived on the island. ANTONIO – Prospero’s brother, the usurping duke. MIRANDA – Prospero’s daughter, now age fifteen. GONZALA – An honest counsellor, Prospero’s old friend ARIEL – An airy magical Spirit who, rescued by Prospero, who helped him escape after banishment. became his servant and teacher of magic spells. SEBASTIENNE – The king’s sister, hungry for power. CALIBAN – A savage Spirit who, cared for and tamed by FERDINAND – Son to the king of Naples. Prospero, became his unwilling servant. TRINCULO – The King’s jester. And an assortment of ISLAND SPIRITS. STEPHANO – The king’s drunken butler. THE TEMPEST – a synopsis and some notes from the Director There was once a beautiful unknown island where lush abundance and sparkling sea lured several notable Neapolitans to wash up on its shores. In our backstory of to Shakespeare’s play this island is inhabited by a community of spirits, portrayed by the speaking actors. In their culture, it is a duty to attach themselves to any humans who become washed up on their shores (since we humans are flawed creatures who need help navigating life). In this production, you will see these spirits as they follow their human counterparts through the story and their time on this island (they are the speaking actors). Before our story begins, the first person to be exiled on this island is a woman branded a witch named Sycorax. She is skilled at magic and pregnant. She takes over the island and has her baby, a boy named Caliban. Sycorax is an angry person and her plans are often hurtful. Eventually the spirits of the island (including the strongest of all the spirits, named Ariel performed by both a Deaf and hearing actor) stop obeying her wishes. Sycorax vengefully locks Ariel in a tree and soon after dies. Luckily, the next to arrive is the deposed Duke of Milan, Prospero (the human characters are played by Deaf, signing actors). He learns magic from the spirits and frees Ariel while raising his daughter and the (now) feral child, Caliban. Shakespeare’s play begins twelve years after Prospero’s unfair exile from his home with his infant daughter. Prospero finds an opportunity to revenge himself and uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including the King of Naples and Prospero’s treacherous brother, Antonio. At the same time, Caliban, plots to rid himself of Prospero but is thwarted by Prospero’s Aide de camp Ariel. The King’s young son Ferdinand, thought to be dead, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda. Their celebrations are cut short when Prospero confronts his brother and reveals his identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. Just as you think Prospero will exact his vengeance, he is advised by Ariel to take pity. In a plot twist of an ending, Prospero decides that the “rarer action of virtue rather than vengeance” is the better choice. Rather than destruction, forgiveness allows for the families to be reunited and all conflict is resolved. Prospero frees Ariel and in a moment of clarity and transparency addresses the audience directly acknowledging that the evening’s story has been but a dream. In a theater production, we practice the process of leaving our own small concerns behind and enter into a single focused community. We practice the greater goal of forming unity in humanity. In theater we actually practice how to love our neighbor as ourselves, how to find a path to working with those we disagree with, and how to connect to one another on a deeper level – a blend of individuals who can become a family of choice, a community of support, a nation of hope, and a world of acceptance. We step into the light of a post-COVID era. We have had a chance, over the past year, to reflect on our loneliness as individuals and the fact that we need each other and miss each other when we are forced apart, isolated and divided. In this production, you will see two actors representing separate aspects of each character, spirit and body. An illustration of the belief that we are not, in fact, alone at all. Try to let go of any ideas you may have of interpreted theater and enter into this joyous romp of physically expressed theater. Open your mind to the richness of movement and you’ll be surprised at how much more you understand. We are using our restored ability to present live theater to use a “wide screen” rather than the “close-up” that our screens have trained us for. Let us communicate our story using images even more than individual words. The word communication comes from the Latin words “comm” and “um” literally meaning “becoming one with”. Become one with us and enter into this imaginative island Shakespeare created. For those of us yet to risk travel it can be your mini vacation to a desert island in your mind. In this production, we are communicating using two planes of reality and two languages embodied in two actors who bond so closely in ideas and feelings that they “become one.” Two actors sharing each role. I have often cast them as opposites – Deaf/hearing, male/female, gay/straight, white/black – and that allows them, and therefore us, to see that each individual harbors the whole of humanity within themselves. In a world that has become so polarized it is important to take a moment to recognize that spirit and body are one across cultural and community lines, emphasizing our commonalities as human beings. Although many see theater as “playing” for me this is not a pastime or a gift.