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Printer-Friendly ModeBackstage with The Tempest
April 4, 2005 —
It's 1 pm Sunday afternoon and most of the cast for The Tempest is crowded inside the make-up room. Those unfamiliar with the actors would presume they'd be staring into mirrors, silently reciting lines and rehearsing cues. Instead the cast is spending their time joking, laughing and singing along to a radio blaring throughout the room. The noise and energy radiating throughout is so overwhelming that it is difficult to imagine that in less than an hour, these individuals will transform themselves into characters created almost 400 years before.
Working with Shakespeare
No one in the cast or crew will lie about it; this is Shakespeare and it is not sugar coated. Digesting the language in the play can be a chore and some of the monologues can drag on. It's not anyone's fault - it's Shakespeare (a phrase you'll hear frequently when talking with the cast). Despite these challenges, the cast takes what's given to them and does their best with it - another phrase you'll hear often.
Dr. Steven C. Erickson is the director of the play and will be the first to admit that working with Shakespeare provides a challenge not seen with other scripts.
"Directing wise, the language is the biggest stumbling block for most actors that haven't had a lot of experience with Shakespeare," Erickson says. "We just talked a lot about what the lines meant and what they were actually saying and that took a lot of time out of rehearsal that you don't have to do for a play written in contemporary English."
In terms of dealing with the language, no one deals with it more than George Tsiros. Tsiros plays Prospero, the right Duke of Milan who was banished from his Dukedom twelve years earlier by his brother Antonio. While Tsiros says he enjoys the challenge of carrying the play's lead role, he also points out that the language can be troublesome to work with.
"The biggest challenge of Shakespeare ... is understanding what you're saying and making sure you're audience can understand it the best they can," Tsiros says. "If you understand it, it's more likely they will."
One thing that is understood, though, is that, with Shakespeare, you can't really fly by the seat of your pants. As Benjamin J. Hurst (who plays Stephano) will tell you, "you can't really ad lib in Iambic Pentameter."
Practice makes perfect
While watching the cast perform The Tempest, it's impossible to tell that they began to rehearse only seven weeks before. Auditions took place at the end of January with rehearsal beginning the first of February. It was at this time that cast members began racking up between 12 and 15 hours of rehearsal time a week, though many will tell you the number was higher. A month into rehearsal, the hours were increased to as many as 23 hours per week and it became evident that being a cast member for The Tempest would require a maximum effort.
"Between what they spend both in and out of rehearsal as far as memorizing lines and working on the character analysis," Erickson says. "It's probably a full time job."
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Visually, The Tempest is gorgeous. The set is composed of an elaborate ship with various platforms and ramps throughout. Stage lights flash to simulate lightning and smoke pours from the stage for added effect. While most of the cast members contributed to making the set (and various theatre classes chipped in as well) almost everyone points to Jerry Dennis as the brains and brawn behind the set. Dennis, the play's technical director and one of its scenic designers, is spoken highly of by both cast and crew.
"Jerry Dennis is incredible," says Patrick Konesko, who plays Master. "He can make anything out of anything."
Something else Dennis does is help with makeup. As Chad Helmer works to apply the prosthetic face that turns him into Caliban, he remarks on how he usually has a helper.
"It takes about 30 minutes (to put on the makeup) but normally it's not me doing it - it's Jerry," Helmer says. "He couldn't make it today so I'm trying to figure out how to do this real quick."
Real quick isn't a term usually associated with putting on the cast's makeup. Many of the actors require quite some time; it takes Tsiros almost an hour to become Prospero. Regardless of the amount of time it takes, the little extra makeup or costume can add something special to the character.
"It's more fun I think," Helmer says. "It's a different challenge."
There are no small roles...
The program for The Tempest lists 26 different cast members with a production staff of 24. That means that as many as 50 people have their hand in making sure The Tempest goes smoothly.
To get into the role of his drunken character Stephano, Hurst will start acting inebriated as soon as he walks into the theatre. As an actor, being able to portray your character on command is important.
"You should be able to slip in and out of character at the drop of a hat," Hurst says.
Meanwhile, Mat Easterwood has a non-speaking role as one of the mariners yet still feels the same pressure as everyone else.
"I was just as stressed as the main characters," he says. "It was kind of shocking."
Despite being on stage only at the beginning and end of the play, Easterwood maintained he has to stay sharp.
Moments before going back on stage, he and the other mariners begin talking like pirates because, well, that's what they think the mariners would sound like.
The production staff for The Tempest plays just as important of a role as the cast. As stage manager, Jenn Joseph is in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly, calling light and sound cues and making sure the actors are in their places when they're supposed to be.
Despite the fact that Joseph is never on stage and has no lines, she still shares the same anxiety as the cast.
"This is the biggest show I've ever done," she says. "The first time I did it, I wanted to throw up I was so nervous."
Family ties
No matter how the play turns out, the cast and crew of The Tempest remains a close knit group. They laugh, tease and steal each other's costumes and props. It's clear that what makes this group successful is that they act as if they are one big family. Most of them will agree with the assessment.
"This is closest of the two casts I've been in," says Easterwood, who was also in The Little Prince. "Everyone knows that every role is important to everything."
Konesko agrees.
"That's the most important aspect of the show," he says. "The show cannot be good without the cast being a close knit family."
Being a family is what allows the cast to help each other, root for one another and occasionally even bail each other out. So while the tale of Prospero tells of deception and dishonestly amongst family, it is clear that the only reason the cast can tell this story so well is because they are one family that always sticks together.