The Tempest Online Script-In-Hand Performance

August 6-10

YouTube

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Steven Maler

 

Audio Description Pre-Show Recordings
Pre-Show Part 1 (Intro)

 

Pre-Show Part 2 (Locations, Backgrounds, and Conventions)

Pre-Show Part 3 Actors & Their Characters)

Pre-Show Part 4 (Wrap Up)

Pre-Show Part 5 (Sponsors and Acknowledgements)

The performance will be free and open to the public on CSC’s YouTube channel and can be accessed via www.commshakes.org.

Due to the continued effects of COVID-19 on Boston and its community, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company recently postponed its production of ​The Tempest​ on the Boston Common to July 2021 (utilizing the same artistic and design team). Instead of the annual production on the Common, CSC will present an online script-in-hand performance on Thursday, August 6 at 7:00PM, as a benefit to support CSC’s 2021 production on the Boston Common, with the previously announced cast led by John Douglas Thompson* in the role of Prospero. The performance will be available for viewing until Monday, August 10 at 7pm. There is a suggested donation of $20 to support the Company.

Joining the cast as Ariel is Miguel Cervantes* who recently played the title role in Hamilton in the Chicago production, Siobhan Juanita Brown (Gonzala), and Maurice Emmanuel Parent* (Sebastian).

The previously announced cast includes Fred Sullivan, Jr.* as Stephano, Remo Airaldi* as Antonio, Nora Eschenheimer* as Miranda, actor/playwright John Kuntz* as Trinculo, Nael Nacer* as Caliban, Richard Noble as Alonso, and Michael Underhill as Ferdinand. Scenic Design is by Tony Award winner Clint Ramos and Jeffrey Petersen, Costume Design by Nancy Leary, Lighting Design by Eric Southern, and Sound Design by David Reiffel.

There will be separate recordings that will include captioning, audio descriptions, and ASL interpretation of the performance, made available on the CSC website by Saturday, August 8 at 7:00 PM. Both the recording of the live performance and the ASL interpreted performance will be available on the CSC YouTube channel until Monday, August 10 at 7:00 PM.

Pre-Show Audio Described files will be available by noon on Friday, August 7 on on this page and the CommShakes YouTube Channel.

Access Coordination by Christopher Robinson
Closed Captioning provided by David Chu at c2
Audio Description by Cori Couture
Video Services by Ernesto Galan/Scalped Productions

Directed by Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler and featuring Boston and New York’s finest actors, The Tempest, Shakespeare’s final play, transports the audience to a mysterious and enchanting island inhabited by a host of colorful characters. In this tale of magic, betrayal, revenge, and family, the wise and powerful Prospero struggles to maintain the world he’s created as order is thrown off balance by those around him: his curious daughter, Miranda; a man who’s just washed ashore, Ferdinand; the half human, half monster, Caliban; two fools, Stephano and Trinculo; and the mystical spirit of the air, Ariel, among many others. With elements of tragedy and comedy, this “brave new world” is a charming escape to revel in under the stars for the 25th production of Free Shakespeare on the Common.

 

As announced in March, production staff and artists engaged for the production will be paid this summer despite the postponement.

In lieu of presenting ​The Tempest​ on the Boston Common this July, the team is developing a host of other activities and programming. The team is exploring performing pop-up live and online performances, developing educational materials for ​The Tempest​ and CSC’s Stage2 production of ​A Midsummer Night’s Dream​ (rescheduled to spring 2021), and deepening CSC’s commitment to racial equity in all aspects of its work. The company will also support CSC’s annual Apprentice Program which has moved to a virtual format this summer. Now in its eleventh year, CSC’s Apprentice Program brings together pre-professional actors from across the country for Shakespeare training and professional development opportunities. This year an unprecedented forty students will engage in training on Shakespeare’s text and voice, as well as masterclasses with local and nationally renowned artists from CSC’s past productions. The online training will culminate in public virtual presentations of scenes and monologues.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.

 

 

 

Cast

Remo Airaldi
Antonio

Remo Airaldi has appeared with CSC in Cymbeline, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentleman of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew. He has appeared in over sixty productions at the American Repertory Theater, including Night of the IguanaOliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), and Island of Slaves (IRNE Award—Outstanding Actor). Other credits: Shakespeare in Love (Speakeasy Stage), Murder on the Orient Express, Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Foxes, My Fair Lady, and Sweeney Todd (Lyric Stage), Exposed (Boston Playwrights’ Theater), Mistero Buffo (The Poets’ Theatre), Frankenstein and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Central Square Theater),The King of Second Avenue (New Repertory Theatre) and productions at Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Cirque du Soleil, American Conservatory Theater, Walnut Street Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. He teaches acting, improvisation and public speaking at Harvard University.

Siobhan Juanita Brown
Gonzala

Siobhan Juanita Brown played Titania in CSC’s first production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1996), Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (1997), Olivia in Twelfth Night (2001), and The Widow in All’s Well That Ends Well (2011). She holds a BFA degree in Performing Arts and African American studies from Emerson College and is a graduate of the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Other credits include Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play at A.R.T., The Emancipation of Valet de Chambre at Cleveland Play House, Studs Terkel’s American Dreams: Lost and Found with the Acting Company, Medea and Antony and Cleopatra for Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of A Negro with Brandeis Theatre Company. She has worked extensively in arts education as the former Associate Director of Education at Citi Performing Arts Center and Director of School & Teacher Programs at Actors’ Shakespeare Project, as well as teaching for the Strand Theatre, CSC, and the Acting Company.  As a playwright Siobhan wrote A Piece of Silver based on recorded conversations with her maternal and paternal grandmothers who are Mashpee Wampanoag Indian and African American, respectively. She has worked with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project since 2013 and is a member of the founding teaching team of Weetumuw Katnuhtôhtâkamuq, the Wôpanâak language and culture immersion school providing academic and Indigenous education using a Montessori pedagogy for decolonization and language reclamation.

Miguel Cervantes
Ariel

Miguel Cervantes Broadway: Hamilton, If/Then, American Idiot, and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Additional theater: Giant (Public Theater), Happiness (Lincoln Center), Batboy.  TV/Film: The Greatest, Tramps “Person of Interest”, “BrainDead”, “Madam Secretary”, “Royal Pains”, “The Blacklist”.  He graduated from Emerson College, BFA in Musical Theater

Nora Eschenheimer
Miranda

Nora Eschenheimer is delighted to return to CSC after last appearing as Miranda in The Tempest, and Imogen in Cymbeline (Elliot Norton Award nomination). Her other recent credits include Rosalind in As You Like it, Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, and Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Gamm Theatre, as well as Rachel Brown in Inherit the Wind at the Ocean State Theatre Company, and the Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. She would like to thank all the scientists and healthcare workers who made a return to the live performing arts possible. www.noraeschenheimer.com | @noraeschenheimer

John Kuntz
Trinculo
John Kuntz
Trinculo

John Kuntz has appeared with CSC previously in Henry V, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night.  He is the author of over 15 full-length plays including Necessary Monsters, The Hotel Nepenthe, Starfuckers and The Salt Girl.  As an actor, he has appeared with The Huntington, ART, Speakeasy and many others. He is the recipient of five Elliot Norton Awards, two IRNE Awards, a New York International Fringe Festival Award and a 2015 MCC Fellowship Award in Dramatic Writing.  He is a lecturer in Theatre, Dance and Media at Harvard University, an Associate Professor at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and is the Artistic Director of The Derrah Theatre Lab.

Nael Nacer
Caliban

Nael Nacer has previously appeared with CSC as Caliban in The Tempest. He recently performed in NYC alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht in Igor Golyak’s The Orchard, a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (Arlekin Players/B.A.C). Other credits include: People, Places & Things, Small Mouth Sounds, Tribes (SpeakEasy Stage), The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Equivocation (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Romeo and Juliet, A Doll’s House, Bedroom Farce, Awake and Sing!, Come Back, Little Sheba, and David Cromer’s celebrated production of Our Town (Huntington Theatre), The Return (Israeli Stage),The Seagull and ChekhovOS (Arlekin Players Theatre), Tiny Beautiful Things, True West, The Flick (Gloucester Stage), Constellations (Central Square Theatre), Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, Intimate Apparel (Lyric Stage), The Kite Runner, A Number, Lungs (New Repertory Theatre), Rhinoceros, Windowmen (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), and Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). Nael is the recipient of multiple Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, and is a resident acting company member of Actors’ Shakespeare Project.

Richard Noble
Alonso

Richard Noble has appeared previously with CSC as Edward IV et al. in Richard III (2018),  Philario et al. in Cymbeline (2019), and Alonso in the script-in-hand online performance of The Tempest (2020). In Rhode Island he has also appeared in numerous productions of the Perishable, Epic, Burbage, Gamm, and other theatres. In (much) earlier days he appeared in a couple of dozen productions at Wesleyan University, was a member of the Dartmouth Summer Rep, and frequently appeared with the Parish Players in Thetford, Vermont. Until his recent retirement he also performed daily as “Rare Materials Cataloger” in the Brown University Library.

Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Sebastian

Maurice Emmanuel Parent is an award-winning actor, director, educator and mentor with 20 years of professional experience. He has over 40 credits at theatres across the nation and abroad, having performed and directed for some of Boston’s oldest and most respected companies such as the Huntington Theatre Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, and Central Square Theater among others. His work as an actor has earned him two Elliot Norton Awards from The Boston Theater Critics Association, three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) awards, and an ArtsImpulse Award. Parent’s history as an educator extends back nearly a decade. He’s taught for Northeastern University, MIT, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston University and spent nearly 6 years as a Performing Arts Specialist in the Boston Public School System. Currently Parent is a full time Professor of the Practice in the Tufts Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Parent is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective, “a black theatre company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theater.” In its fifth season, “The Porch” has quickly become a well respected voice in the Boston theatrical landscape. www.MauriceParent.com

Fred Sullivan, Jr.
Stephano

Fred Sullivan is celebrating 16 seasons with CSC. On the Common, Fred has played Bottom, Jaques (Norton Award winner), Ageon, Brabantio, Parolles, Menenius, First Gangster (Kiss Me Kate at the Hatch Shell) Malvolio (Norton Award nominee), Gloucester, Holoferness, Capulet, Buckingham, Stephano  and he directed 2019’s Cymbeline and adapted our one-man A Christmas Carol. Most recently, Fred appeared at the Lyric Stage Company as Ben Jonson in The Book of Will and as Tim in The Cake. He spent 35 seasons as a resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in RI where he appeared in 130 plays and received Norton and IRNE awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in Blithe Spirit and His Girl Friday. His Trinity roles included Falstaff, Harold Hill, Captain Hook, Oscar Madison, James Tyrone, Jr, Daddy Warbucks, Creon, Peer Gynt,  Joe Pitt, Alfie Doolittle, Scrooge, Nick Bottom and 118 others. At Trinity, Fred directed Shooting Star, A Christmas Carol and Boeing Boeing. Fred is a  Resident Director for the Gamm Theatre (25 seasons) where he directed 35 productions including Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet (each twice) The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest , King Lear, and Awake at Sing (Norton Award for Outstanding Production). As an actor at Gamm, he played Donny in American Buffalo, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Potter/Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life, Aslasken in A Lie Agreed Upon and Mark Rothko in Red. Fred has also performed at NJ Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Berkeley Rep, and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. He is featured in the films: Vault, Saving Christmas (w/ Ed Asner), Mister Birthday, Agent Toby Barks and Almost Mercy. He teaches acting at Gamm and RISD.

 

John Douglas Thompson
Prospero

John Douglas Thompson has been hailed by the New York Times “as one  of the most compelling classical stage actors of his generation” and in The  New Yorker, Thompson [is] “regarded by some people as the best classical  actor in America.”  

John most recently appeared on Broadway in King Lear and the revival of  Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel. He also starred in the Huntington  Theatre Company’s Man in the Ring (Elliot Norton Award) and in the  titular role of the American Conservatory Theater’s production of Hamlet.  He also co-starred in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare In The Park  production of Julius Caesar.  

He received rave reviews for his performance in August Wilson’s Jitney,  for which he received a Tony Award nomination. Thompson’s other credits  include The Father and A Doll’s House at Theater For A New Audience  and Troilus & Cressida at The Public. Other Broadway credits include A  Time To Kill, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Julius Caesar with Denzel  Washington.  

John’s Off-Broadway credits include: The Iceman Cometh (Obie and  Drama Desk Awards); Tamburlaine (Obie and Drama Desk Awards);  Satchmo At The Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award, and  the NAACP Theatre Awards) at Westside Theater, ACT, Annenberg Center  For The Performing Arts, Long Wharf Theater; King Lear at The Public  Theater; Macbeth (title role); Othello (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award)  at Theatre for a New Audience; The Forest; The Emperor Jones at Irish  Repertory Theatre (Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk  nominations); and Hedda Gabler at New York Theatre Workshop.  Regional credits include: Joe Turner’s Come And Gone at Mark Taper  Forum (Ovation Award); Antony And Cleopatra; Red Velvet, Othello,  Richard III, and Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Co.; Jesus Hopped the  ‘A’ Train (Barrymore Award); and productions at the Williamstown Theatre  Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, American Repertory Theater and Yale  Repertory Theatre among others. Television credits include: For Life, Mare Of Easttown, The Gilded Age,  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Film credits include: 21 Bridges, 355, Let Them All Talk, Wolves, The  Bourne Legacy, Glass Chin, Midway, and Malcolm X.

Michael Underhill
Ferdinand

Michael Underhill previously appeared at CSC in Cymbeline, Othello, Two Gentleman of Verona (u/s), Macbeth (CSC2), Richard III, and Romeo & Juliet (CSC2). He is a graduate from Northeastern University and a Boston born and bred actor. Additional roles include the title role in King John (Praxis Stage), Actor #1 in Hotel Nepenthe (Brown Box Theatre) and Joseph Surface in School for Scandal (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). Other regional credits include the Huntington Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Central Square Theatre and imaginary beasts. Find out more at www.michaeljunderhill.com 

Siobhán Carroll
Iris/ Mariner
Siobhán Carroll
Iris/ Mariner

Siobhán Carroll (she/her/hers) is delighted to be returning to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after being a part of their production of Universe Rushing Apart: Blue Kettle & Here We Go. Other Boston credits include Red Velvet (O.W.I.); My Fascination With Creepy Ladies and I, Snowflake (Anthem Theatre Company); The Three Sisters (Apollinaire Theatre Company); and Next To Normal (Arts After Hours). Catch her as Petra in the series Ms/Manage now out on Black Oak TV.

Caroline Cronin
Juno/ Mariner
Caroline Cronin
Juno/ Mariner

Caroline Cronin makes her CSC debut. Regional: Celia in As You Like It and Bianca in Othello with Seven Stages Shakespeare Company in Portsmouth, NH and NYC. MA graduate of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and Rollins College. Proud StateraArts Regional Coordinator and mentor here in Boston. www.caroline-cronin.com 

Duncan Gallagher
Boatswain

Duncan Gallagher (he/him) is delighted to return to Boston with this extraordinary company. Previous work in the area includes The Tempest (CSC) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Hub Theatre Co.) Elsewhere: Echo, in a Diner (world premiere, Columbia University) and The Country Wife (Sweet Tea Shakespeare.) Upcoming: Much Ado About Nothing (CSC.) Credits while training include Brutus in Julius Caesar, Antonio in The Changeling and the title role in Richard III. MA: LAMDA, BA: Brown University. duncan-gallagher.com

Jessica Golden
Ceres/ Mariner
Jessica Golden
Ceres/ Mariner

Jessica Golden is delighted to be back on the Common! Her previous credits with CSC include: Much Ado About Nothing (Military Messenger/Nikkole), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon and Theseus), and The Tempest (Iris). She was a 2019 CSC Apprentice, and played Oberon in Midsummer, also directed by Bryn Boice. Other local credits include: Into the Breeches!, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Much Ado About Nothing (Hub). Jessica is a proud graduate of NYU/Tisch. @_jessicagolden

Alicia Hartz
Adrian/ Mariner
Alicia Hartz
Adrian/ Mariner

Alicia Hartz (she/her) has acted as a CSC Apprentice, performed virtually with CSC2, and is excited to be making her CSC Stage2 debut! Other credits include Viola in Twelfth Night (RADA, London, UK), My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer (Playwrights Horizons, NY), Hero Worship (Signature Theater, D.C.), Medea (Queen’s Theater, NY), The Circle Rules (Player’s Theatre, NY), and a Summer Cabaret Artist (Carousel Music Theater, ME). Much love to Bryn and Victoria for their continued support! alicia.v.hartz@gmail.com

 

 

Dylan C. Wack
Shipmaster/ Francisco
Dylan C. Wack
Shipmaster/ Francisco

Dylan C. Wack (Friar Laurence) is thrilled to be returning to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after performing in Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and the CSC2 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has performed with the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, the Front Porch Arts Collective, Theater in the Open, New Repertory Theatre, Fresh Ink Theatre, Sparkhaven Theatre, and AATAB, among others. He holds a BFA from Boston University and a Certificate in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts, Dylan now resides in Brooklyn. dylancwack.com | @dylanwack

Christopher Robinson
ASL Coordinator/ Performer
Christopher Robinson
ASL Coordinator/ Performer

Christopher Robinson (Prospero/Sebastian/Stephano standby) works at Boston University’s Office of Disability & Access Services and also serves on the Board of Directors of StageSource (stagesource.com) For over a decade he has coordinated Accessibility Services or appeared as an ASL Interpreter for CSC’s productions on the Common. He has worked as an ASL/English interpreter for several Huntington Theatre Company’s productions of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, among other dramatic productions. He worked as a Shadow Interpreter for the Craig Lucas’ play, I Was Most Alive With You, a Huntington Theatre production. Regional Theatre Interpreting venues: Wheelock Family Theatre; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Seattle Rep; American Repertory Theatre; BCAP at Boston University.

Michelle A. Banks
ASL Interpreter/ Performer
Michelle A. Banks
ASL Interpreter/ Performer

Michelle A. Banks (Gonzala/Ceres/Ensemble) is a native of Washington, DC, is an award-winning actress, writer, director, producer, choreographer, motivational speaker, and teacher. Former Artistic Director of Onyx Theatre Company for over 11 years in NYC. Her other achievements include the 2017 recipient of Gallaudet University’s Laurent Clerc Award, the 2002 recipient of the Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship, an Individual Achievement Award from the National Council on Communicative Disorders, and a featured article in the February 1998 issue of ESSENCE magazine. Michelle’s most recent producing/directing credits: Gallaudet University’s A Raisin In the Sun, Look Through My Eyes, Silent Scream, Z: A Christmas Story, What Its Like (One Man Show), and In Sight and Sound: DE(A)F Poetry I, II & III.  Her acting appearances include “Sole” (TV Pilot), The C.A. Lyons Project (Alliance Theatre),”Soul Food” (Showtime Series), “Strong Medicine” (Lifetime), “Girlfriends” (UPN), “Compensation” (Independent Film), For Girls Who Considered Suicide When Rainbow Is Enu (NY & LA) and Big River (Mark Taper Forum & Ford Theater). Currently, Michelle Banks is the Artistic Director of VOCA – Visionaries of the Creative Arts, Inc. – www.visionariesofthecreativearts.org.

Frank Dattalo
ASL Interpreter/ Performer
Frank Dattalo
ASL Interpreter/ Performer

Frank Dattalo (Caliban/Antonio/Alonso/Ensemble)

Amelia Hensley
ASL Interpreter/ Performer
Amelia Hensley
ASL Interpreter/ Performer

Amelia Hensley (Miranda/Adrian/Iris/Juno/Ensemble) Recent work at Public Theater for The Line as ASL interpreter. Broadway: Spring Awakening (Deaf West). Off-Broadway: I Was Most Alive with You (Playwrights Horizons). NYC: Sylvia (NYDT), Dancing Girl (She NYC Arts), Stepchild (IRT Theater), Rape of Lucretia (New Camerata Opera).  Seattle: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (12th Ave Arts), Skin (Deaf Spotlight). LA: Orphee and Spring Awakening (Deaf West), Our Town (Pasadena Playhouse) Romeo and Juliet (Sontag Greek Theatre). DC: The Lady Becomes Him, (Faction of Fools), Peepshow (Dog & Pony DC), Noises Off (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival).

Elbert Joseph
ASL Interpreter/ Performer
Elbert Joseph
ASL Interpreter/ Performer

Elbert Joseph (Prospero/Sebastian/Stephano)

John McGinty
ASL Interpreter/ Performer
John McGinty
ASL Interpreter/ Performer

John McGinty (Ariel/Ferdinand/Trinculo/Ensemble) credits: Broadway: Children of a Lesser God, King Lear.  NY: Fêtes de la Nuit, World Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s The Healing, Veritas, Movement of the Soul. Regional: Levity (WMPAC), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Sacramento Music Circus and La Mirada Theatre), Tribes (Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre), Pippin (CTG, Deaf West). Film: “Wonderstruck”, “Sign”, “The First Purge”. TV: “This Close”, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”, “High Maintenance”, “Don’t Shoot the Messenger”, “Able”.  @TheJohnMcGinty

c2
Captioning
c2
Captioning

c2 pioneered and specializes in live theatrical captioning for patrons with all degrees of hearing loss; theatre partners include Broadway, off Broadway, the Kennedy Center, national performing arts venues, and top-shelf regional Tony theatres, large and small. We provide both live performance captioning for the stage and digital captioning for the virtual world.

Cori Couture
Audio Description
Cori Couture
Audio Description

Cori Couture was last with CSC as the primary describer for Cymbeline in 2019 and has provided audio description for many Boston- area theatres and coordinated description for several of them. She regularly works with leaders in the local blind/visually impaired community to make sure potential audience members are aware of the vast number of productions available with description. Last year, more than 40 productions were presented with audio description in and around Boston! Cori has presented about live theatre description for the Mass. Cultural Council’s UP initiative, for CANE (Cultural Access New England), and described courses for Harvard Business School. In the early days of WGBH’s Descriptive Video Service (DVS), Cori wrote description for many PBS programs and for movies on home video. More recently, she worked with DVS to narrate the description for a slate of Paramount films, many of which are available on Netflix. These include: Failure to Launch, Rugrats in Paris, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and more.

Creative Team

Steven Maler
Director

Steven Maler is the Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC). At CSC he has been directing Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common productions since 1996, including Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, The Comedy Of Errors, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Romeo & Juliet. Other CSC works include his critically acclaimed production of Naomi Wallace’s adaptation of William Wharton’s novel Birdy, Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, the world premiere of Jake Broder’s Our American Hamlet, and the world premiere of Robert Brustein’s The Last Will.  In collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra, he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring the Overture and Incidental Music of Felix Mendelssohn, as well as concert stagings of The Boys from Syracuse and Kiss Me Kate at Boston’s iconic Hatch Shell.  For CSC he has also directed one-night-only readings of iconic plays featuring Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Blair Brown, Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams, Leslie Uggams, David Morse, and Jeffrey Donovan among others.  He conceived and directed Shakespeare at Fenway, an evening of Shakespeare scenes performed at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park, featuring Mike O’Malley, Neal McDonough, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Kerry O’Malley, Seth Gilliam, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Max Von Essen, Christian Coulson, Jason Butler Harner, and many others.

In collaboration with Google, he adapted and directed a first of its kind sixty minute virtual reality film of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, entitled Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, starring Jack Cutmore-Scott, Jay O. Sanders, Brooke Adams, and Faran Tahir.  It is currently available for viewing on Boston public media producer GBH’s YouTube channel; for more information, visit www.wgbh.org/hamlet360.

Outside of CSC, he directed Maria, Regina D’Inghilterra for Odyssey Opera, Péter Eötvös’ operatic treatment of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (U.S. Premiere) and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face for Opera Boston, The Turn of the Screw at New Repertory Theatre, Santaland Diaries and Chay Yew’s Porcelain at SpeakEasy Stage Company, Top Girls and Weldon Rising at Coyote Theatre, and The L.A. Plays by Han Ong at A.R.T. His New York City credits include the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Without You, written by and starring Anthony Rapp. The production has been seen in Boston, Edinburgh, Toronto, London, and Seoul.

He received the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, as well as for Best Production for Twelfth Night and All’s Well That Ends Well; Outstanding Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best Production, SubUrbia; Best Solo Performance, John Kuntz’s Starf***ers (which also won Best Solo Performance Award at New York International Fringe Festival). His feature film “The Autumn Heart,” starring Tyne Daly and Ally Sheedy was in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

William Shakespeare
Playwright

William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April, which is also believed to be the date on which he died in 1616. Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes referred to as the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not the only things he wrote. Shakespeare’s poetry has also remained popular to this day.

Shakespeare’s work includes 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, a collection of 154 sonnets, and other poems as well. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays are known to exist today, and about half of Shakespeare’s plays are only available to us because a group of actors in his company collected them for publication after his death. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio (‘Folio’ refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, and none of his poetry. Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures, and his plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film.

His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by different entities, which usually include all of his plays, his sonnets, and his other poems. From Stratford to London and beyond, William Shakespeare was and is one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

 

Clint Ramos
Scenic Design
Clint Ramos
Scenic Design
Clint Ramos designed Birdy, Death and the Maiden, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew for CSC. He is the recipient of a TONY Award, 2 Obie awards, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, 2 American Theater Wing Awards, a Helen Hayes Award, IRNE Awards, and many others. His most recent work on Broadway includes Slave Play, Grand Horizons, Once On This Island (Tony nomination), Torch Song (Tony nomination) He has over 200 NY, national and international design credits. Other notable credits are Eclipsed, Here Lies Love, Sunday in the Park with George, and The Elephant Man. He is professor of design and Head of Design and Production at Fordham University. @Clint Ramos

 

Jeffrey Petersen
Scenic Design
Jeffrey Petersen
Scenic Design

Jeffrey Petersen returns to CSC after designing last season’s Stage2 production of Romeo and Juliet and after assisting Clint Ramos on the recent productions of Birdy and Death and the MaidenRecent New England design credits include: Maria Regina dInghlterra (Odyssey Opera) Mary StuartEveryman (NEU) Barefoot in the Park, The Agitators (Gloucester Stage Co.); Becoming Dr. Ruth, Lonely Planet, Statements, Unveiled (New Repertory Theatre); Book Club Play, Elemeno Pea, Lost Tempo, Equal Writes,The Honey Trap (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); As Associate Designer with Mr. Ramos: The Purists (The Huntington Theatre) MFA Boston University.  jeffreypetersendesign.com

Eric Southern
Lighting Design
Eric Southern
Lighting Design
Eric Southern is a lighting designer for theater, opera, music, and dance. With CSC Richard III (set and Lighting Design, IRNE Nomination), Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and Two Gentlemen of Verona.  Other recent projects include: Echo Mine an evening length dance by Robyn Mineko Williams with music by Caliphone (Harris Theater); Knee Plays a semi staged re-orchestration of the seminal works of David Byrne and Phillip Glass (The Crossing); Riddle of the Trilobites (Collaboration Town, New Victory Theater); The Good Swimmer, a pop requiem created by Heidi Rodewald, Donna DiNovelli, and Kevin Newbury (BAM Next Wave); After the Blast, Ghost Light, Bull in a China Shop, and The Harvest (Lincoln Center); Buyer and Cellar (Barrow Street Theater, Mark Taper Forum, London and National Tour). He is a longtime collaborator with the award-winning theater group 600 HIGHWAYMEN where he has designed Manmade Earth, The Fever, Employee of the Year, The Record, Empire City, This Great Country, and Everyone is Chanting Your Name. Internationally, his designs have been seen in London at the Mernier Chocolate Factory, in Paris at the Pompidou Center and at Park de la Villette, in Avignon at the Avignon Opera House, as well as in Seoul, Greece, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Bosnia, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, and Hungary.In the US, his work has been seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theater Club, Hubbard Street Dance Atlantic Theater Company, The Guthrie Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, The Goodman Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Asolo Rep, Virginia Opera, Portland Center Stage, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, The Arden Theater, The Magic Theater, Kansas City Repertory, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (among others).  He is an assistant professor at Northwestern University and received his B.F.A. and M.F.A from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Nancy Leary
Costume Design
Nancy Leary
Costume Design

Nancy Leary is a Costume Designer who’s visionary work for Opera and Theater has graced stages across the United States. Experienced in producing both highly conceptual and more traditional models of Opera and Theater costuming, Nancy has successfully applied her expertise to a wide array of theatrical styles and artistic endeavors.  From 2000 to the present Nancy has worked on well-established productions, recently developed pieces, and the premier of new works for such places as; Opéra Royal Château de Versailles, Glimmerglass Festival, The Pittsburg Symphony, Virginia Opera, Utah Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Saratoga, Mannes Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Mobile Opera, Juilliard Opera, Opera Boston, as well as Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.mpany, Westin Playhouse, The Julie Harris Theatre, The Barrow Group Theatre, and New York Live Arts to name a few.

David Reiffel
Sound Design
David Reiffel
Sound Design

David Reiffel (Sound Designer) is a Boston-based composer, songwriter, playwright and sound designer. Recent national credits include Shakespeare in Love (U.S. national premiere), Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Cymbeline (Shakespeare & Co.).  Recent Boston area credits include: Man of La Mancha (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Direction), Master Class, and Chesapeake (IRNE Nominee )(New Repertory Theatre); The Curious Incident . . ., The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, The Christians, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many others (Apollinaire Theater Company); Shakespeare in Love (Norton Award, musical direction), Dogfight, Big Fish, Carrie, and The Color Purple (SpeakEasy Stage); A Disappearing Number (Underground Railway Theatre, IRNE Nominee); King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, and Middletown (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Gabriel, Doubt and I Capture the Castle (Greater Boston Stage Company); My Station in Life, The Rainmaker, Man in Snow, and Gloucester Blue (Gloucester Stage, LaMama); The Rag Doll (Blue Spruce, IRNE Nominee, Best New Play); Mary Stuart and Everyman (Northeastern); 10 out of 12 (Emerson Stage); The Cradle Will Rock and Coolsville (Boston Conservatory at Berklee). He teaches Songwriting at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Listen at soundcloud.com/davidreiffel.

Kevin Schlagle
Stage Manager
Kevin Schlagle
Stage Manager
Kevin Schlagle returns to the Common after previously working on Cymbeline, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other theatre credits include Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, New Repertory Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. His opera credits include Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Baroque, Boston Opera Collaborative, Guerilla Opera, New England Conservatory, and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. BFA in stage management from Boston University. Proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Jenna Worden
Zoom Production Manager
Jenna Worden
Zoom Production Manager

Jenna Worden is a producer, director, and stage manager with a passion for storytelling, education, and access to the arts. Favorite CSC credits include Birdy, Universe Rushing Apart, and Our American Hamlet. Additional regional credits include New Rep Theatre, Gloucester Stage Company, Phoenix Theatre, and Childsplay AZ. She collaborates often with Brian O’Donovan and is the director and producer of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn. She earned both her BA in Theatre Studies and BSEd in History from Northern Arizona University and is constantly looking for new ways to teach and be in conversation with the past. Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Scott Wallace
Production Manager Consultant
Scott Wallace
Production Manager Consultant

Scott Wallace has worked in the entertainment industry for the past 35 years, starting his career in Boston for prestigious companies like Boston Ballet, and Boston Lyric Opera.  He worked for Cirque du Soleil for 15 years as General Manager, and toured over 30 countries and 6 continents on several big top shows such as Quidam, Kooza, and OVO. He currently works at Emerson College for the Office of the Arts as Senior Manager of Production for the past 8 years.

Ashlyn Frank
Assistant Director
Ashlyn Frank
Assistant Director

Ashlyn Frank is thrilled to be back on the common this summer and working on The Tempest. She is a recent graduate of Fordham University Lincoln Center with a major in theatre where she directed The Turn of the ScrewAnne of the Thousand Days, and My Papier Mache Monster. Past Professional directing credits include: Stupid F#cking Bird at Theatre 54, Romeo and Juliet (AD) at CSC, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (AD) at the Iris Theatre in LondonShe has ben a casting director for Chamber Theatre Productions as well as an intern at Telsey + Co. 

Courtney Langlais
Production Assistant
Courtney Langlais
Production Assistant

Courtney Langlais is a theatre and history major at Suffolk University in Boston. She has been passionate about performing Shakespeare since middle school. Visit Courtney’s blog on her experience as a CSC Apprentice!  https://courtsterr90.wixsite.com/actingapprentice

Through a generous anonymous donation, The Suffolk University Theatre Department funds several undergraduate summer apprenticeships and internships for Theatre Majors. The 2018 recipients include Courtney Langlais (Suffolk 2020).

The Suffolk University Theatre Department is student-centered. Students write, direct, and design their own original plays and intern with leading theatre companies at Suffolk’s Modern Theatre and organizations throughout the United States. Students work in classic, musical, and experimental genres with a special focus on new work.

Brian McCoy
Chief Audio Engineer
Brian McCoy
Chief Audio Engineer

Brian McCoy Audio engineer focusing in live sound reinforcement with extensive experience mixing Front of House, as a Monitor Engineer, and System Tech. Comfortable with responsibilities of being Crew- chief and system designer. Displaying a strong sense of pride in the craft, constantly learning and keeping up with industry innovations, with the flexibility and knowledge to be able to be able to adapt to any situation.

Alexandria Wailes
ASL Director

Alexandria Wailes was granted a 2020 Obie citation for Sustained Excellence as an Artist and Advocate. She was nominated for a Lucille Lortel’s Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf at The Public which also received other nominations including Outstanding Revival. She also was in The Public’s production of Mother Courage. Broadway: Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, Big River (Tony Honoree for Ensemble). Off Broadway: Playwright Horizon’s I Was Most Alive with You, A Kind Of Alaska, Regional: Gruesome Playground Injuries, Love Person, Sleeping Beauty Wakes (LA Ovation nominated), Pasadena Playhouse’s Our Town. Film: ‘The Hyperglot’, ‘Scenes from the Underground’. TV: ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’, ‘High Maintenance’, ‘Little America’, ‘Nurse Jackie’. Web: ‘Don’t Shoot the Messenger’. Director of Artistic Sign Language credentials on the revival of Broadway’s Children Of a Lesser God and King Lear plus numerous off Broadway and regional theatre TV/Film: This Close S. 1 & 2; Quantico S.3; A Quiet Place 1 & 2; Wonderstruck. Ms. Wailes has advised ASL interpreted teams for Hands On and TDF on shows such as Dear Evan Hansen, Aladdin, Book of Mormon, School of Rock, Kinky Boots and Therese Raquin to name a few. Alexandria has worked at several museums in NYC as an educator
conducting ASL tours and as a teaching artist for Theatre Development Fund. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and SDC. www.alexandriawailes.com

Miriam Rochford
ASL Stage Manager
Miriam Rochford
ASL Stage Manager
Miriam Rochford is a freelance AEA stage manager based out of New York City. Her credits include productions from American Stage Theatre, New York Deaf Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Camerata Opera, and dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. She is a founding member of ASL Cabaret NYC and Deaf Broadway, both organizations that create opportunities for Deaf performers to work with music in an environment where they can feel fully supported and creatively free. Miriam is currently a student at the LaGuardia Community College ASL-English Interpretation Program with plans to graduate in June 2021.
Miranda McClean
Access Stage Manager
Miranda McClean
Access Stage Manager

Miranda McClean 

Scroll Down for Special Menus and Drink Ideas to Celebrate The Tempest Online Performance!
Make a night of it with Mooo Restaurant’s special menu “Prospero’s Last Meal”!
(617) 670-7799

“Prospero’s Last Meal”
August 6-August 10


Appetizer

The Duke of Milan’s Lobster Mac & Cheese

Entrée
*Caliban’s Wicked Burger
b&b pickles, vermont cheddar, sautéed onions, brioche bun

Dessert
Mooo…. Shipwreck Chocolate Chip Cookies
(baked for 12 minutes)

To Quench Miranda’s Thirst “The Trade Winds”
passion fruit, lime, cinnamon, soda water

$67 per person

Menu is subject to change. No substitutions please. Please notify us of any allergies at the time of order. Available for Curbside Pick-Up Only, price does not include tax, please have credit card payment ready at time of order. Please call 617.670.7799 to place your orders after 1pm daily, Promotion Valid August 6th-August 10

Juliet Picnic Basket $45
(617) 718-0958
(available August 6-August 9)

 

 

Ratatouille
Charcuterie board with prosciutto, melon contorni, baguette, cheese,and jam
Salad Nicoise
Citrus sables in orange, lemon, and lime

OR

Pescatarian Picnic Basket  $45
Ratatouille
Charcuterie board with pickled shrimp, melon, baguette, cheese, and jam
Tuna pan bagnat with lemony greens
Petit four, lemon tart with fresh blueberry and mint

Peregrine’s Sardinian-style Picnic Basket $40
(617) 826-1762
(available August 6-August 10)

 

 

Paella di Alghero with fish sausage, shrimp, clams
Chilled fava bean soup. black olives
Heirloom tomato salad
Lemon tart
Housemade bread

Support for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Provided by

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