It's All in the Cards

Nate Dendy in The Tempest.

Audiences have been astounded by Nate Dendy’s fantastic illusions during his performance as Ariel in The Tempest. In particular, his Ariel has a certain affinity towards card tricks and sleight of hand. But magic isn't something that Dendy had to master for this production. He’s been practicing magic as long as he can remember and as he puts it, “It’s a very big part of who I am.” We caught up with him during the run of The Tempest:

Your talent for card tricks is a major part of the magic you showcase on stage. Do you have a particular love for cards that draws you to it?
Everyone at some point has held, seen or played with a deck of cards. So, when a magician exploits that familiarity and does impossible things with them, it can be very exciting. Cards are also very cheap for a kid who wants to start practicing tricks. My taste in card tricks have changed over the years, but every time I see a kid trying to fool their brother, friend or parent...I see my childhood again. According to my parents, I started showing interest in magic at the age of 2. I have no memory of not doing magic. It's a very big part of who I am. Funny enough, I was even born on April Fool's Day.

Are there any misconceptions about cards?
Well, many people think I use trick cards but these are perfectly ordinary playing cards rights out of the box and some of my favorite cards come from Dan & Dave Industries. If I knew how to play Gin Rummy, I would play with these same cards.

In The Tempest, your character Ariel is costumed in a vest and no sleeves. Many audience members have been confounded by this fact since you literally can’t have anything up your sleeves. What are some of the challenges and fun in performing these tricks with this in mind?
I'm so glad I have no sleeves in this show. I get quite hot running around on that stage—it's a workout! The card work I do night after night is challenging with or without sleeves. You deal with other challenges like sweat, makeup, lighting, clarity...but if it all comes together just right, I hear perplexed reactions from random audience members. It fills me with absolute joy! It's a high I get to aim for eight times a week.

As the audience arrives you have a chance to interact with them and set the atmosphere with a few tricks. Is there something you find special when you get to perform magic with a volunteer?
Every preshow is a little different because every audience member is different. It has changed from theatre to theatre for that very reason. I used to do magic from table to table at a restaurant when I was 14. You learn very quickly—for better or worse—how to surrender to the different personalities that people bring to the mix. It's exciting and I'm always grateful to the people who play along with me because it's a very brave leap for them to make. A lot of the magic in the show is precise, like a classical symphony. However, the magic in the preshow...is more like a swanky jazz session. And I love jazz.

What’s one of you favorite card tricks from The Tempest?
It changes from night to night. Some nights I look forward to one card trick because I practiced a specific moment during the day and am anxious to try it out at night in front of an audience. I will have to say, I'm particularly proud of something I do in the preshow. It's my own invention and I was humbled when it got the seal of approval from the rest of the creative team and directors—including Johnny Thompson, our magic designer, and Teller. People talk about it and that's promising.

Interested in cards? Check out The Tempest’s source for cards and grab a deck of your very own. The Tempest has one week left for you to catch Nate’s amazing sleight of hand. Get your tickets now before they disappear.

A Little Bit of Rough Magic: Meet Vocalist Miche Braden

Miche Braden (right), Liz Filios, Joel Davel and Matt Spencer make up Rough Magic.

Miche Braden

That voice! Miche Braden uses her phenomenal voice to both belt out lyrics and sing tenderly with the band Rough Magic in The Tempest. Ms. Miche (“Mickey”), as she’s known, has been around music all her life and uses singing to express herself.  When she was cast for The Tempest, Braden admits she wasn’t a Tom Waits fan, but she says she grew “major respect for him” as she got immersed in the show.

How did you come to be a vocalist?
I've been around music all my life. I found that I could always express myself through singing, most times better than just talking. There was always a song that could express my feelings. If not, I could write one. Theatre was the perfect place for me to hone my talent. I had grown tired of feeling like a jukebox in the clubs and when I was asked to do theatre, I did not hesitate.

Who inspired you?
I have many mentors who inspired me and my music. Detroit, where I was born, had a plethora of amazing musicians that I worked with and studied under including Motown musician and leader of the Funk Brothers Earl Van Dyke and jazz master musicians Marcus Belgrave and Harold McKinney. My mother, Dr. Mildred J Dobey, was my main influence. Anything I wanted to do musically—including instruments, dance, sing and whatever else—she let me do. My uncle, Jim Hankins, also is a major influence. He's the reason why I play bass. He's the bassist in the other show that I do. Then there's Quincy Jones, my idol! He did music for everyone from Michael Jackson to Frank Sinatra, as well as film scores, television, big band and symphonies. That's what I want to do, as well as perform.

What were some of the challenges of working with Tom Waits’ music and Kenny Wollesen’s instruments?
Once I knew I had the gig, I really started listening to Tom Waits music. I wasn't a fan at first. That voice—jeez! Once I saw how the music merged with the play, I grew a major respect for him, his song lyrics and beautiful melodies. Kenny Wollesen was creating instruments for us as we rehearsed in Las Vegas. It was amazing what he could do with cast-out items that someone else would consider to be trash. And it all worked! I can't imagine anything else being used where we use his creations in the show.

What are some of the fun parts of this show?
The show was stressful at its inception, but it is a joy now that the hard part is done. I learn from watching; it was great watching Aaron [Posner] and Teller directing the actors as they created their characters; Johnny Thompson creating magic to fit into the story line; Matt Kent creating Caliban; Rough Magic, under Shaina Taub, creating arrangements, harmonies and sound effects with a mix of traditional instruments; and learning to play Kenny's creations. And I am thrilled with the new musicians we cast here as Rough Magic “2.0”—with band members Liz Filios, Matt Spencer and Joel Davel. They learned the show in four days!

Why does this particular production really resonate with people?
People love to be entertained. They want a full experience when going to the theatre, especially since it's live. The Tempest delivers on all fronts: classic Shakespeare, interpretation, music, laughter and magic. Audiences get more than their money’s worth!

What’s at the top of your playlist now?
I sing along to the Swingle Singers Jazz Sebastian Bach, Volume 1, to warm up my voice.

What’s up next for you after The Tempest?
My one woman show The Devil's Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith, book by Angelo Parra and conceived by director Joe Brancato and I am music directing the show and have arranged all the music. We’re scheduled for a one-night performance at Kingsborough College in Brooklyn, a four-week run in Winnipeg at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Center in Canada and then a Blues Cruise. I've been doing the show almost 15 years and we haven't done a West Coast performance. I have too much fun doing it—I'd love to bring it to SCR!  I'm also working on creating a show from my CD Diva Out Of Bounds and a cabaret show on Nina Simone, as well as other singer/pianist/ composing women.

If you had to choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be?
Actually, I'd have to use the most powerful two-word phrase there is: “I Am.” I wrote a song with that title, which says: “I've been walking around, learning the sound of my own heart. I've been moving my feet to the beat of my own heart. How can I follow anyone else? I've got to find it for myself. I can be anything I want to be. I can do anything that I believe. I AM!!”

I live by these words everyday. I plan on the world knowing my name through my works, and will never stop believing in myself and achieving my goals.

"The Tempest" Bewitches First Nighters

A transformative production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest brought gasps of delight and sighs of wonder from the First Night audience on September 5. Adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and Teller, the production was filled with magic while remaining true to the text—a rare combination.

Paul Hodgins of the Orange County Register considered what Shakespeare himself might have thought: “I have a hunch he would have approved of this dazzling Tempest and probably gasped along with the rest of us.”

The Honorary Producers agreed.

According to Joan and Andy Fimiano (Honorary Producers with Jean and Tim Weiss), “We and our guests were blown away by the magic, the music and the overall production. We followed The Tempest through rehearsals to opening night, and it was very evident that the cast and the entire production team had great chemistry … Our guests have decided to go back for another night and bring their parents!"

The accolades were whispered during the show, enthusiastically discussed at intermission and shouted out during the standing ovation. After the applause ended, everyone gathered on Ela’s Terrace for the Cast Party—with its tent show/carnival atmosphere reminiscent of the play’s setting—and tried to recognize the amazing cast members, now transformed back to their normal selves.



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Anything Goes With Instrument Designer Kenny Wollesen

Musical director for The Tempest Kenny Wollessen on set at The Smith Center. Photo by Sam Morris/Las Vegas Sun.

Think twice when you think about getting rid of that chest of drawers. Or throwing out or recycling coffee cans. Those items could be the makings of a quirky musical instrument in the hands of Kenny Wollesen. His truly distinctive instrument designs create a sonic experience in Aaron Posner and Teller’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We caught up with him by email while he was on tour in eastern Europe for a conversation about his musical beginnings, instrument inspirations and working on The Tempest.

The Wheary Grinder

What inspired you to get into music?
In the fourth grade, I was asked what instrument I wanted to play in the school band. I immediately said trumpet; they said I would be playing drums. I have no idea why that happened; anyway, it stuck! All my gang of friends play music, too, so I mainly was inspired by them.

We started a band—The Jazz Delinquents aka The JDs—and started playing gigs. I was obsessed with jazz—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy and the like—and I was so inspired by the few records that my dad had. To this day, Miles Davis’ “Bags Groove” and Duke Ellington’s “In a Mellow Tone” are still my favorite records!

What about instrument design—when did that come along?
The first instrument I built was back in the early 90s. It was a poor man's copy of Tom Nunn's “Bug.” Nunn is a great instrument builder and musician from the Bay Area. Tom Waits had me play one for his opera, Alice, which premiered in Hamburg at the Thalia Theater.

My version of the “Bug” wasn’t nearly as sophisticated and beautiful as the one made by Tom Nunn, but mine did the job and I was able to use it on many recordings and at gigs. Shortly after that, the great composer John Zorn asked me to make some instruments for a piece he was writing for bass flute and two foley artists, The Prophetic Mysteries of Angels, Witches and Demons. A foley artist is the person who makes sound effects for movies.

Zorn described what he wanted sound-wise and I came up with a gaggle of instruments, from which Zorn picked three for the work’s premiere at Columbia University. He chose The “Wheary Grinder,” “Prepared Rifle” and “Prepared Slide Projector.” The “Weary Grinder” is used in The Tempest when Ariel is in the twister box!

Mbrain

I’m intrigued with instruments from “found” objects—like coffee cans, aged shoes and the like. Where do you find things?
Flea markets—I love flea markets! One of my very first gigs was at a flea market, so I go every weekend I get a chance…anywhere in the world. Flea markets are a treasure trove of ideas and possibilities and materials and there is an ever-changing flow of new and strange “goodies.”

Let’s talk The Tempest—how did you approach the instrument design possibilities for this show?
It all came from Shakespeare himself. His descriptions of the sound and noises of the island of Prospero are clear, beautiful and exciting. Check it out from the bard himself:

“Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
 Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again.”

Or words and phrases like: “whistle,” “storm,” “cry,” “thunderclaps,” “fire and cracks” and “roaring.” There’s a lot of meat on the bone to work with!

Can you talk about some of the instruments you created for this show?
I built a smaller version of the “Mbrain” for Teller and Aaron’s take on “the Scottish play” some years ago at the Two Rivers Theater in New Jersey. I wanted to create a sound for Macbeth as he begins to contemplate his murderous rampage of his king—and everyone else—and then as he realizes he is doomed when he sees Birnam Wood actually move to Dunsinane. His brain kind of fries and melts, so I wanted to create a sound for that. In The Tempest, it is used for Prospero’s spells on Caliban.

The “Marimbula” is kinda a hyped-up Kalimba—or thumb piano. It was challenging to make, but I’m pleased with it. I made it out of drawers from a thrown-away cabinet and antique dinner knives. I made it especially for this show and it’s the first instrument i made with a full chromatic scale. It has a great percussive bass tone.

Marimbula

The “Glass Armonica” is the one instrument in the show that I didn’t make. It was beautifully built by Seattle artist and musician Bliss Kolb. He built it for Gina Lieshman, theatre composer and multi-talented musician. It is a wonderful instrument, with a completely new design from the “traditional” one that was built by Benjamin Franklin. Hats off to Bliss and Gina for letting it be in the show.

How do you interact with the musicians who use the Tempest instruments?
Similar to the drums, my instruments are very, very easy to play, but hard to master! Really, there are three secrets to mastering any instrument: practice, practice, practice.

One writer has said that you are to percussive instrumentation what Teller is to the art of magic. How accurate is that assessment?
I’m not so sure about that! I consider Teller a bonafide true master of his art. His knowledge and the skill of his craft are so inspiring to me, yet he also is continuously curious and searching for new ways and ideas to add to his mastery. I think that’s where we meet; I’m not a master but I’m still searching for new ways and ideas.

I see many parallels between music and magic; so much depends on the small, small details, the slight twist of the hand, the way one holds or touches the instrument, use of the right kind of string, how much rosin is put on the bow.

What do you like most about what you do?
The constant change! Every moment, every second is different in music that it’s never ever the same.

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"The Tempest": A New Level of Wonderment

Nate Dendy (Ariel) Joby Earle (Ferdinand), Tom Nelis (Prospero) and Charlotte Graham (Miranda) in The Tempest. Photo: The Smith Center/Geri Kodey

A Dust Bowl Prospero

The Dust Bowl, tent-show frame around this Posner-Teller production of The Tempest was inspired in part by the directors’ interest in a magician named Harry Willard, who traveled the American southwest in the first decades of the 20th century performing under the name, “Willard the Wizard.” He was one of several family members who used that stage name, beginning with his father, Jim Willard; but it was Harry who achieved the greatest success, earning a reputation as one of the best magicians of the 20th century.

Traveling tent shows were enormously popular in the first decades of the 20th century, particularly in Texas and Oklahoma, where entertainment wasn’t easy to come by. Most shows featured performances of plays interspersed with vaudeville acts, but Willard the Wizard offered his own, full-length magic show. Tent entertainments fell on hard times during the Great Depression, never recovering in the face of the rising popularity of radio and the talkies.

Of particular interest to Teller and Posner was the fact that Willard’s daughter, Frances, began performing with him at age 6, serving first as his assistant and later becoming a magician and mentalist in her own right. Imagining the life of the father-daughter team, moving from town to town in their own enisled little world, inspired the directors’ visual approach to this production, and led to the choice of songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan to provide an appropriately dusty, bluesy, mysterious soundscape for the world of the play.

Marc Masterson, South Coast Repertory’s artistic director, has been a friend, supporter and collaborator of director Aaron Posner for some 20 years, so when Posner began working with the magician, Teller (of Penn and Teller fame), on a new approach to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Masterson was among the first to hear about it. He followed the development of the project and, when it neared fruition, stepped up to enlist SCR in the consortium of theatres that would offer the production to their audiences.

By that time Posner and Teller had added songs by Tom Waits and movement/choreography by the world renowned Pilobolus dance company to the alchemical mix of their innovative production. The result is a show that re-imagines Shakespeare’s romance while remaining true to the letter and spirit of the original. The story, characters and the language are Shakespeare. The ethos is that of a traveling tent show during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, reinforced by the idiosyncratic, honky-tonk songs of Waits and his partner, Kathleen Brennan (whose lyrics are virtually the only words in the production not written by Shakespeare). Add an assortment of astonishing illusions created by Teller and magic designer Johnny Thompson and the entire enterprise is lifted to a new level of wonderment.

The play begins with the titular storm, conjured by the magician Prospero in order to wreck a passing ship full of hapless men (and, in this production, one woman). Prospero then explains to his astonished daughter, Miranda, why he has taken such drastic action. One of the castaways from that ship is Prospero’s younger brother, Antonio, who made himself the Duke of Milan by usurping the throne from Prospero twelve years earlier—and then cruelly cast Prospero and his little daughter adrift at sea, leaving them to die a watery death.

Prospero (Tom Nelis) blesses the union of Miranda (Charlotte Graham) and Ferdinand (Joby Earle) as Ariel (Nate Dendy) assists. Photo: The Smith Center/Geri Kodey

Prospero and Miranda escaped that fate by washing ashore on the uncharted, inhospitable island that has been their home ever since. Shortly after arriving, Prospero conscripted two of the island’s inhabitants—the spirit, Ariel, and the half-human monster, Caliban—to be his servants, and has spent most of the ensuing years perfecting his mastery of the magic arts. With the arrival of Antonio and his retinue, Prospero has finally been given an opportunity to reclaim what was taken from him so long ago. As the passengers of the wrecked ship straggle ashore in several small groups—all believing the others to be dead—Prospero sets to work on his master plan.

Using magic and illusion he proceeds to stage manage a series of encounters that completely confuse and disorient the various survivors, rendering them vulnerable to his manipulations. But he devotes his keenest attention to the meeting of Miranda and a young man named Ferdinand. The son of Alonso, King of Naples (one of Antonio’s allies), Ferdinand is the first young man Miranda has ever met, and as soon as she sees him she has no desire to meet another; and he is as smitten with her as she with him. Like any concerned father, Prospero keeps a close watch on the couple and their quickly developing love for one another, making certain that Ferdinand has the proper appreciation and respect for his beloved daughter.

Zachary Eisenstat and Manelich Minniefee as Caliban. Photo: The Smith Center/Gery Kodey

That primary plot-line is paralleled by two others—one serious, one comical—which both involve conspiracies, attempted murder and grabs for power; but Prospero has control of everything that happens on this island. With the help of his spritely servant, Ariel, he engineers a gradual movement towards forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration of the proper order, ultimately showing mercy rather than exacting revenge on the men who wronged him so grievously.

And then he gives up his magic staff and books, says goodbye to the enchanted island that has been his home for twelve years, and prepares to retire to his original home in Milan—where “every third thought shall be my grave.” This being the last play Shakespeare wrote without a collaborator, some scholars have proposed that the poet had his own imminent retirement in mind as he penned Prospero’s final words. He knew he would soon be leaving his own “enchanted” world of the theatre, setting aside his books (scripts that contained their own kind of transformative magic) and returning home to Stratford, where he would live out his final few years in humble retirement.

But if The Tempest can be thought of as Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre, it is more importantly redolent of new beginnings, new hope, redemption and a renewed sense of wonder. Prospero’s every third thought may point towards death, but the play he has conjured celebrates life, and even a kind of immortality—the kind achieved through the perpetuation of love into new generations.

Love and magic are both transformative forces. Both are wondrously alive in this transformative production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

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Making Magic into Reality

Johnny Thonpson

The Great Tomsoni

Johnny Thompson is making his SCR debut. He began his interest in magic through the book, "The Expert at the Card Table" as a boy and has been working as a magician most of his life. He was hooked upon his first visit to Abbott’s Magic shop, “I saw every trick I read about in the magic catalog in that room. Illusions—everything was on display. And that really hooked me.” Thompson (The Great Tomsoni) has written, developed and provided material for magicians including Siegfried and Roy, Penn and Teller, Doug Henning, Lance Burton, David Blaine and The Amazing Jonathan. He was the magic consultant off-Broadway for Play Dead, for which he won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award in the category of Illusion/Magic Design. In conjunction with Teller, he designed the magic effects for The Exorcist at Geffen Theatre. His television and film credits as a magic adviser/consulting include: “Fool Us,” “Hart to Hart,” “Fantasy Island,” “One Day at a Time,” “Beyond Westworld,” The Fantasticks, Bogus, Houdini – Believe and The Magic Box.

The Great Tomsoni, the Wizard of Warsaw, Tomsoni & Company—these are just a few of the stage names used by renowned magician Johnny Thompson. Throughout his long career, he’s worked and collaborated with Criss Angel, Lance Burton and David Blaine. His most recent collaboration—and perhaps his proudest—has been with Teller on the hit production of The Tempest.

Sometimes it takes more than one magician to realize a fantastical illusion. With Teller in the lead and Thompson as his magic designer, the two came together to craft and actualize the mesmerizing spells cast by Prospero in the show.

His job is to help figure out the logistics of an illusion with magicians. In essence—he helps to make their magic reality. Together they bounce ideas off each other and find solutions. With many years of magic under his belt as well as being one of the few lasting general practitioners—a magician versed in all forms of magic from close-up to stage magic—Thompson has served as the go to source for Penn and Teller.

Thompson first met the duo of Penn and Teller in 1976, when Thompson saw them perform at the Philadelphia Magic Convention. Over the years the three would continue to run into each other—with Thompson even helping them to secure another magician’s trick for a book the duo was writing. The trio officially cemented their working relationship of over 15 years when Penn and Teller turned to Thompson for help with their first show in Las Vegas at Bally’s Hotel & Casino.

“They come up with ideas and I find ways to bring them to fruition,” Thompson explains.

With their history of work it was only natural for Teller to bring on Thompson for this adaptation of The Tempest. Early on, the two met with Posner to discuss their goals for incorporating magic.

“From there Teller and I started working out the logistics of where we should put magic in the show; we didn’t want to just throw magic in for no reason. We wanted it to further the story exposition.”

Working with magic in the context of a play offered challenges of its own. Teller and Thompson had to devise the illusions with how the audience sees the action—sight lines and angles—in mind and that many of these illusions had never been done before. Luckily, the cast has been more than capable of taking on these challenges.

He credits actor Nate Dendy (Ariel) and Christopher Rose, the show’s magic technician and Ariel understudy, as being both fine magicians and fine actors. Thompson also found that Tom Nelis (Prospero) was a natural for the craft, “I could show him something and he would do it correctly…he was a quick study. We never had a problem. He was great.”

Nate Dendy (Ariel) Joby Earle (Ferdinand), Tom Nelis (Prospero) and Charlotte Graham (Miranda) in The Tempest. Photo: The Smith Center/Geri Kodey

The illusion Thompson is most proud of is the transformation of one character into another—a trick he came up with years ago and incorporated into the show. “It happens in the blink of an eye,” Thompson says with a grin.

The Tempest has been an experience Thompson finds incredibly rewarding.

“The magic is really very unique and fits the show perfectly. One of the best things I’ve done. I’ve had a lot of fun working on it.” The audience reactions from Las Vegas to Boston have been overwhelming and even more satisfying. “When we first opened at the Smith Center, I had people come up to me and say, ‘I never thought I’d enjoy Shakespeare, but this is magnificent.’ And those are the kind of things that make it worthwhile.”

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It Takes a Creative and Magical Village for This "Tempest"

THE CAST—Front row: Joby Earle, Eric Hissom, Jonathan M. Kim, Liz Filios, Miche Braden; Second Row: Christopher Rose, Manelich Minniefee, Charlotte Graham, Nate Dendy; Third row: Tom Nelis, Zachary Eisenstat, Joel Davel, Dawn Didawick; Back Row: Edmund Lewis, Mike McShane, Louis Butelli, Matt Spencer.

Seventeen actors, magicians and musicians join forces to bring the creative vision of Aaron Posner and Teller to life—Shakespeare’s The Tempest as you’ve never seen it before. The cast includes a musician who did vocal arrangements for Spike Lee’s latest work; an actor/dancer with an engineering degree from MIT; a Las Vegas-based mystery entertainer called “the greatest living mind reader;” and an actor who worked with Laurie Anderson and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Their many awards—from Obie to Lucile Lortel—could easily fill the stage. Read on to learn more about the “magnificent seventeen” cast members.

Miche Braden (Rough Magic/Music Direction) is making her SCR debut. She is a product of the rich musical heritage of her hometown, Detroit, Mich., where she was the founder and former lead singer of the women’s jazz band, Straight Ahead. She was a protégé of Motown musicians Thomas “Beans” Bowles and Earl Van Dyke—leader of The Funk Brothers—and jazz master composer Harold McKinney. Braden is a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominee for her lead and musical direction role in The Devil’s Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (New York City). She recently did vocal arrangements for Spike Lee’s newest joint, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and a vocal over-dub for Queen Latifah’s HBO movie Bessie.

Louis Butelli (Antonio) is making his SCR debut. His off-Broadway credits include I Am The Wind (59E59); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The New Victory Theater); and CYCLOPS: A Rock Opera (Ars Nova, 47th Street Theater, The New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Outstanding Individual Performer and a Pulitzer Prize jury nomination). His regional credits include The Tempest (A.R.T., The Smith Center), Henry VIII (Folger Theatre, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor), Twelfth Night (Folger Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor). His television credits include “The Knick,” “All My Children” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” He is the executive director of Psittacus Productions.

Joel Davel (Rough Magic) is making his SCR debut. With a focus on original music and creative collaboration, Davel has collaborated with composer Paul Dresher for 16 years as part of his Electro-Acoustic Band, Davel/Dresher Duo, and with the international touring Double Duo quartet. This includes performances at Disney Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and tours in Australia and Russia. Davel’s percussion career also includes performance and recording credits with groups led by electronic-diva Amy X Neuburg, percussionist William Winant, violinist Kaila Flexer, guitarist Jack West and David Tanenbaum. As a composer, music director, soloist and improviser, Davel has appeared solo on-stage for numerous productions for choreographer Claudine Naganuma, the Cream City Semi-Circus, and the California Shakespeare Theater.

Nate Dendy (Ariel) returns to SCR after appearing as The Mute in The Fantasticks (LA Drama Critics Circle and Helen Hayes Award nominations). His New York and regional credits include The Tempest (A.R.T., Cambridge; The Smith Center, Las Vegas), Angels in America (Risk Theatre Initiative), Doctor Faustus, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Faultline Theatre), Ivanov (Hunger & Thirst Theatre) and Twelfth Night (Dallas Shakespeare Festival). He also has appeared onstage at Trinity Repertory Company, The Public Theater, MCC Theater and Arena Stage, among others. His film credits include Turtle Hill: Brooklyn. Dendy earned his MFA from Brown University/Trinity Repertory.

Dawn Didawick (Gonzala) is making her SCR debut and has been with The Tempest from Las Vegas to Cambridge. Her varied credits include the Broadway production of All My Sons (Tony Award Best Revival); the films Erin Brockovich, Christmas with the Kranks, The Amateurs, Breakfast of Champions, I am I and the upcoming Bread and Butter; and on television in Almost a Woman (Peabody Award), “Pretty Little Liars” and “Hart of Dixie.” Other regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Globe Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Her multiple productions with The Antaeus Company include The Crucible, Autumn Garden, The Seagull, The Bear, Pera Palas, The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the Classic Fest series. She is an honorary board member of The Alpine Theatre project in Whitefish, Montana.

Joby Earle (Ferdinand) is making his SCR debut. His previous credits include on Broadway in War Horse; off-Broadway in Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet (Smith Street Stage); and regionally in The Tempest (A.R.T), Owners (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Puppetmaster of Lodz (Berkshire Theatre Group) and The Pitmen Painters (Palm Beach Dramaworks). He is a company member of Smith Street Stage.

Zachary Eisenstat (Caliban) is making his SCR debut. His regional credits include The Tempest, The Heart of Robin Hood and The Donkey Show (A.R.T.); On the Town and The Chosen (Lyric Stage); Coriolanus (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); and The Play About the Baby (Exquisite Corps Theatre). His other theatre credits include Matchmaker, Matchmaker I’m Willing to Settle (New York Musical Theatre Festival) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Boston Landmarks Orchestra). Eisenstat holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Liz Filios (Rough Magic) is making her SCR debut. She is a Philadelphia-based actress, musician and teaching artist. She has had the opportunity to perform with the Arden Theatre, The Wilma Theater, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Walnut Street Theatre, Bang On A Can, Inis Nua and the national children’s television network, PBS Kids Sprout. Her international credits include Cape Town Opera, Teatro Avvaloranti, San Juan de Dios Hospital and Celebrity Cruises. Filios also writes and performs with the experimental cabaret troupe The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the funk band Johnny Showcase and the Mystic Ticket, and the roots/punk collective Old Town Wake. She studied Suzuki piano with Sharon Rae and voice with David Smukler at Canada’s National Voice Intensive.

Charlotte Graham (Miranda) is making her SCR debut. Her New York credits include Amandine (workshop) at Cherry Lane Theatre and The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway at Access Theater. Her regional theatre credits include The Tempest at A.R.T.; Three Sisters, Build and Love’s Labour’s Lost at Chautauqua Theater Company; Camelot at Trinity Repertory Company; Beast at New York Stage & Film; and Life Science at Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep. She appeared in the films The Hot Flashes, Beijing, New York and on television in “Gossip Girl,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Hart of Dixie” and “Joe, Joe & Jane” (NBC pilot).

Eric Hissom (Stephano) is thrilled be part of this tempest-uous tour and to be making his SCR debut. His theatrical credits include the national tour of The Thirty-Nine Steps, and appearances in sundry productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Asolo Repertory, Syracuse Stage, Cape Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Folger Theatre, Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Arden Theatre Company, Two River Theater, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Signature Theatre and many others. He is a director, playwright and a long-time artistic associate of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, where he was founding director of the Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays. His television credits include “One Tree Hill,” “Mortal Kombat,” and “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.”

Jonathan M. Kim (Trinculo) is making his SCR debut. His off-Broadway credits include In Masks Outrageous and Austere (he originated the role of the Interpreter) and The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (principal/soloist). His film credits include The New Guy, Second Hand Lions and Pastor Sheperd. He has appeared on television in “Boardwalk Empire” and “Barney and Friends.” He earned a bachelor of arts in theatre and dance from the University of Texas.

Edmund Lewis (Sebastian) is making his first SCR appearance. He played the role of Sebastian in both of the original productions of The Tempest at The Smith Center in Las Vegas and A.R.T. in Cambridge. Previously, he appeared off-Broadway in Bedlam Theatre’s acclaimed productions of Saint Joan and Hamlet (Lynn Redgrave Theater). His other New York credits include Sackville and The Libertine (Fools Theatre); The Misanthrope, Waiting For Godot, Antigone (Pilot House); One Way to Babylon, Macbeth (Chimera Theatre); and 95% Chance They’ll Wind Up Like Larvae (New York Fringe Festival). His television credits include “All My Children” (ABC Television) and voices on “Pokemon” and “Yugioh!”

Mike McShane (Alonso) returns to SCR after appearing in Cyrano De Bergerac and Dumb Show. He was an original cast member of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (UK) and appeared in Little Shop of Horrors, Tailor Made Man and Pocket Dream (West End UK); and La Cage aux Folles and Taller Than a Dwarf on Broadway. His film credits include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Richie Rich, Tom and Huck, Office Space and Big Trouble. His television appearances include “Seinfeld,” “ER,” “Brotherly Love,” “Frasier,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” the soon to be released “Wayward Pines” as well as the British shows “Doctor Who,” “A Summer Days’ Dream,” “The Big One” and “S&M.” McShane is a proud member of Impro Theater and The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles.

Manelich Minniefee (Caliban) is an actor and physical performer living in Brooklyn, NY. In 2003, Manelich received his BFA in dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Later that same year he joined Pilobolus Dance Theater, where he toured full-time for six years, two years as the dance captain. Minniefee currently works as a freelance performer in New York City and has worked with artists and companies such as Tino Sehgal, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Inbal Pinto, Alison Chase Performance Group, Yara Travieso and The Greenwich Opera Company, as well as continuing to perform and teach with Pilobolus. His television appearances include the 2007 Academy Awards telecast, “Ellen,” “Live with Regis and Kelly,” “Sesame Street” and commercials for the NFL Network and BBVA Bank (Spain).

Tom Nelis (Prospero) is making his SCR debut. His previous credits include the Broadway productions of Enron, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and Aida. Off-Broadway, he appeared in Road Show, Richard III, Henry VI, Henry IV, ’Tis Pity She’s A Whore, American Document and The Merchant of Venice (The Public Theater); Doris to Darlene (Playwrights Horizons); Ipheginia 2.0, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing (Signature Theater); Passion, Orlando (Classic Stage Company); The Merchant of Venice, The Broken Heart, The Jew of Malta (Theatre for a New Audience); The Medium, Score (New York Theatre Workshop); War of the Worlds (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Lilith (New York City Opera); and Hot Mouth (Manhattan Theater Club). He has worked internationally with Richard Foreman, Laurie Anderson, SITI Company, The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Suzuki Company of Toga. He is the recipient of Obie (The Medium) and San Diego Critics Ensemble (Wintertime) awards, and Drama League (Score) and Barrymore Award (Candide) nominations.

Christopher Rose (Minion/Ariel Understudy) is making his SCR debut. He is a magician and mystery entertainer in Las Vegas. He has performed his private show at numerous hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, including The Royal Resort, The Orleans Hotel and The Harmon Theater, which is part of Planet Hollywood. Tony Hassini, president of the International Magician Society, calls him, “The greatest living mind reader.” In addition, Rose has worked as a part of the production team (magic design) on several shows including WonderGround and Jeff McBride’s Magic at the Edge.

Matt Spencer (Rough Magic) is making his SCR debut. Born in Long Beach, Calif., he has played music professionally for more than 25 years. Spencer is a multi-instrumentalist musician, who plays bass, guitar and percussion and specializes in a variety of world music. He studied jazz performance at the University of North Texas and teaches, records, writes and tours internationally, playing many different styles. He is a dance accompanist for modern dance classes at Chapman University and at UC Irvine. He was musical director for the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company, Md., for his own 10-piece salsa orchestra and has toured with the renowned tap dance company, Rhapsody in Taps. Spencer plays salsa, jazz, Latin jazz and contemporary music locally in Los Angeles and Orange County.

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The Many Incarnations of "The Tempest"

(L to R) Posner and Teller’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet, London’s Royal Opera House’s The Tempest and Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna

Considered Shakespeare’s final full-length play that he wrote alone, The Tempest—like many of his other plays—has seen numerous adaptations of its story. In Aaron Posner and Teller’s adaptation, audiences find themselves transported to a Dust Bowl-era traveling tent show. Live magic and illusions by Teller, quirky and haunting music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and choreography by Matt Kent of the dance troupe Pilobolus have given audiences a new and unexpected take on Shakespeare’s tale of sorcery, young love and shipwrecks.

Adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest popped up as early as the mid-17th century. In fact, John Dryden and William Davenant’s The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island became the favored version of the play (over Shakespeare’s) for most of the Restoration era. But, Shakespeare’s original text gained popularity again in the 18th century and, since then, artists have turned to the play for inspiration.

Today, stage revivals range from traditional to experimental, and artists across different media have translated The Tempest’s story into film, dance, opera and even circus. 



Some Notable Productions and Adaptations of The Tempest



Forbidden Planet, a 1956 science fiction film, puts a futuristic and psychological spin on Shakespeare’s classic. It tells the story of Professor Morbius and his young daughter, Altaira, both stranded on the imaginary planet of Altair IV. When Altaira falls in love with a spaceship captain from Earth, the lovers find themselves up against a mysterious creature set on keeping them apart.

Aimé Césaire’s 1969 play, Une Tempête, tells The Tempest’s story from a postcolonial viewpoint. While much of the plot is the same, Prospero is cast as a white slave owner and Caliban and Ariel as black and biracial slaves, respectively. Caliban, who ruled the island before Prospero’s arrival, retaliates against his enslavement; Ariel takes a more passive, nonviolent approach. In the end, Prospero frees Ariel, but Caliban remains a slave.  



Forbidden Planet theatrical poster.

A published version of Césaire’s play.

Helen Mirren as Prospera

In 1979, filmmaker Derek Jarman released his take on The Tempest. The film, which drastically cut the original text, featured Jarman’s quirky and often provocative visual aesthetic and starred Heathcote Williams as Prospero. Christopher Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books (1991), which starred John Gielgud, also focused on stimulating its audience visually, using dance, animation, opera and a large cast.


Director Yukio Ninagawa directed a 1988 production of The Tempest and introduced a non-Western theatrical sensibility. In the production, Prospero played the role of director of a Japanese Noh play. 



An opera adaptation, with music by English composer Thomas Adès and a libretto by playwright Meredith Oakes, debuted at London’s Royal Opera House in 2004.

Playwright, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa—who happened to be commissioned by SCR for the play Doctor Cerberus, produced in 2010—transplants characters from The Tempest to present-day New York in his adaptation Rough Magic. In the adaptation, Caliban seeks help from a group of unlikely New Yorkers to help him defeat Prospero, who stops at nothing to regain his stolen book of spells.


In 2010, Julie Taymor, known for helming ambitious stage and film productions (including the Broadway production of Disney’s The Lion King), changed the character of Prospero to a woman, Prospera, and cast Helen Mirren in the role. This, however, is not the first time a woman has stepped in to play the role: In 2000, Vanessa Redgrave played the role of Prospero at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.


The Cirque du Soleil touring show, Amaluna, is loosely based on Shakespeare’s play and is set on an island where a goddess, Prospera, rules.

Check out this video of Aaron Posner and Teller talking about their adaptation of The Tempest:



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Who’s Who and What’s What in "The Tempest"

Magic, Music, Movement and More in Creative Adaptation

Nate Dendy (Ariel), Tom Nelis (Prospero), Charlotte Graham (Miranda). Photo: The Smith Center/Geri Kodey

This imaginative adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic sets the play in a world evocative of a traveling tent show of the 1930s—and comes to life with the magic of Teller, well-known as the silent partner in the Penn & Teller duo—the haunting ballads of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and the singular choreography of the Pilobolus dance company.

The Tempest begins with a raging storm that capsizes the ship of Alonso, King of Naples, on the royal party’s return from the marriage of Alonso’s daughter to the King of Tunis. The storm separates the ship’s passengers and they wash up on the shore of a mysterious island, confused yet unharmed.
This tempest is not a mere act of nature, but instead a bit of sorcery at the hand of Prospero, who lives on the island with his young daughter, Miranda.

Horrified by the wreckage, Miranda asks her father why he would cast such a spell and Prospero tells her the story of betrayal that brought father and daughter to the deserted island. Prospero was once Duke of Milan, but his brother, Antonio, grew jealous of Prospero’s power and teamed up with Alonso to overthrow him. Not wanting to murder Prospero, Antonio and Alonso threw the duke and the infant Miranda into a rundown boat and pushed them out to sea. Luck, along with some supplies given to them by a kind noblewoman named Gonzala, sustained father and daughter until they washed up on the island. Now, after 12 long years, fate has given Prospero the perfect opportunity to seek his revenge: the ship carrying all of his enemies—including the treacherous Antonio, now Duke of Milan.

Ariel is an island spirit indebted to Prospero and helped capsize the ship. Prospero asks Ariel to next use his powers of invisibility in order to manipulate the ship’s stranded passengers. In exchange for Ariel’s service, Prospero promises to set the spirit free after the revenge plot is complete. Ariel’s first task is to lure Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, to Miranda. Ariel does this and Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love at first sight.

On another part of the island, Alonso, Antonio, Gonzala and Alonso’s brother, Sebastian, search for the missing Ferdinand. Alonso is distraught over losing his son, but Sebastian and Antonio see Ferdinand’s absence as an opportunity to gain power. If Ferdinand is dead, Alonso’s throne would likely fall to Sebastian, since the king’s daughter is so far away. Sebastian and Antonio make a plan to murder Alonso.

On yet another part of the island, another murder plot takes shape. Caliban, Prospero’s slave, enlists Stephano and Trinculo—both passengers from the capsized ship—to help him murder Prospero in exchange for rule of the island. But the conniving threesome is never quite sober enough to put the plot into action and proves easy prey to Prospero and Ariel’s tricks.

After Ferdinand proves his loyalty to Miranda through hard labor, Prospero allows the lovers to marry. The wedding ends abruptly, however, when Prospero decides to deal with Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo once and for all. In a final trick, Prospero has Ariel tempt the drunkards with fine clothes and then conjure up wolves to chase them away.

Prospero finally decides to make amends with those who betrayed him after realizing the depth of Alonso’s despair over the loss of his son. He reunites Alonso (who begs for Prospero’s forgiveness for his corrupt deeds) with Ferdinand, thanks Gonzala for her kindness and even forgives Caliban—but remains cold to Sebastian and Antonio, who show little repentance. Prospero then agrees to retire to Milan, where he can see his daughter officially married to Ferdinand and lead a peaceful life with no more magic. Prospero keeps his promise and frees Ariel and then, in an epilogue, appeals to the audience to forgive his own trickery by applauding.

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