A Brave New World: Rise on Broadway’s Young Director Series Presents The Tempest

Like all of Shakespeare’s comedies, The Tempest ends with the promise of joy and opportunity for its young protagonists: Miranda and Ferdinand thwart shipwrecks and murderous schemes, leaving the stage hand in hand and to embrace their future of wedded bliss and royal status. How fitting, then, that the Columbus Theater’s resident company, Rise on Broadway, will stage the Bard’s final play as the first installment of its Young Director Series.

Laura Westfall, Rise on Broadway board member and producer of this production, describes the Young Director Series as the company’s way of fostering new dramatic talent, giving back to the community, and offering a comprehensive educational experience for young people who want to learn the nuts-and-bolts of the art and business of theater. She plainly states that it is a lot of work, but that The Tempest’s director, sixteen-year-old Cameron Marcotte, has proved himself to be up to the task of directing: in only six weeks, he has helmed a professional, two-hour-long Shakespearean production.

Cameron is a junior at Providence’s Met School. Before taking on The Tempest, he worked as an assistant director on three plays and, most recently, directed a series of one-act plays at the Met with his own theater company, High Frequency Theater. Cameron has been involved with several Rise on Broadway productions, including playing the role of Bottom in its staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last summer. Following the success of that production, Rise on Broadway’s board expressed interest in doing another Shakespeare play this summer. Cameron wrote a proposal, the board accepted it, and the Young Director Series was born.

When Cameron heard that Rise’s board wanted to do another Shakespeare play, he leaped at the chance to stage The Tempest. He’d previously played Caliban in another production, and the Tempest has always been his favorite Shakespearean work: “I believe The Tempest is [Shakespeare’s] greatest play, because of the fact that he successfully takes together all the aspects of his other great works—the comedies, the tragedies, the romance—and he puts them all together into one play. Every scene has a different story: Prospero’s story is a tragedy; Caliban’s story is a tragedy but it’s also a comedy; Miranda and Ferdinand’s story is a romance…I really think it’s a little piece of every other work that he’s done.”

The elements are certainly all in place in Rise’s latest production. The cast, who had only a month and a half to rehearse, works together smoothly to balance the play’s whimsical and comedic aspects with its more threatening overtones. Anthony Medeiros’s Prospero is suitably imposing and paternal. Rocky Graziano’s Ferdinand and Audrey Thompsen’s Miranda complement each other’s fresh-faced, youthful naiveté nicely. Sam Hood’s hilarious take on Trinculo gives us a mincing ham of a jester with a lisp that would put Daffy Duck to shame—and this after he unexpectedly took the role with only two weeks to prepare. As Prospero’s perfidious brother Antonio and the likewise treacherous king’s brother Sebastian, Michael Labreque and Kevin Girard display the easy, entitled camaraderie of two bullying high school jocks.

Several of the men’s parts were recast to women. Gonzalo, the king’s advisor, is now a relentlessly perky Gonzala played by Kristin Fagan. The drunken butler Stephano becomes a pickled, slatternly wench named Stephana played by Lisa Calkins, who despite being a newcomer to the Bard is perfectly at ease with the dialogue’s cadences. The reinterpretation of these roles offers fresh facets to the characters’ interactions: When Antonio and Sebastian mock Gonzala, the effect is that of two sadistic brothers tormenting their helpless younger sister, while the interplay between Stephana-as-master and Caliban-as-subject takes on a disquietingly sexual tone.

Caliban, of course, is The Tempest’s most unnerving character, and arguably its most difficult to play. Not to worry—Eric Delgizzo sinks his teeth into the role. His Caliban jars from the moment he hits the stage snarling and begins tumbling and crawling across the boards. He has all the physicality and menacing bitterness that you’d want in a piteous monster: even as he cowers at Prospero’s feet, his eyes are full of murderous intent, and when he grabs Miranda while boasting of his successful insemination of the island’s other inhabitants, the terror in her eyes looks perhaps a little too real. His scenes with Hood and Calkins steal the show. Cameron describes him as “a brilliant actor, the most method actor you’ll ever meet” (which, by the way, makes me glad that I don’t have to be backstage with him).

Caliban’s counterpart, the delicate spirit Ariel, finds a lovely host in Amber Johnson: her Ariel imparts just the right combination of beauty, grace, and playfulness. Johnson’s dance experience helps her create the airy feel of the spirit, and her voice has a likewise fragile, ethereal quality as she charms the island’s shipwrecked inhabitants with songs. Like Delgizzo, Johnson excels at using body language and posture to distinguish herself from the mortal characters and stake out her place on the stage. (Spoiler alert: keep an eye out for her and Caliban at the play’s end.)

Many of the cast members, like the director, are in their late teens and early twenties. Such youthful energy is just what a play like The Tempest needs. The actors’ enthusiasm and fresh perspectives keep the oft-told story new, the wit sharp, and the action colorful. All in all, this is a wonderful play to see in the summer as well as an easy and enjoyable way to support Providence’s emerging young artists and grass-roots theater community. Catch this play and stay tuned for further installments of Rise on Broadway’s Young Director series.

Rise on Broadway’s The Tempest plays at the Columbus Theater (270 Broadway on Providence’s West End) from Wednesday, July 9^th to Saturday, July 12^th at 7PM and Sunday, July 13^th at 2PM. General admission is $15; $10 for college students with valid ID and children under eighteen. For more information, visit www.ristage.org.