Prospero, the rightful heir to the dukedom, has been stuck on a remote island for 12 years. His brother, Antonio, stole the throne and vanquished Prospero and his daughter to the island.
To get revenge, Prospero uses magic to create a storm that will propel Antonio to the island and reveal the truth.
That is the story of “The Tempest,” written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s and being performed on stage Friday through March 5 at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.
“The plays still speak to us,” said Craig Rich, co-chairman and associate professor of the CLC department of theatre. Rich is directing “The Tempest.”
“When you look at all of Shakespeare’s plays, the issues are still relevant,” Rich said. “The characters still matter and they’re still teaching us something about ourselves and the world we live in. I think that’s why we continue to come back to these plays.”
Rich said the theater department ties Shakespeare into its curriculum every few years to give students a chance to learn the language of the 17th century and better understand his plays.
Rich chose “The Tempest” this year to coincide with the monthlong Shakespeare’s First Folio exhibit at the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of The Bard’s death in 1616. The Folger Shakespeare Library of Washington, D.C., holds 82 of the 233 known copies in the world of the First Folio, published seven years after the playwright’s death by two of his friends and actors. The library officials selected the Discovery Museum as the only place in the state to exhibit one of these books.
If the folio had not been published, “The Tempest” and 17 other Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost, Rich said.
“‘The Tempest’ has a lot of things he things that people love about Shakespeare — and love about theater in general,” he said. “We have live musicians — there’s singing, there’s physical comedy, there’s characters obsessed with revenge. There’s a section in the middle where the characters dance. It has a little bit of everything.”
“We have a recorder, a violin and lots of percussion instruments played by the members of the cast.”
In addition, Rich said, “the issues in the play are still relevant today,” and include the cycle of violence, servitude and slavery.
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Most of the cast are students. One is an alumnus and another is a local actor. The lead roles of Prospero and Antonio are being performed by women, Rich said. Rich changed the names to Prospera and Antonia and uses feminine pronouns in the play.
Men played all the roles in Shakespeare’s time, Rich said. In the 21st century, there’s been some precedent on stage that characters written for men are being portrayed by women, he said.
Before rehearsing, Rich read through the play with the cast and discussed anything they didn’t understand. In addition, they looked at the First Folio to examine the punctuation and other clues in the written document about ways to act and say their lines. For example, there’s a space in the folio when Prospero is thinking about how he’s going to carry out his plan. The space indicates Shakespeare’s desire to allow the actor to have a quiet moment of discovery in between lines, Rich said.
After digging into the text, Rich led the actors into movement and blocking and helped them incorporate the language into believable characters. Students often approach Shakespeare with fear or dislike, he said. “Then once they get in there and roll up their sleeves, they start to be detectives and they make these discoveries. To me that’s one of the exciting things to see as a teacher. All those veils get lifted.”
Rich said his and the actors’ job is to convey the meaning of the play to the audience whether or not they understand all the language.
“Even if you don’t understand every single word that’s spoken, you’ll understand the story by what we’re doing on stage and how we’re saying things. Very few people go to see Shakespeare and understand every word and reference. If we’ve done our job, you’ll understand the meaning.”
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; 7: 30 p.m. March 3, 4 and 5.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare
When: Friday-March 5
Where: James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: $8-$12
Information: 847-543-2300; jlc.clcillinois.edu/