On Stage: Performing Arts at Our Oneonta Campuses by Rachel Frick Cardelle
Columnist Gains Insights into Production of ‘The Tempest’
For a playwright who is arguably the best-known playwright in the English-speaking world, I’m always amazed at how much we don’t know for sure about William Shakespeare. This proved true yet again when I went to do a little background research on his play “The Tempest,” currently in production at SUNY Oneonta under the direction of Andrew Kahl (Drew). I can tell you that “The Tempest” was written sometime around 1610 and is generally believed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone. The play centers on Prospero, an exiled duke living on an isolated island with his daughter, Miranda. Prospero has magical powers, and as the show opens he has used those powers with the help of his spirit servant, Ariel, to create a storm that shipwrecks his enemies upon the island.
When I went to watch a rehearsal of the show several weeks before its opening, rather than watching a full run-through, I had the opportunity to watch Drew work with a few members of the cast on specific scenes. Most notably they ran through the opening scene on board the ship as it is tossed about in the storm, and the next scene just after the storm, when the ship’s passengers find themselves stranded on the island. Having recently come off-book (when the actors no longer read from the script), the focus was on movement through the set, and the cadence and clarity of lines. After each run through of a scene, Drew would give the actors his notes, telling this one, “Could you make the inflection on this word rather than that word” and that one, “Reach around behind you as though you are far more unsteady on your feet than this other character since you are not a sailor and he is.” I was struck by the impact each seemingly small note made.
