Dear Patrons and Supporters,

The founders of Shakespeare on the Cape would like to thank the broad base of supporters, businesses, board members, volunteers, patrons, and friends that have nurtured the company over the last four years. SOTC has been an exciting journey for all of us, and we hope that you found our presentations cast a bright light on these brilliant classics. Due to the many factors, including new opportunities for many of us and the current economic climate, SOTC will be going into a dormant state for the 2009 summer. We are not shuttering our doors or closing the company. Instead, we hope to utilize this down time to bring in a fresh group of artists and administrators to see SOTC into the future. We know that many of you may be disappointed by this decision, however we hope that you trust we have considered all of our options and concluded that a dormant period will facilitate the best attempt at handing the company over for a stronger footing in the future. SOTC has been a rich, fulfilling, and enabling experience for the many young artists who have passed across our stages. Several former SOTC actors and actresses are in graduate school or working hard in the arts, and we are extremely proud of the role this theater company played in their careers. We believe that the art of theater is most exciting and important in the present tense; and while we all will be left with great memories from the last four seasons, Cape Cod continues to be a rich and fertile environment for the performing arts. If you find yourself missing the antics of SOTC, the many innovative and renowned theaters of The Cape Cod Theater Coalition are sure to fill in that gap for you. Again, we extend a deep debt of gratitude to everyone who has made the past four seasons of magical, innovative theater possible. Please feel free to forward any questions or comments to info@shakespeareonthecape.org. Warmly, Raphael Richter Tessa K. Bry Eric Powell Holm Elliot Eustis

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A PIG IN A POKE ON A PLATE FOR SHAKESPEARE

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A night of debauchery, donations, and decidedly better company that you will find elsewhere this Sunday!

It’s time to party and get down with SQUIDDA and DJ White Animal Sunday, Aug. 10, when Shakespeare on the Cape hosts a mid-summer benefit barbecue and dance party at Edgewood Farm!
A pig roast is on the agenda along with some special events so head on over at 7 p.m. to find out what else is shaking. A suggested $20 donation is appreciated and feel free to BYOB.

Time and Place

Start Time:	Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:00pm
End Time:	Monday, August 11, 2008 at 4:00am
Location:	Edgewood Farms
Street:	147 Route 6
City/Town:	Truro, MA
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If you need more details or directions feel free to call the following people:
Raphael: 774.722.1422
Tessa: 508.215.6533

Bring a friend, bring some booze, and leave the rest to us!

A ‘Tempest’ for Kids

Shakespeare on the Cape draws youth into the Bard’s storm

by Reva Blau

BANNER CORRESPONDENT

In theater on the Cape it is a brave new world, as the Bard writes in “The Tempest,” with much to offer everyone. And on the Cape kids are not left out. 

At the Payomet Tent, Shakespeare on the Cape puts on an airy, musical and accessible adaptation just for kids of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” For this one-hour production, even babies can sit through it on their parents’ laps. Payomet is offering classes and workshops for children as well. 

With planks and fabric, the Tempest’s bare set is perfect under the tent at Payomet. As Prospero’s storm raged onstage Wednesday night, nature cooperated and blew winds off the off-stage ocean, ruffling the sides of the tent dramatically. Yet the boisterous island castaways sounded loud and strong above the tempest. 

Director Eric Powell Holm staged the shipwreck beautifully, enhanced with sound effects and music provided by the entire cast and ending in the classic understatement, “We split! We split!”

Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, played in drag by raven-haired Whitney Hudson, and his fair daughter Miranda (Ariel Dumas) have been marooned on an deserted island. Twelve years earlier, brother Antonio, played also by a woman, Amanda Fuller, ousted the Duke from the throne. Helping him also was Alonso, the King of Naples, played by director Eric Powell Holm. 

In Italy, Prospero’s bookishness made him vulnerable to political insurrection. Yet on the lonely island, he is able to learn magic from philosophy. He conjures his magical powers to tame Ariel (Ben Griessmeyer), once enslaved by a witch, and Caliban (Elliot Eustis), his “savage and deformed slave.” The plot involves how Prospero channels magical powers to capture and eventually forgive his brother to reclaim his throne, while also wedding his daughter to an Italian heir, the King’s son Ferdinand (Jake Ford). To hatch this plot, Ariel must confuse the sailors and have them each believe that he is the sole survivor. 

The ensemble is wonderful. Dance and song form an important element as the story unfolds. Some of the famous speeches, like “Full fathom five thy father lies/ Of his bones are coral made;/ Those are pearls that were his eyes” are sung by the whole company. Ben Griessmeyer, with ethereal grace, and sparkly mischief, channels the sprite perfectly in leading the dance and song. Eustis gives a great performance as the cross-eyed and haggard monster.

In the kids’ production, the company made the decision to narrate the story so as to explain the parts that were deleted for the sake of brevity and children’s attention spans. The device they used was a narrator played by Tessa K. Bry (who also plays Trinculo, one of the drunken characters in a third subplot). Bry is funny, dexterous and adept at changing from role to role.

However, while the narrator’s role is cleverly written, as an adult viewer I thought the narrative voice, a modern-day rhyme in Dr. Seuss style, was unnecessary. In other productions, it is Prospero who holds a book, which is one way to underline the action without needing an artifice. 

But the children in the audience loved the performance and particularly the moments of truth and reckoning. Certainly the story of a magician who rights the wrongs of the bad guys is one that will capture youthful imagination, without too much further ado. 

KiddieShakes: Tempest is performed every Wednesday at 5 p.m., July 9 to Sept. 3, at Payomet Performing Arts Center, Highlands Center at Cape Cod National Seashore, Old Dewline Road, North Truro. Tickets are $9. Reservations: 508-487-5400 or www.payomet.org.

‘The Tempest’ rages at Payomet

Payomet Performing Arts Center is presenting “The Tempest,” by Shakespeare on the Cape.

By Sue Harrison

Wed Jul 30, 2008, 01:22 PM EDT

TRURO -

The young actors of Shakespeare on the Cape continue to do what they do so well: take the plays of Shakespeare, give them a thorough makeover and toss them out to audiences who can only be described as delighted. Their latest, “The Tempest,” is performed on Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Payomet tent in North Truro.

On review night the elements conspired in a real storm outside the tent to put magic in the air like Prospero and Ariel do on stage. Throughout the two acts, which fly by quickly, thunder crashed and rain beat down as if the tent itself were a vessel about to be tossed on the rocks. It certainly added to the overall effect, but the quality of this production would be just as effective on a crystal clear night.

The play, largely considered to be Shakespeare’s last, is part romance, part comedy. The story centers on Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda, who have been exiled and stranded on an island for 12 years after Prospero’s treacherous brother Antonio conspired with Alonso, the King of Naples, to take over the dukedom. Alonso is aided by his brother Sebastian and has a daughter, Claribel, and a son, Ferdinand.

Other characters include Caliban, the monster son of sorceress Sycorax, Ariel, a sprite, Stephano, a drunken butler, and his friend Trinculo. Other parts, such as crewmen on Alonso’s ship and assorted spirits and faeries, are played by the ensemble cast.

It’s classic Shakespeare with confusion reigning as wrongs are righted, alliances forged and broken and the usual state of affairs gets turned on its ear.

Alonso (Eric Powell Holm) is returning on his ship from delivering his daughter to marry the King of Tunis. As the ship nears the exile island, Prospero’s magic powers alert him to their presence nearby. He summons Ariel and sends her — played marvelously by Ben Griessmeyer — to create a storm to cast Alonso and the others into the sea. None are killed, Ariel sees to that, and the boat is tucked safely away in a hidden cove with the crew asleep under a spell below decks, setting the stage for revenge and mischief.

Alonso is cast up on shore with Sebastian (Daniel Jimenez) and Antonio (Amanda Fuller) and they all believe Ferdinand (Jake Ford), whom they saw swept overboard as well, to be dead. Ferdinand’s death would leave Sebastian in line for the throne if Alonso also perished and the ever-scheming Antonio soon enlists Sebastian in a plot to kill Alonso in his sleep. But they are thwarted by Ariel under the all-seeing eye of Prospero (Whitney Hudson).

Meanwhile, Ferdinand is very much alive and has been taken in by Prospero and Miranda (Ariel Dumas). The two young people fall instantly in love but Ferdinand must prove his worthiness to Prospero.

Caliban (Elliot Eustis), who scrabbles around the stage like a deranged and broken crab, encounters Stephano (Daniel Jimenez in his second role) and Trinculo (Tessa K. Bry) and after some wine believes Stephano to be a god from the moon. He convinces them to slay Prospero and Miranda and become rulers on the island. Ariel tosses a little faerie dust on that plan, too.

The three plots of murder and marriage spin closer and, yes, there is a happy ending. But getting there verges on the amazing as the SOTC troupe flexes its collective theater muscle to lift the audience high above the ordinary and into the maelstrom of “The Tempest.”

This troupe is terrific and have turned in so many grand performances in the four seasons they have been coming to the Cape. Add this one to that list.

Using minimal sets and costumes, the ensemble soars through the play. It’s rollicking, rowdy and robust. Quick changes in scene and costume are aided by the rapid-fire use of exits and entrances from all sides of the tent. At one point Prospero even retires to the back row and watches the action as raptly as the audience.

Much dialogue is delivered in song and dance. Music is minimal but so effective with the use of hand drums and harmonic vocalizing to invoke the sounds of mysterious voices in the ether. Caliban is so god-awful and Ariel so, well, sprite-like, that we are caught in a swirl of good and evil, revenge and forgiveness, love and hate that is dished up like a frothy meringue over a tart pool of lemon cream. It’s the right combination of everything and a must-see for Shakespeare fans as well as a great introduction for those who think his works are only as entertaining as middle-school readings of “Julius Caesar.”

This won’t change your life or leave you thinking about the big questions for days after lights down, but it will make you laugh, engage you thoroughly and for two hours will suspend disbelief and let you live in a world where magic can save the day.

FREE @ MASHPEE COMMONS! AUG. 1ST

Free Performance by Shakespeare on the Cape at Mashpee Commons

Submitted by: Lissa Daly | Jul 10, 2008 04:00 PM

Shakespeare on the Cape at Mashpee Commons
Lissa Daly

Enjoy the bard outdoors with performances by Shakespeare on the Cape on Friday, August 1st at Mashpee Commons. Kiddie Shakes, their ½ hour narrated version of The Tempest for kids of all ages will begin at 5:00pm and a full performance of The Tempest is scheduled for 6:30pm. Both performances are free and sponsored by the merchants of Mashpee Commons. In the event of inclement weather, a rain date of Aug. 8th is planned. 

Shakespeare on the Cape is an ambitious theater company founded by graduates of the Guthrie Theater/University of Minnesota BFA Actor Training Program in Minneapolis. Their mission is to create clear, unexpected and text-intensive productions with a dedication to emerging artists. In a review by Debbie Forman of the Cape Cod Times, their production was said to be “A zany performance with the actors’ frantic antics speeding you from one laugh to the next.”

 

 

Barnstable Patriot: “School for Wives a timeless lesson in comedy”

School for Wives a timeless lesson in comedy

Written by John Watters

Cotuit Center offers frolicsome farce If you have a preconceived notion that a 400-year-old French play might be a little musty, or perhaps a bit too highbrow for your taste, then by all means catch Moliere’s School For Wives on July 22 and 29, at the Cotuit Center for the Arts, as it will surely prove you wrong. In its third season, the amazing Shakespeare on the Cape troupe continues to entertain audiences from one end of the peninsula to the other. Under the impeccable direction of Eric Powell Holm, SOTC is a high-energy theatrical hybrid – part Saturday Night Live, part Firesign Theater, part Monty Python – all melded together to bring their own touch to the classics in a thoroughly modern irreverent way.   The group, mostly made up of alumni of the University of Minnesota’s Guthrie Theater, is a sheer joy to watch. The company comprised of twenty-somethings has incredible talent and energy, each giving their characters a delightfully unique prospective. Together the company works seamlessly; not only with quality acting, but also providing their own musical interludes and sound effects from their stageside seats. The result is madcap mayhem that leaves the audience holding their sides in laughter.    School For Wives, written by Moliere in 1662, is a witty farce in verse which at times sounds like an adult version of Dr. Seuss. The ribald nature of the play particularly offended the Church and served as the lightning rod to Moliere’s career, attracting huge favor from some and not so much with others.    It is the story of a middle-aged man, Arnolphe, who has financially supported and groomed a young girl named Agnes, so that he may marry her. Of course as luck would have it once she moves into Arnolphe’s house she meets Horace, who falls in love with her and her with him. Horace, not realizing that Arnolphe is really the “other” man she is intended for, confides his feeling about her to Arnolphe, who then plots to out-maneuver him to gain Agnes’ love. With twists, turns, and countless switchbacks this Moliere’s masterpiece remains as fresh today as it was four centuries ago.    Elliot Eustis’s performance as Arnolphe is a tour de force. With nearly 50 percent of the dialog in the play his, he flawlessly carries the heavy load with aplomb.   As Agnes, Benjamin Griessmeyer is a show-stopping riot. Playing the ingénue in drag, his teenage girl nuances, and upper register voice can’t help but make you laugh. Daniel Jiminez as Horace is also very funny as Agnes’s suitor. Both these young actors have great command of their craft.   The remainder of the cast – Ariel Dumas, Jake Ford, Amanda Fuller, and Whitney Hudson – are all equal to the task of their characters, each looking like they are having fun on stage.   In fact, this is what makes this production work so well. Each and every actor is enjoying his or her time in the limelight so much that the infectiousness of their joy carries over to those watching the play. That is when theater is at its best.

The Boston Globe: ‘Triumph of Love’ is buoyed by youthful energy

• STAGE REVIEW

‘Triumph of Love’ is buoyed by youthful energy

Ariel Dumas (left) and Amanda Fuller in the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater production of “Triumph of Love.” (JIM DALGLISH)

By Louise Kennedy

Globe Staff / July 14, 2008

WELLFLEET – Costumes of brocade and denim, music Baroque and rock, attitudes sincere and silly: These are the invigoratingly contrasting elements of the young Shakespeare on the Cape company’s production of “Triumph of Love” – by Marivaux, bien sur, not the Bard – at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.

WHAT invited this exuberant troupe, mostly comprising recent graduates of the Guthrie Theater’s acting program at the University of Minnesota, to present Moliere’s “School for Wives” last season. That experiment proved popular enough that the company has not only returned to Wellfleet this year but is also presenting different shows at Truro’s Payomet Performing Arts Center and in other venues around the Cape.

Shakespeare on the Cape’s greatest asset, its youthful vitality, occasionally works against it in this production; the actors playing a middle-aged brother-sister pair of emotionally stunted scholars are a couple of decades too young for the parts. The good news, though, is that they’re highly skilled, fully engaged, and a lot of fun to watch – as is the rest of the cast in Jason Bohon’s lively, quick-witted production.

And even if the actors’ youth didn’t strain credulity, Marivaux’s plot just might. Princess Leonide (Amanda Fuller), whose father usurped the throne, has fallen in love with the rightful heir, Agis (Daniel Jimenez), who was spirited away after the coup and has been raised in secret by his aunt and uncle, Leontine and Hermocrate, the aforementioned scholars. So Leonide arrives in their woodsy retreat, disguised as a man, intending to win Agis’s heart.

Next thing you know, not just Agis but Leontine (Whitney Hudson) and Hermocrate (Jake Ford) are all in love with her: as a man, as a woman, as whatever she needs to be to win her way at a given moment. Meanwhile her maidservant, Corine (Ariel Dumas), also in trousers, has attracted the clownish Harlequin (Ben Griessmeyer), who gets caught up in the scheming and soon involves the gardener, Dimas (Elliot Eustis), who . . .

Well, you know. Round and round, confusion, disillusion, sly commentary on class and gender, and happiness at last. But it’s good giddy fun, and intelligent, too – especially in Stephen Wadsworth’s clean, modern but un-slangy translation. What’s most touching is that Marivaux doesn’t focus only on the lovers’ plight; if anything, the stories of Hermocrate and Leontine, and their slow realization that there’s more to life than books and reason, are more moving than the relatively standard tale of youthful romance between Agis and Leonide.

It all starts off a bit slowly, with great chunks of exposition in the early scenes. But things pick up nicely, and the relaxed but full-bodied physicality of the company’s acting style keeps the energy level high even in the wordiest moments. Thomas Burgess’s simple set – a trio of pastoral paintings as backdrop, some flowers, a bench or so – enhances the mood of effortless grace, as do Andrew Lynch’s eclectic but appropriate musical contributions and the (uncredited) costumes of frock coats and jeans.

No, this “Triumph of Love” doesn’t have the powdered wigs or the restrained and sophisticated performances that you might expect of a 1732 French comedy. But the production does have verve, smarts, and its own sense of style. And that’s plenty.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.