“The Tempest” begins with Shakespeare on the Cape’s actors as a ship’s crew, singing and working together, then desperately fighting against a storm. The actors themselves create much of the “ship” and the sounds of the disaster.
It is carefully timed ensemble work, each key to a larger whole — a collaboration that marks the company’s fourth season, too. Still focused on breaking barriers and creating “the most clear, beautiful, unique theater” possible, the company this summer is offering more actors, more plays, more venues and more performances in a program more ambitious than ever before.
The “steadily evolving” group is now nonprofit with a board of directors. All actors and production staff now live together — in a rented house and studio on Edgewood Farm in Truro — so rehearsing, planning and building take place where they also eat and sleep. “Without our planning it, we’ve become a troupe,” says artistic director Eric Powell Holm.
Most members were trained at the Guthrie Theater program at University of Minnesota and consider Shakespeare on the Cape — created by graduates with a “let’s just do it” brashness – a perfect way to stretch and test techniques and classical theater they learned there. Added to Shakespeare shows are Molière’s “School for Wives” and Pierre Marivaux’s “The Triumph of Love.”
“We’re honoring plays of language,” says second-year actress Whitney Hudson. “So many playwrights were influenced by Shakespeare.”
All have gender-bending casting — Hudson is Prospero and Ben Griessmeyer is sprite Ariel — and unexpected choices to tell the stories differently. Costuming, sets and props are simple for needed portability: Full and hourlong versions of “The Tempest” will be done in Truro, Nantucket, Mashpee and Sagamore, with “Kiddieshakes” also in Cotuit. “Triumph of Love” will be at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, “School for Wives” in Provincetown and Cotuit.
It is a grueling schedule, particularly with everyone rehearsing four shows. But the cast seems uniformly thrilled about the chance for this type of close-knit, collaborative artistry-for-pay in a seaside summer respite from the harsher world of professional theater.
“What we’re learning to do is … really practice our craft with a group of loving, supportive people on a beautiful property on Cape Cod,” marvels first-timer Daniel Jiminez.
“We’re trying to discover what we’re attempting to be,” adds production manager Tessa K. Bry. “This is a place where we feel safe and comfortable to try out our craft.”
IF YOU GO
Shakespeare on the Cape’s schedule (www.shakespeareonthecape.org): “The Tempest” and the hourlong “Kiddieshakes” version, July 2-Sept. 4 at Payomet Performing Arts Center, 29 Old Dewline Road, North Truro, 508-487-5400, July 17-18 on Nantucket and Aug. 1 at Mashpee Commons; “Kiddieshakes” also July 15, 22 and 29 at Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Falmouth Road, 508-428-0669; Pierre Marivaux’s “The Triumph of Love,” June 29-Aug. 31 at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Route 6, 508-349-9428; Molière’s “School for Wives,” June 28-Sept. 13 at WOMR/Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown (www.capetix.com), and July 15, 22 and 29 at Cotuit Center for the Arts.
