Coming to the Redfern: The Tempest
From Jackie Hooper, Redfern Arts Center:
The Tempest, a Shakespearean romantic comedy conjured with the magic of a father’s love, will be presented by Keene State Theatre and Dance from Wednesday to Saturday, February 27 to March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and youth, and $6 for Keene State students. For tickets, call the Box Office at 603-358-2168 or visit www.keene.edu/racbp.
KSC theatre faculty member PeggyRae Johnson will direct the play that she describes as a romantic comedy with a message about a parent’s concern, support and love for a child. She adapted the play to run 90 minutes without intermission by rewriting the first scene to explain why the main character Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan and a magician, conjures up a storm to bring people to the island where he has been banished with his daughter for 12 years.
The Tempest is considered the last play written solely by Shakespeare. Following this play, he co-wrote two others, working as a mentor to apprentice John Fletcher, which was the way playwrights mastered their art in the early 17th century when this play made its stage debut. The adaptation will allow students, who are more familiar with Shakespeare as literature, to experience the play as theatre, especially the first-year students reading The Tempest as part of KSC’s Keene is Reading text for new students.
The cast is headed by KSC Theatre Professor Daniel Patterson as Prospero and student Ryan Connell as Miranda.
For more on the play and this production, read the full story at the keene.edu news site.
