The Tempest

Production Date: 2008

Scenic and Lighting Design: Phillip Franck

Costume Designer: Alexandra Sargent Capps

Producer: Vanderbilt University

Director: Terryl Hallquist

Playwright: William Shakespeare (1610)

Conceptual Approach: In The Tempest Shakespeare creates a wonderfully whimsical world of characters, including the ship-wrecked magician Prospero, mischievous spirit Ariel, coarse and brutal Caliban, and Alonso King of Naples. I used distinct color pallets, patterns, and coarse to shiny textures, including making a black plastic late Renaissance-inspired skirt for Antonia(o), to distinguish the people who live on the island from the aristocrats whose boat gets shipwrecked there due to Ariel’s creation of the tempest that sets the events of the play in motion.

Short Play Synopsis: When a tempest lands the Duke of Milan and his aristocratic boat party onto the island where Prospero and his daughter Miranda landed after being sent off in a boat to die, a colorful cast of characters await them. Their wild ride has just begun, as Ariel and Prospero get their revenge by making them the objects of their trickery and magic.