A sixteen-year-old girl, of notorious radical parentage, is swept off her feet by a would-be poet who's been expelled from college, married and fathered children. They flee the country, impoverished save for heavy borrowing from friends. At 18, she's lost one child and is pregnant with another. As an entertainment among a small circle of social misfits, she accepts a challenge to write a horror story.

The result is Frankenstein, a work that's had as wide a range of interpretations as any ancient myth. Usually it's seen as a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, of seeking forbidden knowledge, of Man usurping the role of God. But for us, in our 1998 adaptation with Touchstone Theatre and our plans for further adaptation to puppet staging, its resonance is deeper.

In Mary Godwin Shelley's novel, Victor's obsession with creating life has its genesis in his mother's death, which may echo her own mother's death in childbirth. His scheme is a grand "denial of death," the quest to bypass conception and birth in order to conquer mortality. The result of this denial-of-death is death. We can draw parallels in our present-day alienation from the natural world, our attempts to save nations by destroying them, our drive for bigger bank accounts, bigger cars, bigger bellies to make ourselves too big to fail -- whatever strikes you.

Shelley was cutting very close to the bone. Victor's abandonment of his creation echoes her lover/husband Percy Shelley's own mix of idealism and irresponsibility. The Creature's first murder is a child named after Mary's dead first-born. The principles espoused by her parents, the radical philosopher William Godwin and notorious feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, permeate her vision of the Creature's innate goodness, yet fall to the assaults of the real world.

For those unfamiliar with any but the movie versions: Victor is a student, not a mad scientist. He has no dwarfish assistant. We don’t see electrodes buzzing or cauldrons bubbling: it's not clear how Victor animates the Creature. Nor do we know what makes him appear "monstrous," except for vague descriptions of watery eyes and unusual size. There's no mistaken transplant of the brain of a criminal, and he learns to speak eloquently. There's no torch-bearing mob of peasants: Victor and the Creature pursue each other into the Arctic, Victor dies, and the Creature is lost on an ice floe.

On first reading, for me, the novel was disappointing. Years later I came back to it, and despite its dated style and lack of the cinematic hot spots, I was stunned. We staged it with a trio of LeCoq-trained actors from Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem, PA, with great success.

We envision this new Frankenstein with our usual form of puppet: a 2/3rds-lifesize figure, one hand inside the head (moved by wrist and fingers, weight supported by a fingerless glove), the other hand as the puppet's hand. We also expect to use shadows, video projection, and an enlarged form of toy theatre with 15" cut-out figures -- the civilization the Creature encounters -- all set in our 10x8x8 ft. aluminum-frame cube, with lighting apparatus self-contained and readily portable.

Why puppets? To tell a large story with a small cast. To create the fractured reality inhabited by both Creator and Creature. To maintain realism of detail while expanding its mythic dimension. And simply because we believe in the enormous power of puppetry.

Work has started on both sculpting and storyboard. More to come next week.

***

Life continues, not always requiring puppets. Elizabeth and I midway through a memoir of our creative life together, called Co-Creation, and we're looking to finish it for self-publication in November to coincide with our fiftieth anniversary. With a friend, we've finished a screenplay, and that's being shopped around. May 3-14, we'll be in Blue Lake, CA, at the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre working with their MFA students on dramaturgy for new work. Next week, our son is on his way to Portland, Oregon, to exhibit at a comics convention, and our daughter is visiting from Italy!

-- Conrad Bishop

Our TEMPEST is coming up to its fifth and final weekend, going very well. Shooting video of every performance for dvd editing, and it's truly humbling, in starting the edit, to see every minute of the show, 107 minutes, 14 performances to date, and how !#%$!!X%!!! far away from "perfection" we are. I recommend this process highly as an
essential, though painful, learning experience. Thankfully, our audience doesn't see it that way. As a friend pointed out, we see the two media with entirely different sets of eyes.

We've had lots of wonderful written responses. But this one (prefaced by very effusive positives) evoked some thought, and I wanted to share it.

>I did not like Caliban - that is I didn't like the puppet representation.
>I wish you had made him as evil and other worldly as was Ariel --
>an imaginative sprite and other worldly. The Caliban
>puppet reinforced that great myth of the US white society: that men
>of color are evil, bad, etc. I do regret that you chose that configuration.

***

My response:

Dear ______--

Thanks for all your responses, this included. I'd like to follow up on this Caliban question, as I feel it's a serious and provocative one. I don't want to pass it off lightly.

"Evil and otherworldly" I can't see. In some ways, he's a metaphorical contrast to Ariel. But to me the power of the character is that he's totally concrete: He's born on this island to an exiled Algerian woman accused of witchcraft; he's deformed; he's in his late twenties; he was adopted into Prospero's care, was a companion of Miranda, and felt love and tenderness for the first time in his life; he did something, details not specified, that Prospero saw as seeking to "violate the honor of my child"; he was enslaved and continues to be subjected to systematic torture; he's filled with rage; and, like Ariel, he desperately longs for freedom. Those facts don't add up to
"otherworldly." He has to be given a real and specific face. Nor do I think they add up to an embodiment of pure evil, though indeed they've had the same effect that oppression often works on people: they've made him a rage-filled, dangerous, easily-corrupted creature. And one who, heartbreakingly, still retains some humanity, a sense of beauty, and a dream of something better.

I don't think that nexus of traits is untrue to life. Prospero likewise is an amalgam of extreme contradictions, as is, for that matter, Ariel, combining that Robin-Goodfellow playfulness with the implacable, amoral force of an Elemental, and only at the end showing a startling glimmer of human empathy.

But I realize that doesn't speak to your main point: that making him non-Caucasian reinforces a false stereotype. And this is a huge problem in contemporary stagings of masterpieces from a culture that saw "blackness," deformity, and illegitimacy all as evidence of an evil nature; that was deeply anti-Semitic; that saw inherited hierarchies as God-given; that saw the treatment meted out to Kate in SHREW an occasion for merriment; etc. So a fantasy-style Caliban might be a means of getting around this. But to me, that's not possible without significantly rewriting the play. Likewise, though I agree with the political intent of it, I feel that attempts to reverse the equation, to suggest Caliban as the wronged but noble-hearted native under Prospero's imperialist heel, just flatten the play - it'd require a total rewrite to work, and that's been done though I think not very successfully.

As a theatre artist, I'm not able personally to avoid ugly elements in characters who are at-risk for "stereotype." If I create a generic, two-dimensional evil black man, swishy gay, dumb blonde, fanatic Arab or greedy Jew - whether as realism or as farce - then I'm being both stupid and irresponsible. But if those are concrete elements in a multi-faceted character, then I feel I'm reflecting an image that helps us see these "types" as real individuals. And that's responsible artistry.

So the best I can do for Caliban is just to bring out the reality of the contradictions in his character and in his relations with Prospero, with Miranda, and with his drunken would-be liberators. If those aren't very specific and clear, then I agree that it's possible for the audience to jump to seeing only the stereotype. And as in innumerable other challenges of the play, we're maybe only half successful. Our 90 hrs. of rehearsal should have been double that. As with our puppet MACBETH, which we had in touring repertory over a span of 15 years, at this stage there were elements we were only beginning to explore. It's a matter of constantly honing in on the clarity of moment-by-moment truth.

So, just offering this for thought. And again, I'm grateful to you for raising this provocative question. If I have a chance to restage this TEMPEST in the future, I'm pretty sure to stay with my design and interpretation of Caliban. But that moment-by-moment evolution of the character will definitely be informed by serious tussle with the issue you raised. Many thanks.

***

And received a very gracious response. Definitely this issue should be addressed in the study guide we prepare for the school tour.

***

I've been startled by the response to a particular moment in the play: a kiss between Ferdinand and Miranda at the end of 3:1. A number of people have expressed rapture at it. Stage and movie kisses are a dime a dozen, and young love -- unless it's tragic -- is more often than not an object of amusement. It's very well played by the puppeteers, and probably their necessary care in making sure the puppets' lips don't bonk translates as the tenderness of Miranda's first kiss. But what is it that makes that moment such an object of wonder?

My thought is that it's an indicator of the power of the puppet medium. The very artifice of it brings about what Brecht termed the Verfremdungseffekt, making us see this thing we take for granted as "strange," as something new. Prospero's aside, "At the first sight they have chang'd eyes," extends to our eyes as well.

Could it be done as movingly by live actors? Probably, but I've never quite seen it have that effect. The only comparable moment that comes to mind was in our staging of THE WINTER'S TALE with Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, the moment when Leontes (Whit Maclaughlin) took the hand of the statue of Hermoine (Laurie McCants) and whispered, "Oh, she's warm." There, Shakespeare likewise has used a Verfremdungseffekt -- the fantasy of the statue coming alive -- to focus us with almost unbearable emotion on that moment, the miracle of renewal.

Peace--
Conrad

I feel I'm registering pretty well as Prospero and startng to find the necessary modulatoins. In the long storytelling of the first act, I feel there must be a passionate energy driving him, or else the scenes are flat exposition. Yet a half-hour of blast-furnace energy will destroy all rapport with the audience. Fnding that roller-coaster rhythm is elusive, but starting to happen. Only once in six performances have I played it without line glitches, and that's a consequence of insecurity in the overall thru-line.

Some responses. No press reviews -- that's common here -- and one radio review is just being transcribed. But these are from audience members:

***

* The puppet stage itself is a marvelous sight and also very practical, allowing many areas for the 3/4th lifesize puppets to perform within. It is draped with fabric painted in golden clay colors, twisted and turned, creating the framed playing areas. Short familiar quotes and words from Shakespeare are painted on the fabric in large "Olde English" script.

* My take on Prospero's gigantic mid-life crisis is that he is functioning at the throat chakra, the crossroads between good and evil. Which path will he choose? The throat chakra is also the area from which speech cometh, and Prospero rages and verbalizes in the best Shakesperian manner. Great stuff, Mooncalf, great stuff!

* Something rare and thrilling happened for me as I viewed this production, something I seek at every puppet show I attend. The puppet Miranda came "alive" for me. Was it a combination of her facial sculpting and exquisite right-on manipulation, or that her love glow threw enchantment over her? All of the above. I occasionally amused myself by trying to see her again as a puppet, not a real woman, but there was no turning her back into a puppet.

* I attended The Tempest last evening and found it a wonder! I must say that puppet kiss to end the first half was . . . mmmmm! And the soundtrack, beautifully integrated. The set, simple yet extraordinary.

* You seem to be born for Shakespeare, and you and your puppet likeness were totally magical. Thank you so much for bringing such a unique and beautiful production to our humble Sonoma County.

*Conrad was sensational as Prospero! With the puppets, the arms and especially the hands become huge vehicles of emotional expression, and even the inanimate masks seem to change expression depending on their positions, the angles at which they're held and the lighting. Many delightful and imaginative uses of shadow-screens, overdubs, and other theatrical resources; and whatever puppets can do than humans can't, they do, and to our amazement and delight!

*Fabulous and exciting production! Congratulations!!

* I feel privileged to have such thrilling, innovative, soul-touching theatre right here in our little town!

* Thanks for the amazing work . . . dedication and mastery.

* Fabulous.

* Astonishing/compelling.

***

More to come. We've started to do nightly talk-backs wth the audience, and response is very good. One woman asked a curious question: "What do you think Shakespeare would have thought of this production?"

Don't remember what I said, but I've thought about that some more. What's meant, I guess, is how faithful it is to the author's intentions, and of course that's unanswerable. My feeling is that the only negative feeling he'd have had -- other than all the notes give to the other actors and to myself -- is that he wasn't getting any royalties from it. I think it's "faithful" on three counts: (1) That character and scene interpretation are based very concretely in the text. One could certainly quarrel with them, but there's a reason for everything. (2) The elements of "innovation" are really no different in kind than the enormous amalgam of theatrical techniques from multiple traditions that were part of the English stage of 1611. (3) The fullness of gesture and vocal expression that this form of puppetry allows is much closer to the style of the great actors he wrote for than we normally find in Shakespearean productions today.

Coming up to four more performances this weekend. Dreading the exhaustion, but enormously looking forward to the challenge.

--Conrad

***

Here are some photos of the final puppets. I haven't labeled them; if you know the play, guess.

And a miscellany of the notes I've given actors in the final week. Notes to myself are too numerous to begin to log.

***

1:1
Bosun: Can you come in faster with the mast?

All: Needs to be more physical reaction every time you hear a big surge. You're not reacting to what we're hearing. After the stop on "What, must our mouths be cold," start the swaying again with a sharper lurch to the left.

All: As the scene is starting to flow and the technical elements, swaying, etc., are getting cleaner, it's going to be a real stunner. Biggest need now is the flow. It's a scene about a bunch of people fighting for control, while there's a force outside them that makes that an absurd struggle. ("We are such stuff")

Bosun: First 'Hey me hearts" speech after Ship Master, connect the lines tighter, no pauses there. Needs to launch the scene actively. Can be a tight pause before "Blow till thou burst" but not before.

Alonso: Your first entrance, you can do a bit more stagger & losing balance before you grasp the mast -- that'll also motivate your delay with your line.

Swaying was badly coordinated. When the Bosun goes downstage, he needs to first be aware of where the mast is so that he can start by matching it. After that, the people on the mast need to follow him. But also the Bosun was swaying a bit too fast to follow.

Bosun: Take in the topsail, lower lower - no pauses here. He's throwing out commands before they can conceivably execute them, and that's ok. He's businesslike but panicked.

Ant: Even though you're yelling at the Bosun, your focus has to go totally to Sebastian's sword when he draws it, till you know he's not going to use it. You can look back over your shoulder a couple of times at the Bosun, but keep main attention to Seb.

Bosun: Your final exit, not sure what to suggest, but somehow it needs more "character" in its departure; right now just looks like an actor rushing off. Maybe he staggers forward slightly, takes another big swig, and reels off?

Gonz: Watch the video behind you as the lights fade, and make sure you don't start carrying off the mast until the video is out completely. You have plenty of time there.

1:2
Mir: "Had I been any god of power" -- need a strong change of focus here -- maybe back to him? It's a new beat, but she's not changing physically right now. Suggest too that you not weaken that statement with going pleading/teary on "the ship & souls within her" -- carry the strength all the way through the end of the line.

Mir: "Heavens thank you for it" is sincere, but wants to come in very fast and automatic, to get to your real question. "Mine enemies brought to this shore" -- need sharper reaction at this: it's huge news.

Ariel: "Is there more toil?" Don't use an emotional color of complaint - wants to have more the feeling that he's going to resist, telling Prospero not to push on this: steelier. Good on "My liberty."

Ariel: Need a real convulsion on "malignant thing" -- suddenly he's bound, and it's intolerable. Sharp struggle. Then when I go away from you, the binding stays, but you can have sudden bursts of struggles against it.

Sycorax: Movement can be about half the tempo you're doing -- it's much too fast now.

Ariel: Whenever you're behind Prospero, be just over one shoulder or the other. If you get further out, it's not as concentrated. When you're doing the large movements on stage, move from one place to another even faster, if possible. And when you arrive, there's a pulse of arrival. Stronger pulses of hand & head on "promised" and "liberty" and other key words.

Ariel: Not sure if this will work, but try it: When with Prospero, each time Prospero speaks, come to an absolute freeze; then move on your own. You can have physical reactions within his speech on specific beats, but don't sustain any movement. When he's entrapped you, you can quiver and twitch, but not other times. Let's see what that does. Looking for a sense of near-absolute unity between Prospero & Ariel, not as if they're entirely separate beings.

Caliban: Try more contrast between "I must eat my dinner" and the sharp attack on "This island's mine." Dinner is more a throwaway, dismissing the threat.

Caliban: Much better on the head movement, but need still more. For example, on "Cursed be I that did so," you have a strong vocal emphasis on "cursed" and a gesture, and you jump the whole puppet upward -- but the head itself doesn't move.

Caliban: A strong moment on "Thou didst prevent me." It really wants a longer beat after it for us to assimilate that. Try taking a full breath to recover before "I had peopled else."

Mir: Her rant at Cal can use stronger head movement. I think gesturing at him doesn't work very well with that hand -- maybe once or twice, but probably you're better to play it mostly out front and use gesture accordingly.

Caliban: When Miranda rushes away after looking at you, try turning away also -- you're as strongly affected by the look as she is.

Ferd: You take a total stop on "allaying" before going on with "their fury" -- sounds weird. You can do something like this with a catch-breath if you inflect the word so that we know something's coming after, or do the same sort of emphasis by extending its vowel. But often you do breaks like this within lines that sound like end-stops -- sounds unnatural.

Ariel: On Ferd's "It begins again' let your arm extend out widely, as if to suck him back toward you to begin the swaying. Let your hand then actually caress him. Ferdinand: Sense of body being drawn back to Nymph, more backward pull until you get into her embrace.

Sea Nymph: Your arm is very inactive, always bent at the elbow, just a little movement in the wrist. Think of leading with the arm, that the arm's part of the movement of seaweed -- more stretch in the hand as well, more the musculature of Balinese dance.

Miranda: What is't, a spirit? Can be even more sense of "Oh yes, I've seen these before, you've put on little shows for me, they're cute." You look at it a moment, but you're not in the mood to be charmed. Then look around again with surprise, a whole new thing. This is coming across, just keep it vivid.

Ferd/Mir: Think of these sharp movements across the stage as breath *in-takes* that come out of the sudden emotion of the characters' interaction, not as movements done by the spirits. Ferd works ok, Miranda is flung a little too broadly. Make it more spring-action. Yes, it's real melodramatic, but it's based in their profound astonishment.

Mir: On "Why speaks my father…" go very fast to the audience with this, asking them for urgent counsel. Can't just muse about it. This will help me, as right now I'm in limbo, Ferd not having answered me.

Ferd/Mir: What's Ferd's focus on Prosp "They are both in either's powers"? I think you're looking at Miranda, but it looks like you're looking at me. Possibly it'd work if Miranda is looking toward Ferd when he says "I'll make you queen of Naples," and then turns away -- that would impel him to turn away in response, feeling he'd gone too far. Then I can get my aside in, and you can turn back to me when I address you again.

Ferdinand: Farther left after you're disarmed -- you adjusted a bit toward the center and it crowds the Prospero//Miranda quarrel. Need to be right in the corner.

Ferdinand: At casting the sword spell, good. It needs a sharper movement into it, so there's a feeling of being hit by a surge. Also, keep Ferd's face up more so we see him more focused on the charmed sword, more amazed at what's happening. Release and follow-thru are very good.

All: Act One is moving very well, I think. Each character is distinct, strong emotion but very concrete. Main thing now is my own modulation of Prospero, strength with less tension. Generally, we should all look for the contrast moments in the characters: where more secondary lines are moved through faster, where the strong ones contrast, where you contrast with a peak, etc.

2:1
Gonz: You can be a bit more overtly angry, more abrupt, at the two gents on "minister occasion to these two gents."

Alonso: Even more commanding on "further search for my poor son" and "Lead away." There's still a kind of hopeless tone about it. We need that surge of energy.

Sebastian: I don't see Sebastian actually looking at his garment as Gonzalo talks about it. This needs to be very obvious, as Ant is doing.

Sebastian: Nice moment looking up on "crown falling on your head".

Seb/Ant: Can you draw your swords before "One word"? It'd be a lot more threatening if we actually see them come out then.

Seb/Ant: Then when coming down to them, don't actually start thrusting: just hold your swords up in position to thrust, but then walk down: you're going to get close, plant yourselves to give yourself good fotting to plunge it in deeply. If you actually start the thrust, as it seems like Antoinio is doing, you're not going to be able to stop.

Seb/Ant: You can have a more sudden startle back at Gonzalo's rise: it's just that sudden jump at something totally unexpected, as if a car horn blasted behind you.

Seb/Ant: How do you hold your swords during the following dialogue? Not sure what it wants, but somehow they're hot evidence that you're conscious of, as if you had a big fish in your hand and you couldn't explain why.

All: I'm thinking about putting a video behind part of the blackout here. Would that cause any backstage problems during the change, if you had 10 seconds beforehand or after it to get across to the side you need to be on?

Antonio: "Temperance" - Sounds like you're saying this to the general public. I think it's just to Sebastian, more a comic-throwaway with the sense "Remember we shared Temperance at the brothel -- she was hot."

Ant/Seb: As you're listening to them, you can have small reactions, small shifts. Mainly you should keep them alive by breathing. Your other movements look fine, but they often don't come at specific rhythmic points: a stress, a punctuation. Need to do so, or they fall out of the scene.

Sebastian: There should be as much heat in your move away from Alonso after "So is the dearest of the loss" as there is in your verbal attack on him; this time it seemed merely apologetic.

Ant/Seb: These movements aren't the same as the Spirit swoops in Act 5 - they're the characters' reactions just expanded.

Ant/Seb; The melodramatic swoops are good, but now they're becoming a bit mechanical, and broad swings of the puppets, which doesn't work. They only work if you prepare them verbally, if they come out of the psychology of it -- the rhythm builds it up to the "launch."

Ant/Seb; You've both got a lot of nuance in the scene now, and I don't want that to go. But it's losing some of the intensity that it had when your inflection was flatter and more rapid-fire. I think you can get the nuances you're playing without "crafting" the lines so much.

Alonso: At the alarm, it's ok for you to delay a moment getting up, but when you do it should be with great energy.

Ant/Seb: When Alonso starts moving C, both of you need to move over toward the L, otherwise it gets jammed in the UC.

2:2
Caliban: Your dropping the log this time suddenly made it lightweight. Just before you let it go you held it with full eight in one hand.

Trinc: The head is still a bit rigid. Use tilting as well as nodding. He's getting faster and more colloquial & natural in his speech, and that's good. He's the fool who tends to run off at the mouth. When he's into a lot of expostulation, he's not so interesting. "Strange fish" isn't so much astonishment as a confused reaction to having put your hand on Caliban's groin, which doesn't somehow feel like a fish's groin.

Trinc/Cal: As soon as Trinc is getting under, we can hear noises and objects from Caliban. We REALLY need sound under that: that's the essence of the comedy - nothing funny about seeing a lump move back and forth- it's about two guys with sharp elbows trying to share a single cot. Play it up.

Trinc/Cal: When you reverse the shoes, that needs to be part of your struggle -- this time you did a little struggle on Cal's line, stopped, put down the shoes, then picked them up. Impression was that for some unknown reason the two characters' feet fell off.

Caliban: Try to move head a little bit (doesn't need much) during the under-the-blanket sequence. Otherwise it looks like he's trying to make a corpse drink.

Cal/Trinc: Right now Trinc is getting settled under the blanket, then you start the pulling back and forth, then we hear some vocal sound -- all seems very mechanical. Need to hear something loud from Caliban as soon as Trinc is getting under, and then ad lib grunts & sounds of pain, exasperation, anger, discomfort, complain -- two kid brothers fighting over the bedclothes -- until the feet come up.

Stephano: Still finding it very hard to pin down his predominant voice. I think it's because his first entrance is the rollicking song, then fright at the monster, then miscellaneous babble - goes all over the map. I like best the lighter, breathier voice, as it's so unlike what he aspires to. Your roistering aspect is right for what he's aspiring to, but he's not the real pirate, he's the computer geek wishing he was. There were a few passages last time -- "if I could get to Naples with him" "Four legs and two voices" -- that had a common element, assertive but breathy, no clogging up the throat or over-projection. From his position in the court household, he'd develop that kind of voice that's always trying to be hushed even when giving orders to the flunkies, always trying to be calm & ingratiating even when he's spilled wine in the lap of the Grand Inquisitor.

Stephano: Might also think of that opening as more to yourself: he's not performing it for us, but to keep up his own spirits, to fill the silence of being utterly alone. Seems that, unlike Trinculo's, Stephano's asides are more to himself than to the audience -- he's not a performer. All your instincts on his reactions, emotions, etc. are good, but too often you're enlarging them way more than needed, and that diminishes the comedy.

Steph/Cal: At end of leg pull, don't heave your own body far to the right on the third pull -- still looks like you're pulling off his feet.

All: End of the "scamels" bit. Cal can take his hand away, and that's the moment they see there's nothing in their own hands. Try to see the other guy, so you can do your reactions to your hansd simultaneously. If your puppet & hand turn both slightly to the outside it'll be more clearly visible.

Caliban: Farther to the right before "Farewell master." You can watch them part of the time, but we need something else from you that's inwardly directed: something like pounding on your chest as if to say Yes! Yes! Yes!

Trinc: When he hands your horn back, right now you're just taking it as if you expected a horn full of vomit and starting to shake it out. But the comedy is in your reaction when you see it: you can't believe he just did that. So take that reaction, and only after that try to do something about it.

Trinc: You can control the bottle best if you take it by the neck, so when you're drinking you can put your thumb beside your mouth and not have the bottle wander all over the puppet's face.

Trinc/Steph: Let it flow faster and more naturally from the time of the vomit recovery to looking over at Caliban -- it's a celebration.

Cal: When you go into the food speech, right now you're just going on in the same emphasis & rhythm & intensity as the previous speech, so it just seems more of the same. Try grabbing their attention on the first words, and then change into a much more sensual tone -- more like "the isle is full of noises." -- it's the changed tone that'll really draw them in.

Trinc/Steph: Good goosing.

Cal: On "be my god" not clear where you're looking. Maybe need to focus on the bottle, because it's too stunning to look directly at God.

All: On Caliban's "Hast thou not dropped from heaven?" I literally can't tell who's talking. Caliban has very slight head movement; Trinculo and Stephano are both in movement by the middle of his line. More clarity of speech movement needed, and if you move within the other person's line, it has to be very sparing and clear in reaction.

Cal/Trinc/Steph: "Let me show thee." You need to get the attention of both right on the beginning of this speech. Your pleading hesitancy doesn't work for that -- they're just continuing defocused. Change tone: you've got something that you know is immensely valuable. You need to really turn their heads with "Let me show thee." Both Trinc and Steph can draw over tighter behind him on this.

Caliban: When Steph calls Trinc to him and you counter R, his emotional focus is unclear, just kinda watching them from a distance. Not sure how to express this, but you've just asked this man to be your God, and he's accepted you: you've just won the Lottery, fallen in love, been embraced by Jesus Christ, walked out the gate after 12 years in prison. That span of time is your inner preparation for your song of liberation.

3:1
Mir/Ferd: The moment of Ferdinand reaching at "My husband, then?" is different than what we did previously, but I think it works this way. On "my husband," Ferdinand reaches toward her face. In response to that, Prospero averts her face. For Prospero, it's his anxiety about the touch -- something he wants to see happen but is painful for him. For Miranda, inwardly, it's about the touch, something she intensely desires but is momentary small panic about. Let me know if you have a problem with that, but in watching it on the video it looks right.

Ferd: Your small laugh after Miranda goes out is wonderful. And I've always liked your laughing as you go off, but I'm concerned that to some people that laugh might read as a kind of self-satisfied male-triumph sorta thing -- maybe it's the regularity of its rhythm. Definitely it needs the sound, but I think the key is to keep a kind of "wonder" in it, an "omigod" feeling.

Mir/Ferd: Both have very good feeling & response in this scene. The only thing not quite working is the tempo. You can certainly take the pauses, but when you're expressing to the other, let it flow more trippingly on the tongue -- it's the *flow* we're missing -- you tend to be wrapped up in your own feelings rather than skiing down the slope, and while that's the way love sometimes is, it doesn't work for the suddenness of this bonding. It's not like you're dating and gradually becoming aware of strong feelings -- after the first tentative talk, you're finding yourself saying things before you even think of them (and knowing they're totally true). I mean that just as a matter of degree: I don't want you to "race" the scene. Just let the language flow as freely as it's written, and emphasize the linking of the lines.

3:2
Steph: On opening, good playing. Try smaller, breathier voice doing what you're doing, just not projecting so much. Good moments of a kind of brisk, throwaway feeling: "And so shall 'Trinculo." "Canst thou bring me to him?" Sense of a person assuming he has authority.

Caliban: It looks as if you never look over at Trinc & Steph. You don't want to be fixated on them, but it's strange when they're arguing and you're just looking into the air -- find times when he has more specific focus, even if it's inner. Otherwise there's no sense of intention.

Caliban: With Miranda veil, leave the smelling to Stephano -- maybe caress it along your cheek instead. Your getting up after the Miranda sequence is kind of indeterminate. Stay down thru the Trinc/Steph apology till you say "Will you destroy him then?"

Trio: The comedy here is that they're just nattering on, brainless. And then it suddenly gets fierce. If you let them stop and think, it reduces the sense of forward momentum.

Cal: Can launch the "As I told you before" even more forcefully. On the "possess his books" speech, you can let your rage move you ahead even faster, till you get to the Miranda section.

All: Really urgent on "within this half hour - will you destroy him then?" He becomes enormously impatient, and this carries directly into his next scene.

Caliban: You're focused mostly in toward Stephano, and it's weak somehow -- play it more front, so that you can make a point focusing on them.

Steph: When you're DR with Trinculo, his face is mostly in the dark. Would help to find some times when you tilt up a bit more. I like all your business in this scene, but rubbing the scarf on your groin is a bit too literal.

3:3
All: Very fast commentary after the Shapes serving banquet -- the speed is from trying to cope with the wonder and terror of it. All are also sometimes looking around to make sure somebody else isn't coming.

Seb: He can be tilting on the verge of madness from the time they wake up again, and then suddenly explodes in your exit line -- sense that Alonso's panic releases yours.
All: Clean moment when you all do the big in-draw as you see the Spirits. Then, as Benj & Jessica become Spirits, they can together make a big sound, something like a "Hello" in spirit language, as they start to come down.

Spirits: The sounds should start as soon as you start moving downstage. Jessica & Benjamin, you can really go louder with the sounds == sort of a parody of experimental performance art.

All: When the spirits return, you need an in-draw exactly like the one you started with. The spirits can best cue this, probably. Faster. You can step on the last person's word, so there's a sense of such astonishment that you have to immediately Twitter it.

VIDEO: Take out banquet video at C65. Then bring in new at C66.

Sebastian: "Left their viands behind" You're gesturing toward it, but give it a broader indication, as if it's a whole banquet table.

Gonzalo: On "You need not fear, sir," you could gesture broadly toward the banquet they've laid out -- you're saying "go ahead and eat."

All: When you're coming down to eat: Alonso, you initiate the reaching out to pick up a piece of food, others take their cue off you -- but all of you reach further out and with more a feeling of wonder -- is it going to be the most amazing stuff you've ever tasted, or will it explode when you touch it? For Alonso, even though he speaks of it casually, it's reaching out for something to sustain life. It's not just cheese and crackers.

All: The reaction spots in the Harpy speech are: --belch up you.X --made you mad. X --that's in my plume. X --against your peace. X A bit more of a convulsion when released out of the spell at Prospero's exit.

Alonso: Here, you're very good vocally. But the more powerful he gets vocally, the stranger he seems with almost no head movement. He doesn't want a lot of small stuff, but he needs at least one very distinct head movement per pentameter, on whatever's the strongest impulse: one side to the other, tilted, upward, downward -- something clear and strong. You're moving him as you would as an actor, and it'd be effective; but as the puppet, he's disconnected from the voice.

4:1
Ferd/Mir: You missed the final reaction on "you shall hate it both." Mesh with each other closely on these -- this is one point where you should watch the other's puppet, so they start and finish exactly together.

Ferd/Mir: When Prospero wakes you with "Look you be true," there can be a bit more startle/disorientation before focusing.

Ceres: You can let your hand come up much more slowly, shouldn't have arm all the way up till "wife of Jupiter." She's a plant growing. When you're going back down, make sure your R hand is slowly reaching back toward the light so it enlarges greatly on the screen.

Juno: When we see the pregnancy, try to emphasize it more with hands & belly & spine. I can put more padding in if necessary, but right now it doesn't quite register. Your contractions can be even more extreme. It still looks as if you're just kneeling down; let the 2nd one TAKE you down. Raising Caliban comes out of that same rhythm.

Ferd/Mir: Your father's in a passion-- never saw him so distempered--" You can both have a faster tempo, more unsettled. Sounds as if you're contemplating a serious issue, but it's too contemplative. It really unsettles you.

Ferd/Mir: Out front more on Revels now -- can go from looking at each other to comfort each other, then out on "Like the baseless fabric." I wonder if, at the moment Prospero says, "leave not a wrack behind," you might embrace/clutch more tightly together. It's a chilling moment in the midst of your betrothal: you, your kids, all human life will vanish in the wind. It doesn't want to be a big response, because it's something they can't quite conceive; but I think instinctively they come more protectively together.

Ariel: Do you love me, master' isn't a flip question; it's a real question, exploring the strange nature of human beings.

Caliban: You should start "I pray you, tread softly" the instant you see the lights starting up - right now you don't start the line till you're almost center stage. We want to feel that the action is accelerating here.

Trio: The presentation of the weapons is kind of a dead beat. I think you're finding that it doesn't mesh with the draggledy-ass state they're in, so it's kinda mechanical. Maybe it won't work, but try this as a way to motivate it:
* For Caliban, he's tasting the blood, he's seeing the culmination of all his rage. And so even though he's warning them about noise, his focus is on that knife, and he presents it as the culmination of his speech.
* For Trinculo and Stephano, they have been dragged thru Hell's cesspool. But they haven't totally lost their lust for freedom, for booze, for Miranda's ass. So that moment of weapon-thrusting is their attempt to get back on track. Then after that they dissolve into complaint and despair, and Caliban has to push them on to their resolve.

Trio: You all need to raise the stakes here. For all of you, you've had this tremendous vision of riches, liberation, transcendence; now it's fading like a dream. It's serious; they don't see themselves as "the clowns" -- it's as if every hope you have in your own life was suddenly becoming distant, and you too arthritic, too impotent, too stupid & feeble to grasp it. The comedy is that this intense need and objective can be so instantly distracted, that they're really incompetent as action-adventure heroes. But the need is absolutely real. Problem right now is that you're trying to play "comedy," i.e. a more petulant, trivial upset. But it's funny only if the intensity of their need is in ironic contrast with their inability to see what's real. There's a real urgency here; the complaints come tumbling out, as does Caliban's replies. Then the big change: the frippery comes up like the Second Coming of Christ. A huge response from Trinc and Stephano to this, and instant panic and rage from Caliban, who sees it for what it is: total illusion. This is a fierce sequence. Right now it's petty. You don't need to get louder, just express the emotion through reaction and attach on the cues.
Caliban: "The dropsy drown this fool." This speech you have great emotion on, but the emotion is squeezing it out very tight and slow, so it doesn't seem as if you're really urgent.

Trinc/Steph/Cal: Cue pickups much tighter -- right on top of one another -- keep the total exhaustion.

Trinc/Steph/Cal: When you see the frippery up, remember your drawing together in a big in-draw of awe -- it's crucial to their suddenly being sucked into this illusion.

Trinc/Steph: When you come down, you can do broad slo-mo gestures, even though you're carrying your weapons -- sense of moving through thick fog to see the vision of a glorious golden castle -- floating in illusion.

Trio: "Pray you tread softly." can be quiet but fast. Pick up cues fast, one line right over another. They're all out of control. Enormously impatient with each other.

Trio: Should be a sharp mutual spasm the moment you hear "Hey Mountain hey!"

5:1
Alonso: Don't anticipate Prospero's embrace. Let me come to you. His head is dead as you're talking to Prospero: wants a couple of clearer movements in the first two lines, then you could go front, maybe hand on head, clearing your mind, then focus back on him as you start to kneel.

Seb/Ant: After the first swoop, I think they can both be transfixed by the sight of Prospero. You might have a look or two at each other, but the main focus is either on him or on the depths of your souls. I think what's happening is that now you're playing a reaction of guilt or "oh hell, we have a problem," and looking away or conveying their discomfort. But it's too soon for that: this is absolutely staggering, a man who's supposed to be dead, coming right out of your having descended into madness. I'm not sure exactly how this passage should be played by them, but experiment with it -- you're downstage, so very obvious, and it's vital we get a sense of their thru-line here.

Seb: When you say, "The devil speaks in him" and Prospero says, "No," it might make you jump a bit, or some sort of fright reaction. Prospero's vehemence startles you, if nothing else. It's nice, then, your kinda unruffling your tail feathers and then staying focused down.

Antonio: The struggle with the Spirit doesn't quite work: maybe because it's such a broad movement that we lose Antonio's presence. I think we need a sharp moment just when the Spirit first appears -- a frozen flash, then the struggle, but keeping the puppet's head very active in response.

Ferd/Mir: We haven't talked much about their chess game or the tone of it. I'm thinking now that it's a little cute & coy. What's needed is the sense that they're truly exploring one another. The metaphor is the game, but the sense is almost like the discovery of the individuality of erotic response, of the wonder of the other's body. Those moments of love-making (rare for some people, sadly) when there's a gentle humor that's also filled with joy. Then suddenly they're thrust from this sweet intimacy into the public, but then instantly confronted with another amazement.

Alonso: We need a sharper movement after I take away the chess game when you actually recognize Ferdinand. When Prospero banishes the game, immediately come into the C position sharply: you've just seen your son, can't believe it, and then can take a beat to really take him in before you speak and move forward. Right now your reaction is hidden. Hold your embrace till Prospero has finished "Tis new to thee." Otherwise your break takes focus right in the middle of this other moment. That means that you move immediately from the embrace to "What is this maid--" An extreme transition, yes, but that's the nature of this scene -- people being plunged into wonder after wonder.

Ferd: "She is mortal." Let your hand lead your body: the length of the arm conveys the strength of the emotion. Right now you're waiting to reach for her hand till you're near her. This is the extraordinary intensification of the moment. We might think of the style as "larger than life," but to my mind it's really a giving in to the largeness of life.

Alonso: "--must ask my child's forgiveness." "There sir, stop--" We haven't really explored this moment. I think you sound a little too pro forma -- kinda formally penitent, but not feeling the intensity of the moment, suddenly understanding that you were responsible for almost destroying this lovely creature. And for Prospero: I think this needs to be the strongest moment of intimacy between them, sharing the "heaviness that's gone." Not sure how to play this myself, but somehow very close and personal.

Ship Master: Stay faced pretty much front during this report -- he's still dazed.

SM/Bosun: Maybe needs a final little punctuation on it: at end of Bosun's line, look at one another, with a laugh of triumph & thanksgiving. Not a big thing, just a kind of little "wow."

Gonz: You're rushing your final speech. Nice quality, but it really wants to change tempo here. He's an old man, and after these many, many years, something absolute stunning has happened: he's seen a miracle.

Alonso: Response to Bosun sounds now like you're not really impressed by the strangeness of the business. On the contrary: the news of the ship is maybe the most astonishing thing of all -- it's concrete, not psychological, not accidental like Ferdinand's survival. Through this scene, you're always hovering on the brink of falling back into madness -- otherwise Prospero has no motive for saying "Do not infect your mind--" He might have a really strong physical response to the Bosun's news: the fact that it's good news, fabulous news, makes the response all the greater.
Alonso: When Prospero speaks to Ariel ("Set Caliban and his companions free") - you might be in a state of trying to recover your senses -- hand to forehead or something like that.

Trinc: Faster on first lines when you come in. Need to reach for Stephano immediately at "fly-blowing", otherwise he can't come in with his "do not touch me." What's your emotional response to Alonso's question? Seems to me you'd be scared shitless.

Alonso: During the conversation between Caliban and Prospero, best if you turn Alonso's face R -- otherwise he becomes psychologically part of the scene. He doesn't really want to spend time looking at Caliban.

Caliban: When he lands from the entrance, try going instantly into a protective posture. Don't move back and forth, but center it all in his breathing, which can be very heavy. Keep him very flat and at the point of exhaustion during his apology. I want to feel that Prospero and Caliban here are both at the furthest point of hopelessness, and it's at that point where they genuinely connect. At last they see each other. Don't ever look up at Prospero until the very last moment, and then tilt the face upward a bit more to catch better light.

***

That's the launch of it. Four more weeks to grow, and then after that, we dunno.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

Monday we loaded into the theatre, did a lot of refurbishment on hangings, refocus of lights, etc., and have now had two rehearsals in the theatre. It looks very, very good on that stage, though form some angles there are sight-line problems and lighting instruments to rehang because they're angling into the audience's eyes. And we have to cope with an intermittent air conditioning whoosh, not really bad unless it decides to start huffing as Caliban says "The isle is full of noises."

Personally exhausted, but trying to pace myself. This morning I worked at home, gluing hats onto the nobles and reengineering one that wouldn't fit. Then to the theatre, working about a third of the way through revising lighting cues, rehearsing Prospero for an hour, and stopping by the costumer's house to pick up a piece of felt for the back of Stephano's hat. Evening rehearsal, and now sitting down to write this frail excuse of a blog entry. Tomorrow more or less the same.

Some parts going well, some very rocky, but steady progress forward. Very limited rehearsal time, and it's always a difficult choice whether to work in large swathes, so the actors get a feel for the whole span of it, or to stop and fix every pothole. Eventually all he potholes need to get filled

In this sort of production, I sometimes feel we should sell special tickets to the backstage action. All the actors except myself are playing three to five characters and sometimes changing puppets very rapidly, and these puppets aren't designed for quick changes: you pull off the head, extract your hand from the fingerless glove, readjust it so you can get your hand into it quickly next time, hang the costume on a rack by its loop and stick the head on a stake above it, then worm your way into the next one. Meantime another actor stands by to put a sword belt around the puppeteer, then move a prop across backstage before the projector starts up, or grab one of the Ariels to appear for two lines in shadow. And then rush out and play your love scene.

***

Finding a peculiar thing with Prospero. An actor is often faced with creating his own back-story for a character, and I've written in this blog about my own constructed history of Prospero, his absent wife, his reasons for immersion in magic, his encounter with Caliban, etc. These aren't facts that will be conveyed to an audience, but they allow me to make choices that feel unified and motivated, and I think that inner coherence [[will]] be sensed.

But there's another kind of backgrounding I'm discovering in rehearsal -- equally coherent but totally irrational. That is, it's not part of a realistic story-line, but very much a part of his inner emotional life. On that plane of experience, Caliban is his son, engendered with Sycorax, the dark female who's supplanted his now-dead wife. And Caliban is the extension of his own lust for his daughter Miranda, or for any female; and Prospero's chaining of Caliban is in a sense his own self-castration.

And, well, I could go on with this imaginative absurdity. As I said, this has no rational basis in the text, and I'd be rather appalled if the audience picked that up as part of the story. But I'm talking here about [[emotional]] coherence. What I feel, for example, when I rail so vehemently about Sycorax, who (in realistic plot terms) I've only known by Ariel's report; and yet I speak of her as if I've known her intimately. What I feel when I repeatedly insist on my good will toward Caliban, my sense of his betrayal and my bottomless rage -- the one character who receives only my [[provisional]] forgiveness. A mere parole violator or sad degenerate doesn't rate that kind of obsession.

And I'm finding that, more and more, I'm locating Ariel within my head, the energy rising from my crown chakra, seeking release. Gielgud played Prospero four times, and in all productions never looked at Ariel, his idea being that this would make Ariel merely a fellow actor rather than a magical being. I'm finding the same, but for a different reason. For me, Ariel [[is]] the power and the freedom I seek, an unchained, polymorphous Elemental, who is indeed freed from me at the end, as I surrender my power.

"Do you love me, master, no?" "Truly." "Well." Difficult lines, and I've gone various ways with them. But more and more I think they're a key. Ariel is St. Paul's epiphany. He's my life obsession with theatre. He's the blaze in the new mother's first sight of her child. He's the fierce adrenalin in the Navy pilot's surge off the carrier's catapult. He's the most ecstatic moment in your life. And when you release him, you'll never, ever have him again. You'll never taste it, feel it, smell it again. You'll go back to Milan, read your daughter's occasional letters, and meet with the Planning Commission to work out problems with the aging sewage system.

So for me as actor, these strange fantasy plots, while they make no rational or scholarly sense, help to inform the moment, to link moment to moment. Likely they produce resonances that may mystify the audience, and as in a love affair, mystification is a tricky business. Yet a love affair without a trace of the mystic/mythic is hardly worth the effort.

***

Well, next week I'll take good photos of all the puppets -- we have a better digital camera coming, if it ever gets here -- and probably do some more bitching & moaning about sleepless nights. But after 50 years of the weeks leading up to opening night, I think I begin to understand the woman who, in an interview for our [[Nativity]] audio-doc, spoke of her moment in giving birth when she thought, no, I am getting up off this bed and going home. And then realizing, no, this is going to happen.

And it will.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

Using 14 video clips for rear projection, often with live shadow figures within them. They're all where "magical" elements occur: Ariel's first scene, the shadow of Sycorax, Ariel's songs to Ferdinand, the banquet, the dogs, the Harpy, the masque, etc. Mostly abstract, expressing a general feeling through movement and color, often with several moving images superimposed and with digital filters making them fairly unrecognizable. Will it work or just seem "experimental"? We'll soon see.

***

Boatswain/Gonzalo/Alonso -- Much better on the hand-offs of the swaying mast in 1:1 so that we don't have sudden direction changes. Remember always to sight where it's going as you're coming toward it. And that's realistic, after all: these characters are grabbing it for safety, so they'd damned well better look which way it's going.

Sebastian: Would it be possible (might be more effective) to wear Sebastian's sword on the right hip and draw across the body? Ok if he has some trouble finding it -- just play that.
After he's calmed down, I think it might be better just to keep it in your hand, rather than trying to sheathe it again -- if it's down at your side he won't look threatening. He's distracted enough that he may be too irrational to remember to sheathe it. Or are you doing something else that you need to?

Miranda: In 1:2, you might try focusing her downward more when she & Prospero are talking close at hand. Seems that would be a kind of habitual manner, not looking at him directly very often -- don't mean never, but just when it's particularly significant. A very close relationship, but never quite comfortable.

Ariel: In 1:2, you can play even more broadly in the large movements. And in telling your deeds with the ship, go as far as you can with illustrative gestures: flaming, dividing, burning, cracks, roars, weaves, shake, mad, plung'd, a-fire, dispersed, etc. etc. He's highly verbal, but we need the sense that his physicality is equal to this, that the words flow from his action, not the other way around.

Ariel: Not sure how this manifests, but think about it. When Ariel starts objecting to "more toil" in this scene, it's very different than Caliban's objection to work. Once Ariel is launched into a task, there's enormous delight in the doing of it, as we've just seen in the storm narration. What's objectionable about the work is its impinging on his freedom. The pain that he felt imprisoned in the tree wasn't the pain of being pinched; it was being constrained when your whole being IS movement. Maybe it's in his physical response, starting at "more toil," as if he's starting to feel the bonds again, trying to shake them off. And it builds through the Sycorax scene, where he's actually experiencing the binding again.

Caliban: Caliban's neck and shoulders turned out much longer and narrower than I'd planned, and at first I was going to try to correct this. But in watching, I rather like it: gets away from the cliche of Caliban as "earth creature." The skinniness makes him more vulnerable and in fact somehow more dangerous; also hungrier. So be conscious of that: I think you can keep his arms longer in gestures (though can be a contrast when he's wrapping his arm around his head, etc.), and experiment with how he stands, maybe with shoulders always on a tilt, like an adolescent who doesn't know what to do with this longer body.

Caliban: Don't make "Oh ho, Oh ho" an amorphous laugh. It can have a laugh quality, but I think these are exclamations, almost as if they're coming out of the spasm of trying to fuck. And then on "Thou didst prevent me," try bringing your hand sharply to your groin.

Ferdinand: Try letting your verbal responses to the songs at your entrance come more rapidly. The songs themselves are slow, and so I think they build up an energy in you that needs to be let out: what is this? What is this?

Ferdinand: It's not clear right now, when Prospero speaks to you, whether you really respond to him or not. I think you need to have a clearer physical response when he first speaks, and likewise when he addresses you again on "A word, good sir." Of course your attention goes immediately back to Miranda, but it'll be a stronger reconnect if these reactions break it.

Miranda: All your language to Prospero objecting to his treatment of Ferdinand is conciliatory -- "dear Father" "beseech you, Father" "Sir, have pity" But I think her subtext is a demand. This might not work, but try it & see how it feels: Rather than trying to soften my own anger, match it.

Ferdinand: You can take a pause before "My spirits, as in a dream" You've just been be-spelled, you've seen this furious exchange, you've heard her defend you -- it takes a moment for you to take a breath & take this all in.

2:1
Gonzalo, your "Beseech you, Sir, be merry" wants to come as a direct response to Alonso's opening sigh: you see this powerful man suddenly on the point of collapse. Right now it's not clear what impels you to start speaking.

Antonio & Sebastian: I think you're still "styling" your witticisms too much. You both tend to drawl them a bit, What amuses you & each other is the quickness, the dead-pan, inserting something every time Gonzalo takes the slightest breath. If they also try to "sound witty" it's overkill, and it also forces Gonzalo to pause longer than he would, given his urgent objective of comforting the King.

Sebastian: When you cut loose at the King, it can be with the same genuine anger that you have toward the Boatswain -- except that he'd never address the King in a loud voice, he'd never risk that. But you're angry and scared and it's all his fault.

Gonzalo, on "No, I warrant you" might start with a deep breath, containing his anger, but also feeling the first flush of sudden weariness. Right now the sleepiness comes out of nothing, and indeed it does come up suddenly, but it might be more credible if there's an early breath, and a sense of letting go of the current business.

Sebastian/Antonio: That same rapidity & cue pickup & flatness need to continue into your conspiracy scene. There can be some pauses, some innuendo, but a very small amount of that suggestive, plotting tone goes a long way. They don't know when the others will wake, and there's lots of ground to cover in a short span of opportunity. Antonio bears the brunt of the speaking here: look at the essential lines & phrases in his discourse, and what's just leading up to them, and get through the secondary stuff as distinctly but as quickly as you can, so you can hit the major points strongly.

Alonso: At the end of 2:1, Alonso is energized -- "Lead off this ground and let's make further search/For my poor son." This is totally a change from the "No, no, he's dead," of the beginning of the scene. What makes the difference is that the sudden waking, the immediate danger, has cast him back into his usual character, the man of action, the commander. By the next scene he's back in the doldrums, but here he's revived. So I think that from the moment of waking, after the first moment of confusion, he gets his bearings and is intensely alert, aware in all directions, and ready for action -- not a hint of the depressive.

2:2
Trinculo: Use your breath a lot more. He's had a lot of physical exertion, he's scared, so I think his breath informs his movement and his manner. Audible intakes when he's surprised or noticing something, audible out-breaths when he's despairing, audible inhales when he's about to launch on a new point or a new action. That can help sharpen his responses and also anchor his emotions more strongly. The manipulation is good, but you have a tendency to rely too much on vocal inflection of individual lines for expression, and so we lose the thru-line of what's driving him. Yes, he makes a whole lot of disparate points, but underneath it all, he's terrified, he's exhausted, he's cold, he's hungry, and you can't convey that all through vocal inflection, you need to find how it makes him breathe. He needs those deep breaths to cope with it all.

Stephano is best when he's sorta off-balance tipsy, when he's responding to what's immediately before him, and otherwise pretty straight. Right now, the voice often goes into a super-petulant or posturing tone that's over-kill: not that those elements aren't in his character, but it needs to manifest more in his actions, gestures, postures than in his voice, otherwise it seems too cartoony.

Stephano/Trinculo: Keep your lines very tightly cued. Not just for the sake of the scene's tempo, but to get the sense that they've been married for 20 years and are ready to reply to the other before the other is finished speaking. Unless there's a really specific thing that makes you pause, you should bring your line in right on the period of the other guy's. As well as sensing how your rhythm and inflection "answers" or plays off his, not just in the meaning of your line but in its music.

Caliban/Stephano/Trinculo: We need to explore how the "aside" functions for you all. For Stephano & Trinculo, both in your monologs and in the scenes, there are times when you can do the kinda realistic talking-to-yourself that's the usual style these days in Shakespeare, but at times, as with Trinculo's "were I in England now" or "Misery acquaints a man", or with Stephano's exploration of the monster, I think it works better to make these directly to the audience. Seems odd to think of Caliban having asides to the audience, yet it might be functional: for him, when something is so painful or so amazing that he can't help but share it. The "aside" isn't conveying information to the audience: it's sharing intimate experience with the stranger sitting next to you at the bar. That stranger isn't a real person to you exactly, though maybe you have to look up at him to make sure he's not passing judgment on you, but he allows you a fuller expression of your thought & feeling than if you were stuck with saying it to yourself. For Caliban, this might include some sequences in his monolog, while others are to himself, and it might include "These be fine things" (parallel moment to Miranda's "How many goodly creatures"

Trinculo: When Stephano vomits into your horn, make a much more elaborate process of cleaning it out. Go on with the dialogue, but probably keep your focus on this job till he actually offers you the liquor.

Three: Caliban goes on at great length with "I'll shew thee the best Springs" "Let me bring the where Crabapples grow" etc. So he must not be getting the response he wants from Stephano, so he's impelled to go on. Possibly Stephano is ignoring him and drinking instead, but it could be that, while drinking, Stephano is gesturing Caliban to keep it up, "What else can you do for me? What else?" -- really relishing the slot machine's pay-off.

Three: At the climax of the Freedom song, the last note and gesture wants to be a strong punch, and I think we should black out on a frenzied freeze, rather than let them stagger around for the beats of the light fade. There needs to be the sense that something's really launched here.

3:1
Ferdinand & Miranda are developing very well. My one concern in this scene is that right now not much really happens between them except getting through the small talk to say what they intend to say. It's all one tone, and the fact that you do it really well makes it hard to find exactly what's missing. I'm thinking that the scene has three stages of development, and I'm not sure how these manifest, but look at it in this way:

1) Even though he's calling her "precious Creature" and she's clearly concerned for him, there wants to be more concealment of their emotional tone from each. They're both too vulnerable to risk revealing, through their emotional tone, how deeply they're smitten. They're not declaring themselves, they're just haggling over the job at hand.

2) With "You look wearily," it changes, and it all comes flooding out. You're perfect; you're perfect -- and this culminates in the question "Do you love me?" and his response to it, and her (weeping) response to that. It's a glorious flood of feeling.

3) Her weeping takes it to a new realm: this is dead serious. It's all or nothing. I will be your wife; I will be your husband. Meaning not our current notion of marriage, but for life. There's emotion in it, but none of the complimentary gushing: it's too serious, too real for that.

***

Enough. Back to video editing.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

Not a problem when you're in pre-production, struggling to pull it out of the air -- text analysis, design, creating the outlines of the staging scenario. But actually plunged into rehearsal, not easy.

Still, I'm determined to do it. I think it forces new perspective. Makes me stand back, at least once a week, and try to see this thing afresh. Might be better to drive over to the ocean, walk along the beach, and think about it. But I've chosen to do it this way, at least this time around.

***

Nearly halfway through the rehearsal span, opening Sept. 18th, 16 rehearsals to go -- only 3 hrs each, and often not with full cast. All the lighting, about half the music, and many of the costumes are complete; the video sequences (14, used only behind the "magical" scenes") are in a rough state, but I have do-fers plugged into the computer. Props are ready.

So this week is devoted mostly to what we'd normally be doing the final week, working out tech problems. With puppets, it's more complicated than otherwise. Caliban is left Off Right so that Anthony comes in with Alonso from there, but then the puppet has to be Off Left for next entrance. Who pulls the curtain? Who strikes the log? Who switches Circuit 23 on the A/B box at the blackout on Cue 19? The cast are doing all this, but operating on a tight quota of two arms and one brain each.

Meantime, videotaping a lot so I can see not only my own performance but the others when I'm onstage. Takes lots of extra time reviewing stuff the next day, sometimes playing it in rehearsal to illustrate a point. But the camera is brutally honest and generally sees more than the spectator would consciously.

***

Right now, the tendency is not trusting the puppets enough -- trying to give the puppet energy and expression with the voice rather than with his physical action. And immediately the listener hears the actors straining to be funny or pathetic or whatever.

As verbose as this play is, the puppets' energy must come from their physicality. All these characters have strong emotional needs or obsessions. The tempest has brought great trauma upon them all, so they share a volatility that gives this play a special life. Right now, we're [[sounding]] too emotional and not [[physicalizing]] it nearly enough. With a puppet, if the voice reacts but the body doesn't, then voice and body seem disconnected and unreal -- you're acting [[behind]] your puppet, not [[through]] your puppet.

***

On the other hand, on video I see myself (with the puppet Prospero) going to the opposite extreme. I've always had a tendency toward sharp, abrupt gesture, and right now Prospero is tearing the air to tatters. I need badly to follow my incessant note to the other actors: make your gesture specific, no generalized hand-waving. Let it translate the key feelings and images. Bring the creature's whole body into it. Probably about two physical impulses per line, and distinct ones.

My other great challenge is eye focus. My Prospero puppet has long hair, replicating my own, and it's often very difficult to see, from the back, exactly where his eyes are focused. This is a constant challenge in puppetry, and one I need to pay much more attention to, lest he come across looking blind as he gazes past his darling Miranda into outer space.

***

Where the characters are going:

Alonso: Here too, the actor has all the ingredients, just needs to intensify the role physically. Difficult, because Alonso is so deeply trapped at the outset in depression. It's just occurred to me, though, that right now we're treating him more like a [[chronic]] depressive who can't summon the energy to react. But this is radically abnormal for him: he's an iron-fisted ruler of an expansionist state in the raw jungle of italian political strife. His life is pragmatic action. So while he shrugs off Gonzalo's persistent attempts to rouse him from the trauma of his son's death, there still needs to be an intensity in his innards -- moments of power, abruptness, pain -- a man totally unfamiliar with inner turmoil or being struck impotent by Fate, now with the tempest wrapped inside him.

Antonio: The actress has developed a very direct voice: he's like Iago in being a very sneaky character who gains the confidence of others by sounding very straightforward. The female hands seem too evident, need to study men's hands more, and how they're carried. I like the rather flat, dispassionate tone that oddly sets up his utter collapse at the Harpy scene.

Sebastian: Very good characterization, always. Main thing now is to find the rhythm and connection between him and Antonio. Oddly, it mirrors Stephano & Trinculo (see below); they're bonded by a core amorality, by a similar wit, by having been in their older brothers' shadows. Now we have to feel something is unlocked for them, and they're moving toward it hungrily -- again, like the clowns. We also need to find more specfiically what Sebastian's state is, following the Harpy. Thus far we've only begun to touch on this; and again, it's strongly dependent on his relationship with Antonio. Probably, as we discussed last night, this event precipitates the unraveling of that bond.

Gonzalo: This is a very caring, pragmatic Gonzalo. He's talkative, but it's always for a purpose, and while always diplomatic, he never wastes any time. Seems that his overall objective is "to soothe" -- he's the one who keeps everything together, who tries to deflect quarrels, prevent things blowing up, rouse the King from his despair. He's always intervening. but to do that he has to insert himself quickly into situations. The main challenge right now is that sense of being right on the ball, needs to come in right on the top of cues. The actor has a tendency toward little preparatory moments before speaking. That lags the tempo, but more importantly, it makes us lose sight of Gonzalo's task.

Caliban: His quiet moments are quite strong, his basic humanity. Now I think we need to focus on the other side of it: the true danger and brutality that can manifest from a wounded, oppressed creature. We have to empathize with him as we would for someone who's been systematically tortured -- which he has. But that mustn't slide into pathos. We also have to feel, as the clowns' plot transpires, that while he teams with them, he's not one of them: he's truly murderous.

Trinculo & Stephano: Right now, we have very clear images of these characters, and the main task is making their scenes work smoothly. Line stumbles are interfering a lot, and I'm concerned that we not get the tempo of line-struggle incorporated into the characters' rhythms. There's already a tendency, especially in comic scenes, to craft one's line as a funny line, to find a funny way to say it. That's what's happening right now: there's a little preparation gap in front of most of the lines, and then a kind of over-emphasized delivery. Makes for a slow, plodding scene where the characters don't really have much at stake.

There aren't many funny lines in this play. In fact, Oscar Wilde excepted, there aren't many funny lines in the best comedies. It's all in reaction, in the interaction, in the incongruity between what the character's trying to do and the way he's doing it.

So our focus in the next weeks will be on their nature as a "team." They've always needed each other, and now more than ever, but with the same kind off love-hate relationship as the Laurel & Hardy paradigm. When the third wheel -- Caliban -- is added, the vehicle veers seriously into the oncoming lane. But the essential ingredient is that they've played in vaudeville together for 20 years, they've consoled & abused each other for decades, they've both shared the flea-ridden army cot, they'll bungle things just as badly next time -- but they'll survive. That's all contained in their "music," their picking up inflections & rhythms off one another, their vulnerability.

Miranda: I've always seen her as with a lot of strength, and that's coming through -- and finding ways to mark the evolution of her independent will. All the ingredients are there, I think, and now it's a matter of finding each new "marvel" that she encounters and the uniqueness of her response to each. Easy to become repetitious in response to wondrous things, and then they no longer seem wondrous. How does it affect her to be witness to a huge shipwreck, the revelation of her family's trauma, a sudden madness in her father, the lightning stroke of love, and the appearance of space aliens -- all in a couple of hours?

Ferdinand: Much the same goes for Ferdinand. Added problem in the playing: Once he's past his confused, distracted entrance, his engagement with other characters in his scenes -- Miranda, Prospero, Alonso -- is intensely focused, and he tends to get frozen into profile and becomes physically inexpressive. Does he have a secondary point of focus in these scenes that can allow some frontality?

Boatswain & Ship Master: The Bosun has a great roughness, swagger & dialect work well, but sometimes a slow tempo that feels too much like pirate melodrama. We need to keep his sense of the real urgency of it all, shouting orders that just aren't working. He's drinking but not drunk: this is the way he deals with danger and cold. Ship Master is on only very briefly at beginning and end, and I think we're going in the right direction: he's old, he's doing his best, but he's long past his prime and really can't cope. All he can do, really, is tell the Bosun, "Do something!"

***

Prospero & Ariel? I'll focus on those guys more next week.

Need to add this disclaimer: Shakespeare isn't about character interpretation; it's about the story. Often, impossible stories that start out with a scene saying, in effect, "I know this is absolutely incredible, but..." And then leading us, step by step, into the human truth of that absurdity.

All great stories are preposterous. They're not remotely believable, but they're true.

-Conrad

Hi, all--

Schedule for next week:

Monday, 17 - 7-10 JB/BS, Scenes E & H (1st & 2nd Miranda/Ferdinand scenes). If we have time, we'll look also at the Masque scene (4:1) and the chess-playing. First priority, though, is lines for the first two scenes. We'll do some line-running, but the objective is to be off book for these by the end of rehearsal.

Tuesday, 18 - 7-10 BS/JF-Misc. Let me know if there are specific sequences you'd like to work. I'd like to work Benjamin into the Bosun in 1:1, then focus mainly on Stephano/Trinculo. Here again, we'll do as much in-rehearsal line work as needed, but do a lot of reviewing in the meantime.

Wednesday, 19 - 7-10:30 All-N/O/P. I'd like to go till 10;30 tonight, as we have publicity photos and this is one of our rare full-cast times.
This is the very complex latter-part of Act 5. Vital that everyone is pretty tight on lines. We'll do as much prompting as necessary, but for this rehearsal you can't carry book or be watching it, as the crucial task is the physical action.

Thursday, 20 - Cancelled: NO REHEARSAL

Saturday, 22 - 1:00-4:30. Called are AA/BS/JF for Scenes G/I/L: Trinculo, Caliban, and Stephano. If we have time, we'll also review their appearance in Act 5.

Sunday, 23 - 10-1 and 2-5 - ALL - Morning, we'll string together all of Act 1 plus Act 2:1. Main focus is to discover problems with fast changes, needed extra hands, cross-overs, etc. Afternoon, slight change from schedule: we'll string together Scenes G thru J (2:1 Trinc/Steph/Caliban thru 3:3). Same objective.
Jessica proposed that we do a potluck right after 5 pm. We'd love to do that. Could either do it here or at her place. Even if not everyone can make it (and totally understood if you can't), let's do it. Let us know if you can or can't.

Current status: I'm very pleased how the puppet manipulation is evolving. Still a long ways to go. Everyone has very good moments, interspersed by dead heads or very generalized gesture. I'll try to give a clearer sense of where the movement needs to be realistic and where it can afford to go broader, but as a general rule for everyone, even the realistic needs to be broader and more specific.

Likewise the speech. As you study lines, continue to look at the line structure for clues about phrasing. This play has an extraordinary number of divided ("enjambed") lines, and lots of lines with weak endings, or ending on a preposition or word that wouldn't normally be emphasized. You have to get the sense of the thru-line meaning of the line, but the more you can sense the function of the line divisions, the stronger the expression.

Continue to study, too, the structure even of short speeches. Why does he say it in three lines when you could condense it into one? Why does he say it this way rather than by ten different paraphrases you could make? Where, within the speech, is there a new reaction, a change of tone, a shift in direction or intention? What's he consciously or unconsciously wanting to *accomplish* with these words? What's the function of elaboration? Where does he set one word or phrase in contrast to another word or phrase? In these late plays, Shakespeare NEVER has you utter words solely for the poetry of it: the character has to coin those electric phrases because something that intense or sweet or punchy is needed at that moment. We don't have time to do extensive textual analysis in rehearsal: you need to explore, very literally, with the above questions, so that you can bring the questions & problems into rehearsal. Otherwise, we fall into the trap -- even of very professional productions -- of just adopting an appropriate "tone" or blanket emotion for the speeches, with never a sense of anything happening RIGHT NOW, of the characters saying this stuff for the first time, coining these phrases.

Jeanine (Ms. Stage Manager), you're a treasure. Thank you.

I've nearly finished with lighting cues and with painting the set. Costumes will be coming in gradually but are well under way, and I think they're quite good. We have nearly all the props finished. The Rep has finished a layout of the postcard, which I think is quite compelling. Music and video will be coming in steadily over the next three weeks.

The only down-side of this way-in-advance tech stuff is that our control software is rather clunky when we do starts & stops & back-to-Cue-5's. Which means that the dead moments where you're just standing & waiting will pervade the entire next 5 weeks, not just "tech week." I'll try to alert you when you're likely to be marking time, & urging that you use this time to run lines with one another, work out blocking problems, etc., & do anything else you can on your own or with each other to use this time.

Now that we have more rehearsals with larger numbers of cast, we'll be doing some warmups that involve group movement and really sensitizing to one another's physical rhythms. Right now, when we get more than two people onstage, it's like a crowded elevator, with everyone jostling for elbow room. The great challenge of this style -- apart from everything else you're doing -- is to move as a unit, to breathe as a unit, like a quartet of dancers or contact-improvisers. I don't know how much of that we can achieve in this short time, but when we groove into it, you'll feel everything suddenly becomes so much easier & more relaxed.

It means, though, that there's a very high premium not only on getting your lines down tight, but getting them so instinctive that you don't have to think about them -- they come like the music to a musician, and you can shape them very spontaneously. Otherwise, the lines will be causing your movement to stutter, taking you back into yourself and breaking contact with your partners. So, we'll work on this.

Enough. This is a big week coming. Let's take deep breath and enjoy it hugely.

***

Design stuff:
Finished painting the set last night. The traveling curtain covering the projection screen replicates embroidered symbols on the back of Prospero's magical robe. Everything is painted with dye, can be easily darkened but not lightened. We'll see how it works with the lights, but overall it feels rich and strange.

Big task I've procrastinated on, then woke up suddenly this morning knowing how to do it. We need racks that hold costumes and heads when they're not in use. But the head and neck construction makes it a challenge. Worked out a way to hang them and have heads on easily-accessible stands. Now to build it.

You're welcome, starting this week, to wear the Spirit masks at any time, but I won't require it till the following week.

First draft of the lighting cues is finished: I'm a rewrite artist, needing to stage or establish a first-draft design ASAP and then do it all over again. Fortunately, there's time. Next step is rehanging some instruments, refocusing others, and adding five new ones -- Elizabeth is manufacturing clamps for these, going back and forth between her music on the synthesizer and metal work on the drill press -- as conventional C-clamps don't work well on the square aluminum tubing.

Staging stuff:
I'm just starting this week to take small bites out of the workday to rehearse solo with Prospero. The challenge is that the whole play must emanate from his being -- it's "expressionistic" in that sense. So in one sense it's useful that the director/designer is playing the central role (as happened in the work of Tadeusz Kantor so powerfully): the Visioner controlling "Spirits, which I have from their confines called to enact my present fancies."

Yet, practically speaking, the directing process requires that I constantly break out of my actor-self to look directorially at the whole picture -- not only an interruption of consciousness but a shift into an entirely different "mind." At a later point, I can use video (and Elizabeth) be my "outside eye," and review the scene outside rehearsal. But right now, apart from the staging rehearsals, I need this solo work to bring me back to a "centeredness" in the character.

The danger, of course, is in creating your character outside the responsiveness to your scenic partners, though I remind myself that great actors worked this way for centuries. And it does produce a bit of a sense of insanity: the image of the guy raving to imaginary people on the street corner. But it feels appropriate to the peculiar mind-set of Prospero, who I believe struggles against his own revenge-fury as wrenchingly as Hamlet struggles to control his own pretended madness from becoming real madness.

Enough for now. Went to the ocean this weekend & took many deep breaths.

Cheers--
Conrad

Costumes are starting to arrive. "Fittings" aren't quite the same as with regular actors -- the costume doesn't have to fit the actor's body, it [[is]] the body. But the precise placement of holes in the backs of sleeves and back requires that I test out each one, and in some cases padding is needed under flimsy fabric to simulate a body.

A stage manager at last -- Jeanine Gray -- who's plunged into the thick of things: line prompting, writing blocking, running camcorder, hitting sound & light cues, resetting props, and standing in for me onstage when I need to come front and look at the whole stage picture. A godsend.

***

Rehearsal notes:

Monday, rehearsed the first Prospero/Miranda scene; Tuesday, the Act 1 Ariel and Caliban scenes; Thursday, a miscellany of work on shadow effects, and reviewed the rough blocking of the II.i. Neapolitans.

Moving slowly forward on manipulation. The actors are masked as Spirits, holding their puppets usually at head level in front of themselves, with one hand operating the head, the other hand as the puppet's hand. The tendency -- very hard to overcome -- is to follow one's own actor-instinct, looking at the character you're speaking to or else letting your posture and your focal point follow your own instincts, as you would if you were playing the role full-blown, without this big pesky thing in front of you.

The result is that that big pesky thing goes dead, except for a few vague hand gestures giving it a whiff of zombie life. Instead, you have to focus your own eyes on the puppet itself: [[he's]] the one who looks at the other character, who changes posture, who breathes. But we're starting to find it. Next rehearsal I think I'll play it first as all live actors, allowing that internalizing impulse full sway, before translating it into an utterly new style.

Act 1 is an extraordinary roller coaster ride for Prospero. I've always felt that in [[Hamlet]], from his first encounter with the Ghost, Hamlet is simultaneously pretending to be mad and actually going mad, holding onto his tattered shreds of reason in a world that's crumbling around him. Similarly, I feel that Prospero believes he is "pretending" anger at Ariel, then at Ferdinand and Miranda, yet in each case he's flooded from his own deep well of rage, clinging to his objective of resolution, but tossed about wildly by his own Tempest.

So in Act 1, Prospero opens his own deeply-wounded past to Miranda, threatens Ariel, curses Caliban, imprisons Ferdinand, and shows Miranda a fury she's never seen before. Some is real, some is "pretended," but it's all part of the storm. What Shakespeare has written here is about the longest expository scene in dramatic literature that's likewise the longest mad scene. It sets up an extraordinary suspense in a play that otherwise lacks all serious conflict, allowing Prospero to be absent from the stage through the entirety of Act 2 and most of Act 3 while we still have the sense that this man may at any time come in through the door and start shooting.

The key to playing Act 1, I think, is to give every one of his extremes full value. Is he a loving father? Yes. Is he a benign master? Yes. Is he a merciless slave-driver? Yes. Etc. etc. The past has fragmented him, as in a chemical reaction, and only by the play's end has he been painfully knit together.

Good improvisations with shadow screen for storm scene, with an abstract video projection lighting a model ship manipulated by multiple hands, fabric strips forming waves, and Ariel's head flitting about. Nothing terribly original about any of this, but it works. Haven't coordinated this, though, with who's actually available to do any of it, as the actors are pretty much busy on stage. Probably establish this at the outset, then brief shadow effects as actors are free.

Lotsa work on the first Trinculo/Stephano/Caliban scene. Long, frustrating work on the comic sequence of the two guys hiding under the tarp, dependent on their feet sticking out -- and the puppets don't have feet. So I've built two sets of feet, which the actors lift appropriately, protruding from the edge of the tarp. But the tarp keeps sliding off the people, the feet are too heavy, it's a big mess -- though the right idea, I think. Need to get lighter-weight shoes, and then work out the rest.

Worked first as live actors on this scene, then with puppets, to good effect. It brings into play the actors' own instincts for exploring the scene; and, contrary to what I'd feared, doesn't mire them in simply trying to reproduce it with the puppet. We're just starting to tap into puppets' capacity for extravagance, for truthful exaggeration. To my mind, behavioral reality is the essence of Shakespeare: in the questions you ask about character and action, you need to ask them as if it's all real. But he can't be strait-jacketed in "realism." Language, gesture, stage dynamics -- these all enlarge and intensify the truth of the action.

The key to the first clowns' scene is its final song, Caliban's declaration of freedom. I'm having all three join in to the chorus. Here, along with Jack Cade's rabble in [[Henry VI]] or the plebes in [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Coriolanus]], Shakespeare is merciless in his cynicism on working-class rebellion. Here, the gates of heaven open suddenly, and the hapless Fool can have respect, the tormented Slave can have a master godlike in benevolence, and the drunken Butler can float on an infinitude of fine sherry. It's all terribly absurd, pathetic and ironic. It has to be deeply felt. And finally, it's murderous in its need. Elizabeth's setting of the song, I think, captures all these elements, and now it's just a matter of giving full value and clarity to the evolution of this trio's cross-current relationships. Certainly, the scene has to be funny, but it has to be much more.

The need came through most acutely at the moment when Stephano and Trinculo, rapt in their tales of survival, finally notice Caliban and he asks, "Hast thou not dropped from heaven?" How long do they hold their breath before they bray with laughter? That moment was a great discovery, the crystallization of millennia's graspings for false messiahs.

--Conrad

Monday 7/27--
Finished headdresses and painting of Ariel as Harpy and as Nymph. A note to the cast on the Friday rehearsal. Reviewed the operation of our lighting control program -- Glenn had sent a new upgrade. Bought a chess set for Ferdinand & Miranda, repainted it, glued the pieces in place. Mail-ordered an ooga horn for Trinculo, a ship model as a shadow in the storm scene. Posted the week's blog. Lotsa errands buying more stuff.

Tuesday, 7/28--
Out to get video samples: to ocean for surf, back around house for tree branches moving against the sky, built fire in fireplace for close-ups of flames & coals, then played with shadows on projection screen (these all to be radically filtered. Completed headdresses on the three identical Ariels, but still baffled on color. Watched rehearsal video to rewrite blocking in promptbook for Acts 4-5. Call from actor asking to have lesser Ariel role because of other heavy production pressures; will check thru script to modify. Email from Dave on costumes. Petty cash receipts to Rep for reimbursements. EF completed a long revision of the audio cue list and its timetable. Managed late-night to write a new scene on screenplay we're doing with Arturo.

Wednesday, 7/29--
Walked downtown for coffee, studied Prospero's Act 5. Need very strong physical response on "And mine shall," almost as if a demon is leaving his body. Folio punctuation useful: addressing the King, there's always a comma or a line break when Prospero adds "and thy Company" or "and your train." Suggests a hyperconsciousness of his brother as part of that entourage, a tension in extending hospitality to the sinners. Almost word-perfect now, but need a lot of work on the line breaks and how they affect meaning.

Rest of the day spent on building a Sycorax mask that briefly appears and two shadow masks for Ceres and Juno. Late evening at last attacked painting of the three identical Ariel heads, yellow & gold with a blue/green glaze. I think I like it.

Thursday, 7/30--
Walked downtown for coffee, studied Prospero/Miranda (Iii). Struck especially by how the verse structure moves this long story forward with an obsessive force -- will write more about that next week. Into work on the stands that are to hold puppet heads by the end of the play: hands rising from each vertical. These are vinyl surgical gloves stuffed with batting, taped to PVC that sets into wider PVC. I had made all 12 of these last week, then neglected to test the spray paint on them before spraying all 12 and discovering that the enamel wouldn't dry. So today I did it all over again.

Friday, 7/31--
Most of the day working on the stands for heads, hemming the cloth, then painting them with dye and adding a twisted rope. They look interesting, though it's utterly unclear what they represent. Reblocked the opening of Act 5 so that we see them all bare on stage at the outset. All of Act 5 is blocked now, with only a few points where the multiple casting runs into problems. Started work on the Spirits, improvising a series of stage crosses; they need to go from total neutrality as puppeteers to distinctly characterized Spirit movement, sometimes rapidly back and forth. Finished rehearsal by recording the Mariners' cries during the storm -- decision to use only Shakespeare's lines, no improvisation, recording each actor multiple times, with in intention of overlaying them in the editing, as well as doing several forms of unison.

Saturday, 8/1--
Worked all day on rehanging and focusing lights, and on Prospero's hair. Finished the hair except for some trimming & spraying when the glue is completely dry, and started putting some rough light cues into the computer. As with staging, I try to do light cues far in advance and very fast, so that I have plenty of time to get dissatisfied with them and revise. Meantime, sounds of the storm are emerging from Elizabeth's studio. It's been a very fruitful week in terms of tech work, but I've barely been able to think about the play itself.

Sunday, 8/2--
Sabbath. To our funky outdoor espresso stand, then to Market, then to the ocean. Deep breath. Rest of afternoon and evening building the stand for Prospero's magic book, then building the book itself. Pretty crude binding, about on a par with my one foray into bookbinding in Boy Scouts, but hey, it's a stage prop, it's a stage prop. Late evening, made the worklist for next week.

We now -- thank ye, o gods -- have a Stage Manager, starting Aug. 3. A standard practice for our SM is to have a daily "note sheet" that has little boxes for Things to Do: if, during rehearsal, I mumble, "We need to widen Trinculo's neck" or "So there'll be a special down left when you enter," the Stage Manager notes this in the box marked Puppets or Lights (or Set, Costumes, Audio, etc.) and then hands me the sheet at the end of rehearsal so I remember everything that's come up that needs to go on the worklist.

So here I'll use this structure as a way of reporting not what we need to do, but what we did this week:

SET
Finished the 14 pieces of text fragments, projected onto pieces of canvas, which were then inked in, the edges frayed and then burnt with a butane torch, then appliqued onto the set by strips of heat-adherent. A huge task of dye-painting the set still remains, but this is the start of it.

Elizabeth worked on the track for the rear curtain, but we found that there was some glitch in its smoothness, causing the curtain to jam, and so the whole thing has to be taken down and rebuilt. And then a pulley system built. She's not happy about this. She can recall countless experiences from early childhood where she's taken on tasks that seen insurmountable, impossible, and she goes through a hell of anxiety ... and then figures it out. That's the way it works.

For myself as well. I finish the appliques, then look at the whole set and think, "I haven't even begun." I really don't know what the hell I'm doing next. I've decided to do the whole set painting with dye, and that's unforgiving. I'll figure it out next week.

COSTUMES
David brings in the first costumes: Boatswain, Ship Master, and Caliban. Good start. The process of "fittings" with puppet costumes is unique. They don't have to fit the body -- the costume itself [[is]] the body -- but finding exactly the right place for the slits for the puppeteers' hands, and how the neck relates to the shoulders -- these are tense moments. We work stuff out.

Next up will be the costumes of the Neapolitan court, but also Prospero's dressing. We've come to agreement that the puppet Prospero ("island Prospero" we call him) will be light in color, very plain, and the "magical garment" he asks Miranda to remove (after the Tempest) will be a hood with magical symbols. But this is not his true magical garment. That's the robe of the live-actor Prospero, the same dark gray that's the basis for Caliban's clothing. It's a heavy, hooded ceremonial robe, plain in the front (offering a neutral background for the Prospero puppet) but with a back covered with magical symbols.

The costuming design is by necessity collaborative, as we're creating both heads and bodies of our characters. So we've gone back and forth with thumbnails, influencing each other. And as I email a scanned image of my ideas for those magical symbols, I suddenly see these as mirrored on the rear curtain that opens to reveal the video projections. We see those symbols first on this curtain, then on Prospero's back as he conjures up the Tempest, and recurring through the play.

What do the symbols mean? Well, the caduceus is the most important for me, and it has to do with balance & healing. Visually, it presents a powerful spine. For the rest of it, the figures are taken from alchemy, and for all I know, they say "Drink Coke" or "Eat at Joe's." But for me they have a form that's true.

PUPPETS
All but three puppets now have hair, and what a difference it makes. I love Alonso.

Miranda's hair will be mostly hidden by her cowl. Ferdinand's is just adapting an existing wig, main challenge being to keep it full and romantic but not to make it too feminine. Got a start on this about an hour ago. Prospero is the demon: I have a perfect match for my own hair -- he's intended to look exactly like me -- but it''s not on a wig cap, just on some kind of cord, and adhering it will be utter hell. So I'm procrastinating.

The other vast challenge, already procrastinated upon, are the five Ariel heads. The first stage here is to find the right head-dressing, and this week things have started falling into place. Our costumer Dave brought in some cheap China-made plastic grass-shoots of various ilks, and combined with thin foam-rubber cut-outs, I think we're onto something. A trip today to craft stores yielded a bunch of great stuff. Now I'm faced with the problem of how to adhere it: epoxy glue won't adhere to the kind of plastic these are made of, so we're plotting exotic combinations of epoxy and hot glue, maybe combined with fervent prayer.

And two of the Ariels have been completed: the Sea Nymph and the Harpy. Their plastic foliage gives a wonderful movement, the Harpy suggesting flames, the Nymph a kind of slow undersea quality.

CAST
Two rehearsals this week: schedules make possible only six in July, so I'm trying to tackle the scenes that offer the biggest challenges. Best to start out being stupified rather than wind up being stupified.

One night devoted to the accumulated throng of Act 5, the problem being how to gather 12 characters on the stage when you have only 5 puppeteers. The other, the enchanted masque of Act 4. What's this all about? Why does Prospero suddenly end it?

Some discoveries. Having the detailed scenario (see previous entries on this blog) has been absolutely essential. But of course when you actually go into rehearsal, it's a new ball game.

* Great potential power in moving from the puppet Prospero to the living Prospero. This movement within the "revels" speech, as he follows the logic of what's intended to be a speech of comfort into something as dark as Beckett.

* Choreography of the clowns as the dogs attack, quite absurd until we see that there's real pain involved. They wind up in a heap, with sudden jerks as of electroshock. Just finished building the dogs: silly and horrific at the same time.

* Sketched in the barest start of the masque. Starting just with hand shadows for Iris, then a full-scale shadow of Ceres appears on the screen, then a dance between Juno and Ceres. Ceres disappears, Juno turns, and for the first time we see (in shadow) that she's pregnant. She stoops as if to deliver, and the shadow of Caliban's head rises up. This all assumes that we take Prospero literally when he explains that the spirits "enact my present fancies." His fancies and his nightmares.

We're beginning each rehearsal with the actors' exploring their own puppet characters, focused on making them breath, giving them a sense of independence, and developing a characteristic gestural vocabulary for each. These puppets live in the dynamic between head and hand, and while gesture must be sparing, it must be very specific, not the vague, generalized emphasis-wave that most actors indulge in. We each work privately for five minutes, then show what we've come up with, trying to integrate it with the voice and the phrasing.

So it's Monday evening and time to go back to gluing Ferdinand's hair.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

So, back into the grind. Today I finished the hair for Sebastian and Alonso, started the lettering on the set (fragments of text on appliques glued to the sweep of the canvas), and began some private work on Prospero. Two rehearsals coming up at the end of this week. I felt quite anxious being away from the worklist, but it gave me a chance to step back and get some perspective on the whole project.

Several European puppeteers spoke of their work as a kind of circular transaction between actor, puppet and audience. The puppet is a transmission pathway from actor to audience but is also an active instigator, as if the electrical conducting wire not only transmitted the impulse from the source but also [[called forth]] that impulse. And the audience is not only the recipient but also -- if the channels are open and the actor fully present to them -- the fertile center of this erotic flow.

Which leads me, naturally, to [[The Tempest]]. Prospero's epilogue is a curious thing. In a way, it's so much in the tradition of "Our play's done, folks, please applaud," that some producers have cut it entirely and replaced it with "Our revels now are ended." To me that's not only a grotesque misreading of the "revels" speech but a failure to see the profundity of Shakespeare's very simple statement.

[[Gentle breath of yours, my Sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please.]]

What does it mean, "to please"?

To post-Romantic artists bent on self-expression, truth-telling, provocation of thought, farting in the face of the bourgeoisie, the notion of "pleasing" the audience conjures up the saccharine blare of [[The Sound of Music]]. To many serious artists, "pleasing" is synonymous to "pandering." So do we take Prospero at his word when he says that the whole purpose of this masterpiece of redemption, forgiveness and resurrection was "to please"? Is [[The Tempest]] merely a tap-dance?

Well, no. Though I love tapdancers and wrote a play about one. Prospero's epilogue, summarizing the play itself, is about freedom.

[[As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your Indulgence set me free.]]

So to put these two things together, if I can. How does "pleasing the audience" connect with freedom? We tend to think of it as a binding, an obligation, not a freeing.

Actors, musicians, athletes know when they're in the groove -- and probably more often, when they're not. Lotsa writers drink lotsa booze to get there and stay there as long as they can. "In the groove" is outside yourself, outside the self who's writing his own reviews, who's chewing that old cud of karma, who's plotting revenge, who's rehearsing his acceptance speech, who's grieving for the lost lost lost lost years. "In the groove" is flying free.

[[Then to the Elements
Be free, and fare thou well.]]

The black desolation of Caliban is one with Prospero, and so is the flight of Ariel.

The audience then -- my forthcoming audience -- I ask to give me their hands, their presence, their breath, to free me from this barren island of self. Prospero relinquishes, as we all must, his staff, his book, the ecstatic adrenalin rush of the mage in full power. At the outset, my power is infinite; at the end, my power is zilch. And, weirdly, my victory is in my toilet flush.

And what this grotesque quiz-show consolation prize leaves me with: my freedom. I ask you to clap your hands. You do. I thank you. We are one.

What do they get from it? What pleases them? Infinite answers to that one, but a couple of universals: they want the familiar [[and]] the new, the safely dangerous. They want the excitement of the journey, but they want to be protected: they need to trust the guide. Whether we're going into the jungle, the sewers of Paris, or Disney World, the trip can please us if that trust is there.

Being now 67, I have my stock repertoire of grievances against the world, my little toy-theatre revenge plays I'd perpetrate if I could. I need to understand Prospero in this context. desperately struggling against his worst instincts, seeing his life as a wasteland of confusion, seeking freedom. And finding it.

In the hands and breath of his audience. If, indeed, he can give himself to them.

Peace & joy--
Conrad B.

Starting this entry sitting on the ocean cliff, finishing a picnic on our sabbath. Once a week, some day, we require ourselves to take a day when the sole acts allowed are what's pleasurable, creative, or otherwise energizing. The sea is a good place for that.

And for assessing where we are right now in this voyage.

[[The Tempest]] is indeed a play [[about]] voyages: a tormented exile, brought about by Prospero's neglect of his own dharma, and Alonso's trip to contract the political-convenience marriage of his own daughter. But for all the characters, and for us, a much larger voyage of discovery.

Thursday, our first rehearsal with the full (five-person) cast. A read-thru, then launched into blocking the storm scene. We have only six rehearsals in July, so it was both exhilarating and anxiety-provoking to get a concrete sense of the task ahead.

The read-thru reaffirmed my sense that what's truly "magical" about this play is the characters' epiphanies of [[amazement]]. For Miranda, the discovery of her whole past, the nastiness of the real world outside her narrow confines, the sudden lightning-stroke of love, the vision of "how beauteous mankind is." For Ferdinand, the horror of loss, the panic of stepping into kingship, the joy of resurrection and, likewise, love. For Prospero, his first coping with truth-telling and with political decisiveness, his own culpability in neglecting his duties, his acceptance of his own darkness, and the terrible pangs and joy of forgiveness.

And in another vein: For Caliban, the possibility of freedom and its paradox, belonging. For Stephano, the brief window of power. For Trinculo, not being the lowest man on the totem pole. for King and courtiers, the dawning that chases "the ignorant fumes that mantle their clearer reason," and the discovery of true selves after a madness, in the words of Gonzalo, "when no man was his own."

It's a voyage, as a film adaptation is aptly titled, to a forbidden planet. Forbidden, because our daily life shields us from this magic, the discovery of our true natures and wills. Not everyone returns happier from the voyage: Prospero sheds the hope of his most intense epiphanies -- his very control of the elements -- to take up his mundane political duties, where "every third thought shall be my grave." Caliban sheds his prospects of liberation and goes off to make the bed and dust the window sill. Ferdinand and Miranda go forth to find a renewed world of love and union; and yet, somehow, the ensuing four centuries of blood and atrocity undercut, for us, the promise of this new Eden.

Still, the amazements grab our hearts.

***

So this week:

* Our first of a total of 32 3-hour rehearsals total. Good start, with everyone about 3/4ths off book. Some trepidation as I see how cramped the stage space will be when we get five bodies moving in it, with puppets in front of'em. We need to do a lot of work, apart from the puppet manipulation, in sensing each other as dancers would, in using the dynamics of the space -- contact improv without the contact. Good starts with the characterizations, though there's a tendency to rush; and actors are still very much acting behind the puppets rather than through them. That will come.

* Finished mask fittings on everyone. Cut and did the first dyeing of the muslin for the set; after flame-proofing this week, we'll hang and dye-paint the muslin. With David the costumer, we went through fabric, managed to get about 1/4 of the total selected. We've gone through three drafts of thumbnail sketches for the costumes, pretty solid now on most of them, still a few up for grabs. Ariel is giving us fits, and I think we're not going to find the right line for him until we suddenly come across the right fabric -- making a trip down to fabric stores in San Francisco this week.

* Hair now on five of the puppets, no headgear yet; still, they gain new life.

* Started experiments with video filters for approximately 20 video cues, and with Elizabeth finished talking through sound/music cues, about 90 in all. She has first drafts of four of the songs. She's been struggling with our new sampler, an old model that works only with SCSI connections, so the process of interfacing with one of our old computers and old drives has occupied much time, but most of the bugs have been induced to depart.

***

In the midst of all this, we're preparing to attend the Puppeteers of America's National Festival in Atlanta, GA, the week after next, and rehearsing a five-minute piece for their late-night cabaret. Using a couple of rebuilt puppets from RASH ACTS, plus a new dragon puppet who inexplicably pops up at the end. We'll also teach a workshop there on dialogue-writing.

And after returning from the ocean, we drove to Santa Rosa to see the new Pixar film, UP -- lovely animation, and in my humble opinion, a brilliant script. If you don't like sentiment, well, it's not for you. But to me it's very much like Chaplin: rooted in reality, honest, funny, speaking to adults and kids alike -- drawing the adults into child fantasy, stretching the kids into an adult world, -- and replete with the same epiphanies of discovery and wonder that make [[The Tempest]] blaze.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

* Ariel is also making a journey: this element of nature is taking on human sensibility. "Do you love me, master, no?" is a mark along this path: like Miranda earlier, he is intensely curious what this human emotion is. Here, he's not feeling empathy as we might, but he can stretch his being to envision it. And this is the crucial tipping point for Prospero.

* For Prospero, this is the act of relinquishment: giving up his revenge, his wounding, and at last his power: the restoration of his dukedom is now a relinquishment of true power and an acceptance of duty. Finally he confronts Caliban and acknowledges him as part of his essence. This can't be explained with any linear interpretation: it simply resonates with us in its mystery.

* The practical problem of accumulating 12 characters on stage with five actors to play them: I'm drawing here somewhat from the play's overtones as a metaphor of theatre or "Shakespeare's farewell to the stage," not as the ultimate meaning of the play but simply as another resonance. Prospero is, in a sense, the master puppeteer, and at the end of the play he has played out the play, and indeed the actors "were all spirits, and are melted into air," leaving only their puppets. And so as the act concludes, as each character finishes his role, the puppet head is placed on a stand (treelike forms with artificial hands), as if simply fading back into the mosaic (thereby freeing the puppeteer to bring on another character). And, at the end, Prospero's own puppet character joins the assembly, and the actor removes the magical robe the human Prospero has worn throughout this five-act magical ceremony. The epilogue then brings me down to my own street clothes. The play has dissolved.

5:1 -- THE MAGICIAN READIES THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS ENEMIES AND INSTEAD HEALS HIMSELF.

01- Video: moving clouds and flames. ECHO OF THE TEMPEST. Spirits move stands with hand shapes to places around the stage.

Prospero in his magic robe in far R stage, standing at the magic book, turning pages. Ariel (BS) appears far L.

>>>Prospero: Now does my Project gather to a head:
>>>My charms crack not: my Spirits obey, and Time
>>>Goes upright with his carriage: how's the day?
>>>Ariel: On the sixth hour, at which time, my Lord
>>>You said our work should cease.
>>>Prospero: I did say so,
>>>When first I rais'd the Tempest: Say, my Spirit,
>>>How fares the King, and's followers?

02- Ariel disappears, reappears Far R (AA/JB) by Prospero. Video: shadows of the four courtiers. Periodic spasmodic shifts in unison, sense of agony.

>>>Ariel: Confin'd together
>>>In the same fashion, as you gave in charge,
>>>Just as you left them; all prisoners Sir
>>>In the Lime-grove which weather-fends your Cell,
>>>They cannot budge till your release: The King,
>>>His Brother, and yours, abide all three distracted,
>>>Brimful of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly
>>>Him, that you term'd Sir, The good old Lord Gonzalo,
>>>His tears run down his beard like winter's drops
>>>From eaves of reeds: your charm so strongly works'em
>>>That if you now beheld them, your affections
>>>Would become tender.
>>>Prospero: Dost thou think so, Spirit?

Pause. Prospero leans to Ariel, speaks with him in unison.

>>>Ariel: Mine would, Sir, were I human.

Pause. Change point for Prospero. Video fades.

>>>Prospero: And mine shall.
>>>Hast thou (which art but air) a touch, a feeling
>>>Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
>>>One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
>>>Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art?
>>>Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
>>>Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury
>>>Do I take part: the rarer Action is
>>>In virtue, than in vengeance: they, being penitent,
>>>The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
>>>Not a frown further: Go, release them Ariel,
>>>My Charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
>>>And they shall be themselves.

03- Ariel disappears, reappears far L.

>>>Ariel: I'll fetch them, Sir.

04- Disappears. Prospero into Center, inscribes a circle around himself. Then addresses front, formal invocation. Images. During this, he builds in intensity.

>>>Prospero: Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
>>>And ye, that on the sands with printless foot
>>>Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
>>>When he comes back: you demi-Puppets, that
>>>By Moonshine do the green sour Ringlets make,
>>>Whereof the Ewe not bites: and you, whose pastime
>>>Is to make midnight Mushrooms, that rejoice
>>>To hear the solemn Curfew, by whose aid
>>> (Weak Masters though ye be) I have bedimm'd
>>>The Noontide Sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

>>>And 'twixt the green Sea, and the azur'd vault
>>>Set roaring war: to the dread rattling Thunder
>>>Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout Oak
>>>With his own Bolt: The strong-bas'd promontory
>>>Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up
>>>The Pine, and Cedar. Graves at my command
>>>Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let'em forth
>>>By my so potent Art.

Back into control. Images fade into blurred colors.

>>> But this rough Magic
>>>I here abjure: and when I have requir'd
>>>Some heavenly Music (which even now I do)
>>>To work mine end upon their Senses, that
>>>This Airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
>>>Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
>>>And deeper than did ever Plummet sound
>>>I'll drown my book.

At the far R, the book (AA) closes itself.

05- Prospero inscribes a circle a second time. Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio and Gonzalo (JF & AA) rise around him in center, frozen: Gonzalo DR, Alonso DL, Ant UR, Seb UL

>>>A solemn Air, and the best comforter, ,
>>>To an unsettled fancy, Cure thy brains
>>> (Now useless) boil'd within thy skull: there stand
>>>For you are Spell-stopp'd.
>>>The charm dissolves apace,
>>>And as the morning steals upon the night,
>>> (Melting the darkness) so their rising senses
>>>Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
>>>Their clearer reason. Spirit;
>>>Thou shalt ere long be free.

06- Prospero steps outside the circle, far R. The quartet shifts to new positions within the circle - Spirits visible holding them. Ariel (JB), in his Nymph persona, sings, moves to each one, as if waking them.

>>>Ariel: Where the Bee sucks, there suck I,
>>>In a Cowslip's bell, I lie,
>>>There I couch when Owls do cry,
>>>On the Bat's back I do fly
>>>After Summer merrily.
>>>Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
>>>Under the blossom that hangs on the Bough.
>>>Prospero: Why, that's my dainty Ariel: I shall miss thee,
>>>But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so,
>>>To the King's ship, invisible as thou art,
>>>There shalt thou find the Mariners asleep
>>>Under the Hatches: enforce them to this place.

Ariel disappears from C, reappears far L (BS).

>>>Ariel: I drink the air before me, and return
>>>Or e'er your pulse twice beat.

Ariel off. [JB takes over Antonio & Sebastian, so Gonz and Alonso are free.] Gonzalo wanders DS in a fog. [BS hands new Prospero puppet to CB, then takes over Sebastian.]

>>>Gonzalo: All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement
>>>Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
>>>Out of this fearful Country.

07- Prospero brings up new puppet DR, clothed in court dress, to confront the group, who coalesce UL.

>>>Prospero: Behold sir King,
>>>The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero:

08A- Sudden group movement: puppets are lifted and transported by Spirits, visible, to new groupings, as if regrouped according to Prospero's will. They're not quite aware of this, only of the startle and the disorientation. Sharp shift: Prospero X DC, Alonso DRC.

>>>For more assurance that a living Prince
>>>Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body,
>>>And to thee, and thy Company, I bid
>>>A hearty welcome.

Prospero puppet embraces Alonso.

>>>Alonso: Whe'r thou beest he or no, thy Pulse
>>>Beats as of flesh, and blood:
>>>Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which
>>>I fear, a madness held me: I do entreat
>>>Thou pardon me my wrongs:

Alonso kneels. Prospero puppet raises him.

>>>But how should Prospero
>>>Be living, and be here?
>>>Prospero: First, noble Friend,

08B- Sharp shift: Gonzalo DLC, Antonio & Sebastian UL, Alonso UR, Prospero DC.

>>>Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot
>>>Be measur'd, or confin'd.

>>>Gonzalo: Whether this be,
>>>Or be not, I'll not swear.

They embrace.

>>>Prospero: You do yet taste
>>>Some subtilties o' the Isle, that will not let you
>>>Believe things certain: Welcome, all,

08C- Sharp shift: Gonzalo UR, Alonso UL, Sebastian DL, Antonio DRC, Sebastian DLC. Prospero between them.

>>>But you, my brace of Lords, were I so minded
>>>I here could pluck his Highness' frown upon you
>>>And justify you Traitors: at this time
>>>I will tell no tales.

Sebastian backs away DL. Prospero to Antonio:

>>>Sebastian: The Devil speaks in him:
>>>Prospero: No:
>>>For you (most wicked Sir) whom to call brother
>>>Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
>>>Thy rankest fault; all of them: and require
>>>My Dukedom of thee, which, perforce I know
>>>Thou must restore.

Spirit (JB, operator of Antonio) emerges, takes medallion from Antonio's neck, gives it to Prsopero. Antonio quivering violently, then violently controls himself.

08D- Sharp shift: Alonso DL; Gonzalo, Antonio and Sebastian UR, Alonso DC to Prospero. [Antonio & Sebastian placed on stands.]

>>>Alonso: If thou beest Prospero
>>>Give us particulars of thy preservation,
>>>How thou hast met us here, who three hours since
>>>Were wrack'd upon this shore? where I have lost
>>>(How sharp the point of this remembrance is)
>>>My dear son Ferdinand.
>>>Prospero: I am woe for't, Sir.
>>>Alonso: Irreparable is the loss, and patience
>>>Says, it is past her cure.
>>>Prospero: I rather think
>>>You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace
>>>For the like loss, I have her sovereign aid,
>>>And rest myself content.
>>>Alonso: You the like loss?
>>>Prospero: As great to me, for I
>>>Have lost my daughter.
>>>Alonso: A daughter?
>>>O heavens, that they were living both in Naples
>>>The King and Queen there, that they were, I wish
>>>Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
>>>Where my son lies: when did you lose your daughter?
>>>Prospero: In this last Tempest. But, howsoe'er you have
>>>Been justled from your senses, know for certain
>>>That I am Prospero, and that very Duke
>>>Which was thrust forth of Milan: No more yet of this,
>>>For 'tis a Chronicle of day by day,
>>>Not a relation for a breakfast, nor
>>>Befitting this first meeting: Welcome, Sir;
>>>This Cell's my Court: here have I few attendants,
>>>And Subjects none abroad: pray you look in:
>>>My Dukedom since you have given me again,
>>>I will requite you with as good a thing,
>>>At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye
>>>As much, as me my Dukedom.

09- Ferdinand (BS) & Miranda (JB) are flown on from either side, DC. BS supports a chessboard; Miranda a piece, about to make a move. Sees the trap:

>>>Miranda: Sweet Lord, you play me false.
>>>Ferdinand: No, my dearest love,
>>>I would not for the world.
>>>Miranda: Yes, for a score of Kingdoms you should wrangle,
>>>And I would call it fair play.
>>>Alonso: If this prove
>>>A vision of the Island, one dear Son
>>>Shall I twice lose.

[Gonzalo operator moves Seb. Head.] Shift. Ferdinand confronts Alonso, DC.

>>>Sebastian: A most high miracle.
>>>Ferdinand: Though the Seas threaten they are merciful,
>>>I have curs'd them without cause.

10- Ferdinand into central area, wondrous. Alonso unable to move. Miranda is transfixed; Prospero comes to her.

>>>Alonso: Now, all the blessings
>>>Of a glad father compass thee about.
>>>Miranda: O, wonder!
>>>How many goodly creatures are there here?
>>>How beauteous mankind is? O brave new world
>>>That has such people in't
>>>Prospero: 'Tis new to thee.

Ferdinand kneels to Alonso. Alonso raises him; they embrace.

>>>Alonso: What is this Maid, with whom thou wast at play?
>>>Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,
>>>And brought us thus together?
>>>Ferdinand: Sir, she is mortal;
>>>But by immortal Providence, she's mine;
>>>She is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
>>>Of whom I have receiv'd a second life;
>>>And second Father
>>>This Lady makes him to me.
>>>Alonso: I am hers.
>>>But O, how oddly will it sound, that I
>>>Must ask my child forgiveness?

Alonso kneels to Miranda. Prospero raises him.

>>>Prospero: There Sir stop,
>>>Let us not burden our remembrances,
>>>With a heaviness that's gone.

Prospero directs Ferdinand & Miranda US. They are placed on stands. Prospero L, Alonso R. Gonzalo comes forward into C.

>>>Gonzalo: I have inly wept,
>>>Or should have spoke ere this: look down you gods
>>>And on this couple drop a blessed crown.
>>>Alonso: I say Amen, Gonzalo.
>>>Gonzalo: Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his Issue
>>>Should become Kings of Naples? O rejoice
>>>Beyond a common joy, and set it down
>>>With gold on lasting Pillars: In one voyage
>>>Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,
>>>And Ferdinand her brother, found a wife ,
>>>Where he himself was lost: Prospero, his Dukedom
>>>In a poor Isle: and all of us, ourselves,
>>>When no man was his own.

11- Boatswain (BS) and Ship Master (JB) enter into DL side stage.

>>>O look Sir, look Sir, here is more of us:
>>>I prophesied, if a Gallows were on Land
>>>This fellow could not drown. What is the news?
>>>Boatswain: The best news is, that we have safely found
>>>Our King, and company: The next: our Ship,
>>>Which but three glasses since, we gave out split,
>>>Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when
>>>We first put out to Sea.
>>>Alonso: This is as strange a Maze, as e'er men trod.

They are placed on stands Far L. Gonzalo onto stand UR. Alonso & Prospero into C; Alonso distracted with confusion.

>>>Prospero: Sir, my Liege,
>>>Do not infest your mind, with beating on
>>>The strangeness of this business: I'll resolve you:
>>>Till when, be cheerful: Come hither Spirit,
>>>Set Caliban, and his companions free:
>>>Untie the Spell: How fares my gracious Sir?
>>>There are yet missing of your Company
>>>Some few odd Lads, that you remember not.

12- Prospero to DR, Alonso UC. Caliban (JB), Stephano (BS), and Trinculo (JF) enter from UL to DRC, as if driven in.

>>>Stephano: Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune.--Coragio bully-monster, Coragio.
>>>Trinculo: If these be true spies which I wear in my head, here's a goodly sight.

Alonso comes down to C above them. Prospero faced front, never looking at them.

>>>Alonso: Is not this Stephano, my drunken Butler?
>>>And Trinculo is reeling-ripe: where should they
>>>Find this grand Liquor that hath gilded'em?
>>>How cam'st thou in this pickle?
>>>Trinculo: I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.
>>>Stephano: O touch me not: I am not Stephano, but a Cramp.
>>>Prospero: You'd be King of the Isle, sirrah?
>>>Stephano: I should have been a sore one then.
>>>Prospero: Mark but the badges of these men, my Lords,
>>>Then say, if they be true:

Alonso comes around behind the clowns to behind Caliban, staring at him. Clowns shift, supporting each other.

This mis-shapen knave;
>>>His Mother was a Witch; and one so strong
>>>That could control the Moon, make flows, and ebbs,
>>>And deal in her command, without her power:
>>>These three have robb'd me; two of these Fellows, you
>>>Must know and own, this Thing of darkness, I
>>>Acknowledge mine.

Prospero reaches out and touches Caliban: long moment. A strong intimacy between them in the following, both speaking very quietly to one another, as if seeing each other's reflection. Prospero speaks Caliban's lines in unison.

>>>Caliban: I shall be pinch'd to death.
>>>Alonso: (voiced by AA) This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on.
>>>Prospero: He is as disproportion'd in his Manners
>>>As in his shape: Go, Sirrah, to my Cell,
>>>Take with you your Companions: as you look
>>>To have my pardon, trim it handsomely.

Trinculo and Stephano off quickly R, placed on stands far R. Caliban remains. Prospero speaks his lines in unison with AA.

>>>Caliban: Ay that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter,
>>>And seek for grace: what a thrice-double Ass
>>>Was I to take this drunkard for a god?
>>>And worship this dull fool?
>>>Prospero: Go to, away.

Indicates Spirit (JB) to take Caliban onto stand far R. Watches the placement.

>>>Prospero: Sir, I invite your Highness and your train
>>>To my poor Cell: where you shall take your rest
>>>For this one night: and in the morn
>>>I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples,
>>>Where I have hope to see the nuptial
>>>Of these our dear-beloved, solemniz'd;
>>>And thence retire me to my Milan, where
>>>Every third thought shall be my grave.
>>>Alonso: I long
>>>To hear the story of your life; which must
>>>Take the ear strangely.
>>>Prospero: I'll deliver all;
>>>And promise you calm Seas, auspicious gales,
>>>And sail so expeditious, that shall catch
>>>Your Royal fleet far off:

Alonso puppet placed on stand. Spirit (BS) rises to Prospero, places Prospero puppet on stand. Ariel (JB) appears above L wing.

>>> My Ariel; chick,
>>>That is thy charge: then to the Elements
>>>Be free, and fare thou well.

Flash, he disappears with a RAPTOR'S CRY. Prospero comes DC as Spirits move all puppets on stands into a final configuration.

13- Directly to audience, as he removes his robe, revealing street clothes:

>>>Prospero: Now my Charms are all o'erthrown,
>>>And what strength I have 's mine own;
>>>Which is most faint: now, 'tis true
>>>I must be here confin'd by you,
>>>Or sent to Naples. Let me not
>>>Since I have my dukedom got,
>>>And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
>>>In this bare Island by your Spell,
>>>But release me from my bands
>>>With the help of your good hands:
>>>Gentle breath of yours, my Sails
>>>Must fill, or else my project fails,
>>>Which was to please: Now I want
>>>Spirits to enforce: Art to enchant,
>>>And my ending is despair,
>>>Unless I be reliev'd by prayer
>>>Which pierces so, that it assaults
>>>Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
>>>As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
>>>Let your indulgence set me free.

Lights fading, he makes one indication of applause.

The moment of blackout, strong, pulsing music. Spirits pop up, DC, bow. Then move stands into configurations DL and DR, return to C with Prospero joining C, bow.

They reconfigure puppet stands so puppets are across in front, Spirits behind and above them, hands raised, acknowledging primacy of the puppets. Then Spirits clear stands to side stages, Prospero solo bow, then all together in C. Lights up.

* * * * * * * * *

We've now started sporadic scene rehearsals. One of the seven song drafts finished, and music now in gear. Most of the puppets have been painted, but we're still in the midst of the costume design process -- going to look at fabric Monday morning. A rough light plot, and hanging begins next week. Have a rough list of the video cues, but not yet started on execution. Twelve weeks to go.

--Conrad