The Tempest: St. Louis Shakespeare Festival - Humanities

This article provides a review of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival's performance of The Tempest, including a description of the stage, costumes, and characters, as well as the mood and tone of the performance and the role of theatre in contemporary culture. The article also discusses the impact of theatre on society and its ability to connect people.

Humanities
The Tempest: St. Louis Shakespeare Festival
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Humanities
Performance that I have selected.
The play that I decided to use was the one performed at the St. Louis Shakespeare
Festival. I have preferred to use it in order to view the appropriate classical rendition about
the play.
Description of stage, costumes lightening and characters of the performance.
From the start the staging of the play is simple and open (Dustagheer, 2013). There is
a twisting tree that acts as the centrepiece of the entire stage in the paly. This is an elaborate
but it is simple. Next to the twisting tree is a platform which the character known as Prospero
sits and stands every time. Therefore, the lightening was subtle and it was almost dark at all
the times. It was hard to view the entire video .This could either be due to issue of camera
angle twisting .The lightening experienced at the beginning was a reflection of the lighting
that was seen in the back wall of the stage in the story. The focus on the tree was definite due
to the presence of multiple colours in story. Therefore, it is evident that throughout the entire
story lighting was subtle and soft including spotlights appearing at the middle of the stage
where the performance was taking place. On the issue of costumes they looked simple and
they geared and reflected what to worn out at that timeframe. The overall impression
indicated by the aerial tries to be a bit dramatic with four characters who represented actors
and costumes which incorporated sequins, chiffon brighter and the actors having elaborate
makeups in whole story. Caliban was most interesting character who wore loincloth with
spots like those of leopard. The characters in performance were Prospero, daughter to
Prospero Miranda, Aerial, Ceres Juno and their servant known as Caliban.There were others
such as Gonzalo, Prince Ferdinand and King Alonso (Dustagheer, 2013).
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Humanities
Type of mood and tone from the performance.
We see that Shakespeare used music in the entire story. This was to evoke other
worldly state of the whole island. For example, the Aerial song whereby one can imagine
Ferdinand and shipwrecked in the island and not understanding what is taking place (Galey,
2014). On hearing the lyric of spirits singing to father’s death then the performance creates a
supernatural mood. Also, from the natural scary events in the story that seeps in the whole
story one learns the tone of amazement, admiration and wonder. The magic performed not a
source of scary but it displays as a thing of real world.
Parts of play easier to understand.
Generally not all parts in the story are easy to understand (Hayles &
Pressman,2013).There a few lines which one can understand such as; In the exchange
between Miranda and Prospero one is able to understand what is happening. Of course the
lines builds a clear picture of what is happening when Prospero asks questions. The other
section to understand is Miranda’s final speech which advises audience on having hope with
life. In fact the details that stood is the way Miranda acts. Miranda seems naïve but we
understand how Shakespeare is encouraging human beings on positive attitude.
Details that stood out through the performance
Some of the themes and details that stood are the grassroots experiences that focus on all
aspects of the production, from the initial story development to the expected live
performance. The audience expectations of the performance aimed to unite the
neighbourhood and establish it as a key creative force to the larger St Louis region stood out.
Also details of membership and sponsorship emerged. The leadership circle qualities,
benefactors, patrons and the bard society details also stood out through the performance.
How performance suggest role of theatre in contemporary culture
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Humanities
The impact of the theatre to the culture is evident in the entire story .The first
performance is believed to discuss rituals and religious ceremonies. Through these
ceremonies society is able to couple myths and stories (Trettien, 2010).First theatre started in
Egypt. Through the performance in theatre society has been able to track its origin that is it
provides history. Therefore, theatre is vital for getting culture, understanding religions and
myths of society. Theatre assists people to connect.
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Humanities
References.
Dustagheer, S. (2013). Shakespeare and the ‘Spatial Turn’. Literature Compass, 10(7), 570-
581.
Galey, A. (2014). The Shakespearean Archive. Cambridge University Press.
Hayles, N. K., & Pressman, J. (2013). Comparative textual media: Transforming the
humanities in the postprint era. University of Minnesota Press.
Trettien, W. A. (2010). Disciplining Digital Humanities, 2010: Shakespeare's Staging,
XMAS, Shakespeare Performance in Asia, Shakespeare Quartos Archive, and
BardBox. Shakespeare Quarterly, 61(3), 391-400.
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