La Tempestad
Drama
Cast: 9m, 2w
World Premiere: OHIO THTR, October, 2005. Directed by Eric Parness, Produced by The Resonance Ensemble. Featuring, Gordon Stanley, Vivia Font, Alberto Bonilla, Patrick Melville, Brian Flegel, Ed Jewitt, Jame T. Ware, Ray A. Rodriguez, Felipe Javier Gorostiza, Frank Tamz, Lori McNally.
Synopsis
Prospero, the curator of a museum on the coast of Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico, is a man in exile. Like his Shakespearian counterpart, he is wary of his enemies who keep him constrained and vigilant. He shares his island with his daughter Miranda, who he fears will leave forever for the States. He is attended by his faithful servant Ariel, and bedeviled by the duplicitous and self-interested Caliban. Attached to Prospero’s museum is a small guest house and café where vacationers interested in Prospero’s museum lodge. When his island refuge begins to fill up with unexpected visitors who arrive during a turbulent storm – Miranda’s fiancé, Ferdinand, military advance men to oversee the bombing practice, a North American museum curator and his boyfriend come to survey Prospero’s collection for a possible traveling exhibit, and a pair of brazen young lovers – Prospero must exercise all his magic to keep everything important to him from being lost. La Tempestad is a play about personal and ethnic identity, patriotism and war, marriage, commitment, and raising, protecting, and letting go of your children.
Press
“Larry Loebell’s new play La Tempestad is nothing less than a time capsule for the Bush Era in America. A group of diverse people wind up on Vieques, Puerto Rico following a nasty storm–not unlike the premise of Shakespeare’s Tempest; and then an even stronger and sterner storm shakes them down to the marrow, with remarkable results…. Excellent and incisive! ….Rarely, a play captures a historical moment with profound acuity; such a play is Larry Loebell’s La Tempestad.” — Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com
“…Larry Loebell thoughtfully tackles the rich subject of Vieques, Puerto Rico — an island that has long endured U.S. military testing — and demands to know what happens to native culture and American souls when someone’s home becomes a minefield. Along the way, he also makes sharp observations about everything from racism to homophobia.” — Mark Blankenship, Variety
“…Larry Loebell starts with an intriguing idea and gets a fair amount out of it in “La Tempestad,” a very modern play inspired by a very old one. Mr. Loebell’s Prospero (Gordon Stanley), like Shakespeare’s, is in a struggle for control of his island, though for him the main opponent is the military, whose bombing runs have long been a source of resentment for the local residents. Alonso (Ed Jewett) here is a military officer who alternately defends the need for the target practice (the play begins in late 2002, during preparations for the Iraq war) and debates spin control with his attaché, Gonzalo (James T. Ware). A disastrous accident raises the stakes considerably, and, under the direction of Eric Parness, the resulting exchanges between Mr. Jewett and Mr. Ware crackle….providing plenty of food for thought.” – Neil Genzlinger, NY Times
Reading and Development
La Tempestad was developed by Resonance Ensemble in a series of readings and workshops