The Tempest In The Park

Last Thursday night I scored tickets to Shakespeare In The Park, a NYC institution. In fact, on many occassions I have heard it said that one is not considered a true New Yorker until they've seen a performance of Shakespeare In The Park. I'm by no means a real New Yorker for having seen The Tempest, but I feel one step closer to becoming one now!

The show started around sunset at 8pm and ran to about 10.30pm with a short intermission. I had absolutely no idea what The Tempest was about, so when the show started and it was all Shakespearean language I was a little bit lost. I quickly skimmed the playbill plot summary so I had some context, and from there on out it was pretty easy to follow and a very entertaining couple of hours. Here are a few highlights:

Sam Waterston, of Law & Order and The Newsroom fame played the lead of Prospero and was totally convincing as an eccentric wizardly ex-duke father exiled to an island by his brothers betrayal.

Prospero and his sheltered daughter, Miranda

Ariel and Caliban were also incredibly well executed...they almost stole the show. Ariel was ethereal in voice and movement as he manipulated situations to Prospero's benefit. Caliban was pathetic and pitiful with his stuttered and splattered speech and crab-like stances. Amazing performances. The set was simple, yet effective with fantastic lighting effects. I heard someone on the way out say they thought the performance tried too hard to be 'edgy' because of the use of scaffolding. That guy was an idiot and wouldn't know a good performance and good stage use if it bit him in the ass. Jesse Tyler Ferguson (from Modern Family) as the shipwrecked courts jester, Trinculo were hilarious. The scenes between him, Caliban and Stefano as they drunkenly develop a plan to overthrow Prospero were among the most entertaining...in particular when Trinculo is banished to the crowd so he won't interrupt with words planted by Ariel.

Caliban, Triculo & Stefano plotting a coup

Shakespeare in the Park runs throughout the summer months and is performed at the open air Delacorte Theater in Central Park. As tickets are free, they're fairly hard to come by but there are a couple of ways to score them - a daily electronic lottery, waiting in line at the box office in Central Park where a set number of tickets are distributed at noon, or making a donation are among the options. Personally, I'm not super keen on lining up for 5 hours in Central Park to get tickets...I mean, there are worse ways to spend 5 hours of your time....but it's a big effort, so I opted for the lottery. It took almost 6 weeks of entering daily...but I finally won. I think it helped that it was a long weekend and a lot of the New Yorkers who would usually enter the lottery were away for the weekend - definitely increased my odds. It's definitely an amazing experience to be able to see such incredibly talented actors on such a remarkable and simplistic stage. All the info in the link below if you're interested in trying to score tickets yourself: http://www.publictheater.org/en/programs--events/shakespeare-in-the-park/?SiteTheme=Shakespeare