Opening night audience tempted at CSUEB's latest production
- July 27, 2010
California State University East Bay’s Theatre and Dance Department tempted their audience with William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Friday.
The audience came for one of three performances of “The Tempest” this weekend in room 1055, the Music Recital Hall, inside CSUEB’s Music Business Building on the Hayward University campus, 25800 91麻豆天美app.
This is before Williams and her cast heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland to showcase this latest production for the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“The Tempest,” adapted and directed by CSUEB alumnus Dawn Monique Williams, tells the story of a sorceress Prospero and her daughter Miranda living on a deserted island where Prospero must confront her evil adversaries including her brother Antonio, who betrayed and exiled both her and Miranda to the island.
“The Tempest” is a romantic play with tons of comedy and humor.
The audience laughed and was entertained during the play.
“It was wonderful,” Mike Knott, a CSUEB student from Concord who is majoring in Public Communications, replied. “The acting was great.”
Melissa Hillman, a CSUEB professor and artistic director of Impact Theatre in Berkeley, also loved “The Tempest.”
“I’ve know many actors from ‘the Tempest’ for years and I enjoyed the show,” Hillman said. “I am proud of all of them.”
What was the funniest scene during “The Tempest”?
“I like the liquor and slave scene when Caliban was covered in a blanket while ashore on the island,” Ken Prince, an audience member from Dublin, said. “I liked how Caliban pretended to be a fish, but wasn’t.”
Kevin Wang, who plays Caliban, described how he prepared for the drunken scenes for his character in “The Tempest.”
“The drunken scenes in ‘The Tempest’ were not very difficult,” Wang recalled. “It is about observations.”
The rest of the cast also enjoyed performing in front of the live audience on opening night.
“It was very good,” Sarah Vincent, who played a spirit named Ariel, answered. “The audience was responsive.”
Mary Ann Mackey, who played the main protagonist sorceress Prospero, echoed Vincent’s assessment.
“I like performing on opening night,” Mackey said. “The audience was wonderful and that helps the nerves.”
Finally, Williams had the last word on “The Tempest” in front of a live audience.
“It was great for the cast to perform in front of a live audience here at CSUEB,” Williams described. “The audience was entertained with the comedy and humor in the production while also getting the story. The support from an audience is great and we are excited to do it again.”
On opening night, the CSUEB Theater and Dance department tempted the community over to watch a romantic and comedic adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” and enjoyed every minute of it filled with laughs.