Most of the cast act in the nude, and the handful of characters that appeared in costume discard their clothes by the end of the play.įor Gina Marie Russell, who plays Prospero, The Tempest is her first time acting nude. Photograph: Kathy Willens/APĪbout halfway through the show, Ariel, the spirit bound to serve the magician Prospero, the play’s protagonist, approaches the audience and beckons them toward the other side of the slope, seamlessly creating the effect that the audience too is careening around an island. Before the start of the show, a handful of audience members take their shirts off in solidarity with the performers, although the quickly dipping temperatures keep most non-actors clothed for the duration.īare, forked animals: Gina Marie Russell, left, as Prospero and Marisa Roper as Miranda. Previous productions of Hair and Henry V have also featured performers in the buff: New York law permits nudity in its parks if you get a permit making it clear you’re doing for entertainment purposes. It’s not the first theatrical nudity the park has seen. This production is performed on Summit Rock, the highest point in Central Park and a popular natural stage whose slopes accommodate the island setting of The Tempest. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of normalizing nudity.”Ĭo-director Pitr Strait, who has directed clothed versions of the plays as a member of Central Park Shakespeare, adds: “This, more than almost any other Shakespeare play, is about coming to this new world and transforming yourself, and taking this thing that was maybe once hidden away from the world and letting it out.” “We wanted to use nudity, but we didn’t want to just do the performance in the nude. “That jives really well with the nudity idea and also the mechanic of the show,” she adds. They chose Shakespeare because, as co-director Alice Mottola points out: “You can’t argue the script sucked.” Each character in The Tempest, they say, is fighting to find the freedom to live out their identity – Mottola says it deals with “confinement versus freedom, being yourself and becoming who you are. Prospero’s buff: Kara Lynn, left, as Ferdinand, and Marisa Roper as Miranda.
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