The tempest!
June of 2025
Riding the wave of success!
Our most ambitious Drunken Shakespeare production to date, The Tempest pulled our audience into a storybook inspired, high-seas adventure! Thematically influenced by classic novels like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, this production featured pirates, musical fairies, professional magic tricks, a custom stage built to include a 12 foot high crows nest, and a rope belay system to swing our performers onto the stage! The Tempest opened to an incredible sold out run of nine performances.
From humble beginnings to finally performing at our own venue, we're so proud of our Drunken Shakespeare series, and are eternally grateful for our enthusiastic and loyal fans!
“I will happily bore you with the details if you ask in person, but the simple truth is... I chose to direct the Tempest because it’s FUN. It has a shipwreck, and fairies, and a fish monster, and magic! Magic. It’s a word that carries an abundance of connotation that weighs heavy on the human experience. We love to romanticize magic in meaning and interpretation, but what is the likelihood of any one of us being ostracized for believing in it? We can get away with saying a particularly enjoyable evening was magical, but saying there is magic in all of us is evermore construed as cliché or juvenile. Which, to be blunt, I think is bullshit. Because Magic at its base sentiment is simply the interaction we make with something diverse. Doing or seeing something unexpected, being exposed to something exciting, or meeting someone new and different. In broad strokes, Prospera’s story is about a person who was exiled because she was different. In embracing what makes her unique she rose to create a home out of a bad situation. She investigated and harnessed the island’s mysteries and adapted her knowledge. Eventually, she restores her losses, secures the future of her family, and makes amends with her longtime rivals (albeit with a little luck and additional fairy mischief). Being different can be a long and dangerous road, but we can’t deny that history is always changed (for better or worse) by those who are different. In point of fact, we all have the potential to embrace ourselves, our differences, and to make a little magic. It’s certainly not cliché or juvenile to be in awe of the vast, beautiful landscape of diverse personality and experience within the scope of humanity. The dichotomy of being magical is fundamentally interwoven into what it means to be human. That is what Shakespeare understood about us all, and what I am proud to present to you now. Have fun, make some magic, and get my actors drunk. ” - -Madman Madriaga, Director
