The Tempest
In the summer of 1998, Stephan performed in the "Shakespeare in the Park" series that is produced by the Portland Actors Ensemble. Honored to be cast as Prospero in this classic tale, Stephan soon found that this production, as well as the character he was portraying, would not be an experience that he would soon forget.
All of the performances are free for the audience (donations accepted) as they are performed at various outside venues around Portland, OR. The outside theatre space in many cases consisted of a shaded area of a park or college campus.
This production was directed by Connor Kerns and choreographed by JoAnn Johnson.
One of the challenges of outside theatre is that the unknown can and will happen at various times in the production. For example, one of the venues, while beautiful and serene with a vinyard and neatly groomed landscape, was located quite near an airport- which became more and more apparent during the production. This obstacle for the performers tested their true ability to project to the 100-200 audience members that had come out for the event.
One of the more interesting "mishaps" of the run of the play was when nature provided its own input to a particular scene. At the Reed College performance, "Prospero" was in the midst of stirring up his "Tempest" and suddenly the northwest winds came whipping in, causing the backdrop of the stage to come crashing down. Thankfully, the stage crew was on top of the situation, and the performance never missed a beat as the situation actually lent emphasis to the scene rather than detracting from it.