History

The Tempest
By William Shakespeare

Director’s Note
By Kathy Benhardt

As my second "go" at directing The Tempest, I am struck with the intensely personal nature of Shakespeare's concerns with this, his last play. Shakespeare materializes before us in the figure of Prospero, who loved his "art" to the disregard of his behavior as a conventionally responsible adult. Shakespeare left his wife and eight children. He is fascinated with power and influence (for himself, as an artist) and the sources and right use of power. He seems particularly interested in the power we have in the realm of grasping the great truths of life, truths of the nature of man and the human condition, fraught with quizzical and paradoxical choices. Hence Prospero has chosen to pursue spiritual powers (symbolized by "spirits" others can't see) over the physical rough temporal world. The play becomes a confession of the blindness of our limited moral vantage point, and an almost desperate attempt to bring himself and his peers to a spiritual reckoning.

Measure for Measure
By William Shakespeare

Director’s Note
By Loraine Edwards

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.
—Matthew 8:1-2

I have never felt it important to add a glossary into a production before, but with Measure for Measure it is important audience to be familiar with some social and legal consequences regarding betrothal in Shakespearean England. The Riverside Shakespeare outlines two betrothals. The first is known as Sponsalia de præsenti; Claudio and Juliet have declared themselves husband and wife under a common law. The church, however, regarded cohabitation before a church ceremony as fornication. Angelo and Marianna’s contract appears to be the more complicated Sponsalia per verba de futuro. This contract could be dissolved by mutual consent or broken for cause by either party at anytime before the marriage was solemnized (Marianna’s alleged unchastity would be cause), but until it was broken, neither party could marry anyone else. Sexual relationship between a betrothed pair created a valid marriage at common law.

Reference:
Riverside Shakespeare