Magic, music and surprising expectations

William Shakespeare never shied away from inserting a little—or a lot—of fantasy and fairy-tale elements into his plays. A few witches here, forests full of fairies, cameos by gods and even an ill-used monster, he created a wild supernatural menagerie.

His late romance The Tempest is arguably the most fully rounded forerunner to contemporary fantasy; no wonder so many modern fantasy writers cite the play as an influence.

It takes place entirely on a magical island controlled by the powerful, bookish magus Prospero. The wizard keeps as servants both “spirit of the air” Ariel and Caliban, a “monster” from whom he took the island. The eponymous opening storm is conjured through magic and the island itself is a forested refuge cordoned off from the real world by magic.

This summer’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Tempest will fully immerse audiences in magic and fantasy, not to mention comedy, romance, live music, spectacle and shadow puppetry.

“The magic of the island will be the magic of the theater,” says director Kevin Rich. “It’s full of non-human, fairy-tale characters, so there are opportunities at every turn to surprise expectations.”

Here’s one of those turns: Rather than Prospero, father of Miranda, nationally acclaimed playwright and actor Ellen McLaughlin—who played the mad King Lear as a man in CSF’s 2023 production of that tragedy—will play Prospera, Miranda’s mother.

“Ellen is going to rock it no matter the gender of the character, but we wanted the opportunity to think about the Prospera/Miranda relationship as one between a mother and daughter, to see how that affects the story,” Rich says.

The production will sport a timeless, meta-theatrical, storybook vibe akin to those of Nicholas Nickleby and Peter and the Starcatcher—an expansion of the Peter Pan mythos that happens to share a shipwreck with The Tempest.

And music will enhance the magic, with live performances of around 10 songs composed by Jordan Coughtry, a veteran of several national Shakespeare festivals, who will also play Ariel.

“Shakespeare gave Ariel some songs,” Rich says. “Jordan is a tremendous musician and actor, so we’re giving him a few more.

Season and single tickets for CSF’s 2025 lineup are on sale now at colorado shakes.org.