There is a pleasing symmetry in staging The Tempest on Marco Island. Shakespeare’s late romance unfolds on a remote, enchanted island where a magician bends wind and water to his will. To perform it on a real barrier island, a few hundred yards from the Gulf of Mexico, is to let the setting do part of the work — the salt air outside the playhouse echoing the salt air of the play.
The Marco Island Shakespeare Festival took on that challenge, presenting The Tempest under The Marco Players’ Special Productions banner. It was directed by Kaitlynn McRae, the festival’s Operations Director, who trained in theatre performance and education at the University of Southern California.
A magician, an island, a storm
The play opens in chaos: a ship founders in a violent storm and its passengers are scattered onto the shore of a strange island. The tempest is no accident. It is the work of Prospero, once the Duke of Milan, now exiled and living on the island with his daughter Miranda and a household of spirits. Years earlier, Prospero’s brother seized his title and set him adrift; now, by his art, he has drawn the usurpers into his reach.
What follows is less a revenge play than a study of what to do with power once you have it. Prospero commands the spirit Ariel and the embittered Caliban, manipulates the shipwrecked nobles, and steers his daughter toward love. But the play turns, in its final act, on restraint rather than vengeance. Prospero forgives, frees Ariel, and abandons his magic — breaking his staff and drowning his book. It is one of the most quietly moving endings in the canon, and many read Prospero’s farewell as Shakespeare’s own valediction to the theatre.
Shakespeare at a human scale
Mounting Shakespeare in an eighty-three-seat room is a deliberate choice. There is no space for grand machinery or a cast of dozens, so the language has to carry the production. That suits The Tempest, a play whose magic is conjured as much by verse as by spectacle. In close quarters, Ariel’s songs and Prospero’s incantations land directly on the audience, with none of the distance a large auditorium imposes.
The festival’s commitment to this work — alongside its productions of Macbeth and Julius Caesar — gave Marco Island something unusual for a small resort community: a recurring encounter with the classical repertoire, staged by a local company for a local audience.
For the wider context of the company and its programming, see the overview of community theatre on Marco Island.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who directed The Tempest at The Marco Players?
The production was directed by Kaitlynn McRae, who served as Operations Director for the Marco Island Shakespeare Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California, where she studied theatre performance and education.
What is The Tempest about?
The Tempest follows Prospero, a deposed duke and master of magic, who is marooned on a remote island with his daughter Miranda. Using his powers and the spirit Ariel, he conjures a storm to bring his enemies ashore — setting in motion a story of betrayal, forgiveness, and the eventual surrender of his magic.
Is The Tempest really Shakespeare's last play?
It is widely believed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone, around 1610–1611. Many readers see Prospero's farewell to his magic at the play's close as the playwright's own farewell to the stage, though that reading is interpretive rather than documented.
How was the production staged at The Marco Players?
It was presented as part of the company's Special Productions strand under the Marco Island Shakespeare Festival, with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Who are the main characters in The Tempest?
The central figures are Prospero, the exiled magician; his daughter Miranda; the airy spirit Ariel; and Caliban, the resentful island native bound to Prospero's service. Around them move the shipwrecked nobles whose arrival drives the plot toward its reckoning.