When The Tempest was first performed in 1611, it was staged with an all-male cast, as was the standard of the time; the sole female role was likely played by a boy. Just over 400 years later, the Endangered Species theatre Project (ESPtheatre) subverts that practice and brings William Shakespeare’s tragicomedy to the stage with an all-female cast as part of the seventh-annual Frederick Shakespeare Festival.
What’s impressive is how this minimalist production, directed by Richard Costes, manages to divide 15 roles among six actresses, relying on their ability to transform (often right on stage) and embody a new character with their own physicality, costume, and voice in the blink of an eye. The production also creates the illusion of a deserted island using barebones staging, clever sound design, and the audience itself, with cast members weaving in and out of the rows of camping chairs and blankets dotting Hood College’s Hodson Outdoor Theatre.
The Tempest was one of Shakespeare’s last plays and is considered by some to be the Bard’s farewell to the theater through the character of Prospero — or in the case of this production, Prospera. It should also be noted that in ESP’s performance of The Tempest, some characters are changed from male to female while others are played as male.
Prospera (Greta Boeringer) is the deposed Duke of Milan, who has been stranded on an island with her daughter Miranda (Emma Justine Roeder) for 12 years. Prospera is also a magician and works with the spirit Ariel (Roeder), whom Prospera has bribed with the promise of freedom. Their dysfunctional found family is completed by Caliban (Marnie Kanarek), a monstrous slave who Prospera abuses and berates. When a ship carrying the King of Naples, Alonso (Ellie Sullivan), his son Ferdinand (Kayla Swain), his brother Sebastian (Emma Hooks), Prospera’s usurping sister Antonia (Kanarek), and other nobles passes near the island, Prospero and Ariel conjure a storm to wreck the vessel. At Miranda’s pleas, all survive and are scattered to different points of the island. What follows is equal parts comedy and tragedy, mixing political intrigue and passionate romance with a drunken murder plot and trickster spirit-induced hallucinations, and ending with forgiveness and a betrothal.
The cast is led by Boeringer as Prospera, a moody matriarch who is as kind and nurturing to her daughter as she is cruel and conniving against those who wronged her. In terms of physicality, no one works harder than Roeder, one moment flitting around as the spirit Ariel, setting magical traps, the next swooning over Ferdinand, literally the first guy she’s ever met, as teenage Miranda. A close second place goes to the mini-ensemble of Sullivan, Hooks, and Kanarek playing butler Stefano, jester Trinculo, and slave Caliban, respectively. They serve as the comedic heart of the production, chugging down homemade booze while plotting to murder Prospera and being manipulated by Ariel. In other scenes, Hooks and Kanarek trade the slapstick for more serious murderous intent, as Antonia and Sebastian plot to murder the king and take his throne.
All this to say, The Tempest as a play has a lot going on. Costes made the very intentional decision to pare down the production as much as possible. Costumes and props are used in a utilitarian fashion (costume design by Deanna Kinzie and Rebacca Kohn, props by Liz Long). A shirt, dress, staff, or hat is used as a visual indicator of which character is being portrayed. A collection of chests of different sizes serves as the main staging (scenic design by Costes), with the actors moving and flipping them in order to sit on, stand on, or hide behind them as needed. The trees surrounding the outdoor stage along with wild soundscapes and songs fill in the rest of the scene (sound design by Irene Silbert and Jackson Peters-Mosere).
“The plays I remember most fondly are the plays that are stripped of artifice, that are just people putting on the barest of theatre. The ones where it feels like everyone involved has just come together to have fun,” Costes writes in his Director’s Note. “My favorite memories of theatre are the ones where it feels like a close-knit group has gathered to put on a show for their friends. This production is designed to hopefully capture that feeling.”
Running Time: Approximately two hours with one 10-minute intermission.
The Tempest plays through August 21, 2025, presented by Endangered Species theatre Project as part of the Frederick Shakespeare Festival, performing at Hood College’s Hodson Outdoor Theater (601 Blazer Trail, Frederick, MD) and Hidden Hills Farm and Vineyard (7550 Green Valley Rd, Frederick, MD). All tickets are available on a pay-what-you-will basis. Tickets can be purchased in advance online, at esptheatre.org/fsf, or at the door.
The cast and crew bios are online here.
