The Tempest - The Immersive Magical Experience

For my chosen adaption of a play I have decided on utilizing William Shakespeare's very own The Tempest. But my twist on it will be on two families of magicians who have been at war with one another for twelve years due to the missing Prospero and his daughter Miranda. The family in which those two hail from (Helios) were told by the brother of Prospero, Antonio, that his brother and niece were kidnapped at their home by the Awilix household. However what he didn't tell them as that he in fact was aided by his true father Alonso who was from the Awilix, he had stranded them on the island called: Erynwe of which drains magical energy of wizards and witches within a twenty-mile radius hence the reason why the traveled there by boat instead of flight or other magical means.

Now you've had a tease at the small plot changes let's move onto the chosen set(s) for my play.

The Set:

The story will start off in the respective castle of the Helios family and for those who don't know Helios translates to Sun in Greek: 

The reason as to why I've chosen to start off the play within the home of  Prospero's people is that it provides a homely and calming vibe for the audience to settle in to preparing them for the betrayal of Prospero's brother.  Instead of it's normal start in the storm it will be told as flashback of the events.

Next in line we will see the island Erynwe which is placed in the Bermuda as an homage to Shakespeare's rendition, I believe that the mystery of the Bermuda is a great lane to go when telling stories such as these especially one that involves a betrayal and deserted islands.

 I have chosen to do this because I want the island to make the inhabitants feel isolated and alone, with Prospero being shipped here with a three year old I assume it would slowly begin to break him travelling around the misshapen island. This is a kickstarter as the audience will get to understand his struggle and ever-growing rage. The audience will also follow the route made by Antonio & co, throughout the scenes in which they're on different parts of the island.

The other scene setting I have decided on is the ship in the first scene which holds Antonio, Sebastian, Alonso, Ferdinand and Gonzalo: 

The reason as to why I have decided on using this unique ship is because I really want to capture the idea of a magical ship as well as the evil dark powers of Alonso and his family. The audience will mainly be on this ship from the most part of the play then half will transpire to the island and the other half will go back with the ship.

Costumes:

Okay, finishing off with the chosen set for my adaption now we will move onto the costumes for the different families. 

Helios Generic Costume -

Above is the costume for all of the cast from the Helios Family and below is the costume for Prospero and Antonio: 

Finding what I wanted to represent the "light" aspect in this play, to follow the cliche light against darkness, wasn't too hard and I was delighted to find something that clicked with the characters and the darkened costume for Antonio was a brilliant comparison for the lightened costume for Prospero.

Found at the bottom lastly is Miranda's chosen costume:

This delightful piece is a suit given to the daughter of Prospero and correlates well with the costume worn by her father. 

Awilix Generic Costume -

Above is the costume for the Awilix cast and as we see below is the clothing for: Antonio and Sebastian. 

This costume choice in particular was a hard choice for me as I wanted to depict a clear hierarchy when it came to this family, I didn't want the costumes to be too similar nor too far out of each other as I had pictured this specific household to be built upon the very aspect of evil and treacherous behavior. The clouds on the generic family represent the current ranking of the individual and once they get seven clouds they would advance on.

As opposed to lighting issues it will mostly be the natural lights from all areas i.e the island, the ship and the castle Helios, Stage prep will also be left up to the actors and actresses as to be more naturalistic and clean cut with the play at hand. 

Immersive theatre would make the play incredibly interesting at a first person perspective for each audience member, instead of putting the whole play in one area I believe that allowing the audience to be apart of such a performance will definitely open their minds and be more prone to absorbing an active experience. This can be done by taking them from one location to the next (albeit may be a tad bit pricey it will be worth it!) showing both sides of the coin, perhaps even half of the audience will side with Prospero and see it from his perspective whereas the rest may be on Antonio's side and vibe with him as a character and his ideals, leaving the audience to go home still wondering if either side was in the right for their choices in the play.