If you’re a Bay Area resident, chances are good that at some point you’ve seen a William Shakespeare play performed outdoors—a staple brand of local theater production. But not all outdoor sites are created equal, and not all performances are created with a given location’s particular qualities in mind.
That’s one of many things that Berkeley Shakespeare Company’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Fri/24 through November 2), set on a gorgeous bit of California coastline at Point Montara, has going for it. Composed of a diminutive chunk of cliff jutting out above rocky shoals and crashing waves and topped with a 30-foot working lighthouse, and several historic buildings that now serve as a traveler’s hostel, the point is just 25 miles south of San Francisco—but it feels about 100 years away.
Directed by Stuart Bousel, and artistically facilitated by Chris Bauman (the on-site manager of the Point Montara HI youth hostel, where actors and audience alike are invited to stay) this Tempest seeks to immerse its audiences with 360-degree world-building—crashing waves! Art installations! A custom score composed by Katherine Park!. That, and an opportunity for genuine interactivity and an unforgettable communal experience.
48 Hills caught up with Bousel to find out more about the experience being planned, just how long this idea has been in conversation, and just what community theatre and youth hostels have in common.
48HILLS So, something fun that I know about you is that you used to work for Hostelling International.
STUART BOUSEL I do! Or did, rather, yes.
48HILLS Had you previously considered using Point Montara as a location?
STUART BOUSEL Yep. I was directing a Midsummer Night’s Dream [for Theater in the Woods] in 2007, I want to say. And I had said, wouldn’t it be fun if we spent the night at this little lighthouse youth hostel that I’m doing HR work for? And we did, and the staff of the hostel—which was three workers and a family that’s been living and running the hostel for over 20 years—came and saw the show the next day in the woods.
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And later that week, the hostel’s manager Chris Bauman called to thank me for the tickets, and we talked. [He’s] a visual artist, which I hadn’t realized at the time. He said, “I’ve always thought it would be a crazy idea if we did play down here. What do you think about The Tempest?” So as much as I would love to claim that this is purely my idea, it’s actually been a collaboration from day one with the guy who still manages that place!
48HILLS I want to talk about the cast and crew, and if they are all staying on location for the run?
STUART BOUSEL Right now, most of our rehearsals are happening in the city, but we move down to the theater full-time on the 19th of October, and then we are doing five eight-hour rehearsals in a row. The big thing is I didn’t want the whole cast driving around Devil’s Pass after a whole day of rehearsal. So the hostel and I worked together, and a whole half of the main dormitory building is ours. As my stage manager said, it’s the best green room that she’s ever gotten to work in.
We’ve got a full working kitchen, I think 18 beds for people to spend the night, a full living room, a great place to store all of our costumes and stuff like that. It is like having a luxury dressing room in many ways. But it’s a little bit camping, and it’s a little bit glamping. We refer to it as “staying on the island.” That’s actually now how we started to think of it. So, like, you know, so most of us will be “staying on the island” for two weeks in October.
48HILLS I love that. It’s like a little theatrical retreat.
STUART BOUSEL It is optional for people to come and go as needed. Obviously, life is not something everyone can take two weeks off of work and do. But I think for the most part, most of us are staying there for most, if not all, of the two weeks.
When we have the actual performances, there is nighttime programming so after each performance there’s gonna be free movie screenings for audience and actors, whoever wants to attend. And the next morning, one of our Aerials is leading a sort of stretching-movement class that anyone can attend if they want to. We’re talking about adding in nature walks for folks who are interested, because one of our cast members is also really schooled in local plant life and botany, and has offered to design a 30-minute tour around the location, just talking about the local plants and environment and stuff like that.
All of this is partly because we really just wanted to do something that is kind of like theater camp. For one night, you as the audience get to participate in theater camp with us, and for us, it’s two weeks of theater camp.
48HILLS Let’s talk about the audience experience, because I know that you’re very excited about this. Walk me through what you feel is important about having the audience and the cast and the crew all at theater camp together, all commingling and having this shared experience.
STUART BOUSEL I think that right now, most folks that I know are really struggling with what is it that we can do to push the needle towards good in a really dark time. And there are many things we can do. You can donate money, you can donate time. But I actually think a third thing that’s incredibly important is community building.
Stephen Adly Guirgis, the playwright, said something at one point which I really loved, that was to the effect of, if nothing else, putting on a play, you are creating a temporary community of that cast and that team and that production team and crew, and so forth.
A lot of us are oftentimes searching for ways to kind of break down the wall between the audience and the artist a little bit more. So, we really tried to think of things we could do that will provide opportunities for connection. Youth hostels, also as their primary objective, really want to break down boundaries between people, get people talking through shared living space. We just wanted to really lean in on that and kind of provide people the option.
I personally tend to believe that when society hits periods like this, when there’s a strong sense of division within communities, the only anecdote for that is building communities in defiance of that. And I think there’s an ambition when we think “community,” we think, “Oh, I gotta create something that’s gonna be around all year.” [But] even just one night of community building—that temporary community—I think it can have ripple effects for a very long time to come.
THE TEMPEST runs Fri/24 through November 2. Point Montara, Montara. Tickets and more info here.
