“The Tempest” was the single most-produced Shakespeare play in the United States in 2021-22, with around 38 individual theaters nationwide staging it that year. Western Washington University’s “Untitled Tempest” devising members, however, will use the show as analytical inspiration from which they will create something entirely new.
Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy, Western theater professor and director of “Untitled Tempest,” is taking an intensive style of play analysis called Untitling and using it to devise – or communally create – a play that draws from the themes explored in “The Tempest.” Creating a new show that has never been performed before, and likely won’t be produced again.
“It's a gorgeous, beautiful play about magic and what it means to be in the room with people. It is also deeply racist, deeply problematic and deeply invested in colonialism,” Gutierrez-Dennehy said.
Starting Nov. 8 through 12, the cast and crew of “Untitled Tempest” will lead a discussion that analyzes the first four scenes of “The Tempest” in open workshops that anyone can attend. They will be moderated by the director and associate director of “Untitled Othello,” the project that first explored this style of analysis, Keith Hamilton Cobb and Jessica Burr.
“I'm interested to see where the kids want to go with this one, because I have no idea, and I have no agenda,” Burr said. “I don't want to drive the room. I want to create space and create structures inside of which they can do the work.”
Back in 2021, a 10-day intensive discussion of Shakespeare’s “Othello” began at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. The intensive aimed to deconstruct the play and to question the racial bias held within the text, without the expectation of putting on a production by the end.
First, beginning with 12 ensemble members, the discussion drew in students and academics from various fields of study. The initial intensive never made it past Act 2, Scene 1. This project — dubbed “Untitled Othello” — is still an ongoing endeavor, which works to deeply analyze, question and explore Shakespeare’s text.
“It’s ponderous, but in a good way,” Burr said. “It explodes the work in a way not taught in American theater. We’re taught to work very quickly, with a lot of ego. This requires that you check that stuff.”
Since then, this open-forum analysis has been applied to a variety of texts with various interpretations. Matthew Davies, a theater professor at Mary Baldwin University, said Untitling sessions will be held before beginning the rehearsal process of future Shakespeare productions at the school.
“We want to bring [Untitling] into the world of our process as well,” Davies said. “It won't be for the whole thing, and we will be going into a performance, but… it unlocks some of the stickier bits. I think [the students] thought it was a very positive experience.”
“Untitled Tempest” will be modifying this process even further. Once the five-day intensive is complete, the cast will meet once a week to create an entirely new show that they will rehearse starting in February and perform in April.
Nathaniel Thomson, a recent transfer to Western and an “Untitled Tempest” cast member, said he is looking forward to the project. He has worked with Shakespeare’s texts before but has never done a devising project of this nature.
“I think it's really important to keep Shakespeare's works going, to see a new and different version. You can set plays in different times, but to truly reinvent one is not necessarily common,” Thomson said. “I think it's super pivotal and understandably needed.”
While the following rehearsal process will be closed, the workshops are open to the public. The Untitling process actively encourages open participation, regardless of previous knowledge or area of study.
“The more brains in the room, the better, and the more people who are not from the realm of theater, I would say, the better. Because what Untitling is undoing all of our assumptions, all of what we think we know,” Burr said. “I have never been in a room where I wasn't profoundly impressed and deeply moved by what people had to say once they could say it.”
The workshops will total about 40 hours of work across all five days, with no expectation of consistent attendance or a need to stay for the entirety of a session. Those in attendance will not be expected to speak or participate, anyone who is interested is encouraged to come and watch the process unfold.
“It's just important to show up with your entire authentic selves,” Burr said. “All of your beauty and rage and grotesqueness and hilarity and humanity, because that's what this is really about.”
A student actor wears a mask rehearsing onstage for WWU Mainstage production, “Mask Play 2,” in Old Main Theatre on Oct. 15, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. This production stands out as one of the few devised productions that have been performed during a WWU Mainstage season. // Photo by Ryn Lippert
Two student actors wear masks rehearsing onstage for WWU Mainstage production, “Mask Play 2,” in Old Main Theatre on Oct. 15, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. Upcoming Mainstage show “Untitled Tempest” will be devised, though it will not be in the style of commedia dell’arte like “Mask Play.” // Taken by Ryn Lippert
Ava Nicholas (she/her) is a campus life reporter for The Front this quarter. She is a second-year Theatre and PR journalism major, with an Honors minor. You will often find her rehearsing for her next production, listening to music or out taking photos with her Canon. You can reach her at avanicholas.thefront@gmail.com.
