The Tempest


Lit Moon’s last collaboration with late scenographer Milon Kalis (Independent Theatre Awards for Hamlet and Tartuffe) builds on the company’s work with Shakespeare over the last number of seasons.

The production, which premiered at the 2006 Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival, presents this great romance in miniature, for a very small audience numbering about 50. The audience is literally pulled into the play’s action, participating directly in an event of galvanizing spiritual and emotional appeal.


What the Critics Say


"Tucked away, almost as an afterthought, at the tail end of Lit Moon’s World Shakespeare Festival (2006), the company’s Santa Barbara debut of The Tempest was easy to overlook. But those who caught it witnessed a gem – haunting, edgy, and the most satisfying marriage to date of Lit Moon’s experimental approach to Shakespeare.

"That’s saying a lot, given the praises heaped on the company’s past efforts… This is unmistakably a Lit Moon staging, employing inventive visual shorthand to evoke the world of the play.

"[The late] scenic designer Milon Kalis (who created the butcher paper sets for Hamlet) here employs tall, swaying bamboo rods suspended from the ceiling to suggest the physical and psychological thicket in which Shakespeare's shipwrecked aristocrats and their flunkies flounder under the enchantment of the reclusive magician, Prospero (Stan Hoffman)…

"As in the past, Blondell and his company amplify and complement Shakespeare's text in intriguing, innovative ways. But what sets The Tempest apart is its unprecedented emotional clarity. In a highlight performance, Hoffman nails Prospero's arc from vengefulness to forgiveness and acceptance, aching with life experience well befitting the play that marked Shakespeare's farewell to the theater. It's a moving engagement of the heart that at last fully matches the cerebral agility and marks a new level of maturity for Lit Moon.

Philip Brandes, Santa Barbara News-Press
[The late] Milon Kalis was responsible for the elegant and challenging scenography of this Tempest, which involved a simulated forest made of vertical hanging lengths of bamboo. Lit Moon stalwarts Stanley Hoffman, Peter John Duda, Victoria Finlayson, and Kate Louise Paulsen outdid themselves in handling multiple roles, showing that they have the ability not only to differentiate but to embody vastly different characters while serving in the same play.

For example, as Miranda, Peter John Duda looked stunning and demure in a full-length gown, while as Alonso, King of Naples, Duda was suitably regal and fully masculine—a neat trick.

-Charles Donelan – Santa Barbara Independent

And Then There are Awards


Lit Moon consistently wins awards for its theatrical innovation, original music scores, costumes and masks, scenic and lighting design, acting, directing, production, and choreography.

2005 saw Lit Moon win 4 Independent Theatre Awards - More than any other Santa Barbara theater company!