The Tempest Crashes Ashore at Point Montara

While it’s not uncommon for pre-production to span multiple years from concept to curtain, one adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest has been in the works for over fifteen years. A site-specific take, set on a picturesque stretch of California coast, this Berkeley Shakespeare Company production owes its inception to a long-ago conversation between Hostelling International employees, who collaborated to give the stuff their dreams are made on a chance at a little life.

For director Stuart Bousel, a 2009 stay at the HI Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel sparked the idea for this production. Chatting with the on-site hostel manager, Christopher Bauman—a trained fine artist and arts instructor with a degree in sculpture—Bousel brainstormed ideas for using the lighthouse and hostel as the setting for a theatrical work. He credits Bauman with the idea to do The Tempest—an idea that arose partly out of their shared love for the Peter Greenaway film Prospero’s Books and Bauman’s longstanding belief that the hostel would be the perfect staging ground.

According to both Bousel and Bauman, several attempts were made over the years to embark on this theatrical voyage together without ever quite mustering the perfect crew to set sail. This time around, Bousel—who’d already agreed to direct a fall production for Berkeley Shakespeare Company—pitched the idea to the company’s producers, Alejandra Wahl and Philip Leyva. The idea initially met resistance due to its ambitious scope and complicated logistics.

Bousel recalls their initial conversation about it. “I was like, ‘yeah, it's gonna be a lot of work, but I know that as soon as you see the location, you're gonna fall in love with it.’” So, in January 2025, Bousel invited Wahl and Leyva to meet with Bauman and see the site for themselves.

“Alejandra and I actually drove down together,” Bousel relates, “and I remember the moment that we turned the corner into the driveway, and she saw the location through the gates, and said, ‘Oh, we're definitely doing this.’”

Wahl remembers that moment clearly. “Descending the hill from the parking lot and seeing the lighthouse itself standing, pale and solemn, against the fog banked sky, with the smell of salt in the air and the wind whipping around us, it felt like we'd been dropped into the world of The Tempest.”

With a shoestring budget, the small but mighty production team turned the myriad challenges of staging site-responsive Shakespeare on a remote stretch of California Coast into fuel for creative ingenuity, particularly in the areas of design and staging, composition, and shared experience.

Design and Staging

A visitor to Point Montara—a foliage-covered cliffside topped with an active thirty-foot lighthouse and a handful of historic buildings—can’t help but notice the mighty Pacific Ocean crashing against the rocks below and the natural isolation of its windswept grounds. As the hostel’s on-site manager since 2003, Bauman has truly embraced the lifestyle component of his role by raising his family on the grounds and playing an active part in the small Montara community. For this Tempest, Bauman utilized his background in art and design, and his deep familiarity with the grounds, to shape and highlight the scenic elements. He created a wild brush “cave” for Caliban, a “knotty pine” for Ariel, and an indoor “tree” built around a loft ladder in the historic Fog Signal building, doubling as Prospero’s book-lined cell.

The first few scenes relied on the natural features of the grounds to set the mood, starting at a set of picnic tables perched near the cliff edge—with a breathtaking vista of the turbulent Pacific Ocean and the setting sun. Audiences were then led to a courtyard for the second scene, following the glow of Prospero’s staff and production-provided flashlights.

“There will be some locations on the grounds of the hostel, which are basically standing sets,” Bousel elaborated in a pre-opening interview. “Think of it like a haunted house…installations that you'll pass by that help tell the story but aren't where scenes are actually happening.” Taking into account not just the nighttime temperatures, but also the fact that, as Bousel wryly noted, “it turns out that the roar of the ocean is really hard to speak over, and you cannot turn it down,” the bulk of the performance took place in the Fog Signal building, with staging in the round. “We'll actually have the fire on,” Bousel described. “You come in, you sit down around the fire, and we tell you the story of The Tempest.”

Bauman utilized his talents as a painter to create the show art depicting a lonely lighthouse standing guard over a sinking ship in a roiling, stylized sea framed by a glorious red and orange sunset. As props designer, he was tasked to create a model schooner that will be used somewhat like a football—thrown from actor to actor to depict the ship buffeted by the storm in the opening scene. He also constructed a Harpy prosthetic capable of snatching up a fully set tablecloth to disrupt Alonso’s banquet with articulated talons and Velcro-lined wings.

Completing the homegrown production, Bauman’s wife Janice Pratt served as on-site manager, and their oldest daughter, Maya, who has a degree in theatre and cosmetology training, designed the makeup. Crucially, the hostel remained open for business throughout the run of the show, and ticket packages that included post-show hostel accommodation were available for each performance

“Turning a working youth hostel into both a performance venue and an intense rehearsal camp for the cast—while staying open to regular guests—is a balancing act,” Bauman admitted. “But we’re making it happen.”

“Turning a working youth hostel into both a performance venue and an intense rehearsal camp for the cast—while staying open to regular guests—is a balancing act,” Bauman admitted. “But we’re making it happen.”

Composition

A key production element of the production was an original score composed by Bay Area multihyphenate Katherine Park. A longtime collaborator of Bousel’s, Park not only shouldered composition and musical direction for the show but played one of three Ariels.

Dramaturgically, Bousel’s intention was to position three Ariels and Caliban as representatives of the four elements—partly because he needed three performers on hand who could step into the masque as the goddesses Iris, Juno, and Ceres, and partly to drive home the idea that Prospero’s magic is focused in his ability to bind spirits such as Ariel to his bidding. These, plus the Renaissance preoccupation with alchemy and control over the four elements, gave Bousel the idea to assign each of them a persona.

Musically, Park was thrilled to craft songs for Ariel as three-part harmonies, with the other two Ariels performed by Alejandra Wahl and Elana Swartz. Trained in music from the age of two, Park comes from a family her mother refers to as “ocean people,” making her casting as the “water” aspect of Ariel to be a natural fit:

In my family, water is special and I was taught about water spirits and the ocean god called Yong Wang Nim (Dragon King) by my umma (mother) and halmoni (grandmother) from a young age. The scenes I feature in that relate to that are in the Fog Signal building, particularly when I embody a sea nymph and perform choreography with my silken scarf during the song “Full Fathom Five” inspired by Salpuri.

Salpuri, described by Park as an “ancient exorcism dance that survived through colonialism and cultural genocide,” is just one of several Korean artistic practices Park brings to the work, along with folk music traditions such as Pansori epic chant and an assortment of Indigenous drums.

In a nod to the play’s Mediterranean setting, Park also immersed herself in Sardinian folk song stylings, dance, and instruments such as the Launeddas—a triple reed woodwind—and traditional brass bells used by shepherds. The cast served as the “house band,” an experience that Park was especially enthusiastic about. “Everyone including cast, crew, audience is invited to the dinner table to sing, stomp, shout out voices together,” she shared.

Communal Experience

After rehearsing as much of the blocking as possible off-site, the entire cast and crew relocated to Point Montara on 19 October 2025 for a week of rehearsal followed by a communal sleepover experience through 2 November, taking over a part of the hostel that includes its own kitchen, common room, and eighteen beds.

While acknowledging that not every person was actually able to stay “on the island,” for two full weeks, Bousel shared that one impetus for the plan was wanting to prevent folks from having to commute daily from San Francisco and the East Bay along the twisty coastal highway. The other was to create a communal experience that would reverberate well beyond closing night. Call it a theatre camp for adults, with the best trappings of a sleepaway experience—shared food, shared activities, and a shared objective to bond over.

Youth hostels, also, as their primary objective, really want to break down boundaries between people.

Perhaps the most innovative part of this experiment was extending the sleepover invitation to theatregoers. Ticketholders could avail themselves of the chance to stay at the hostel overnight, in community with cast and crew, rather than drive home alone in the dark. Accordingly, activities such as a 10:00 p.m. movie, guided group stretching, and nature hikes were planned to include the audience—giving them a taste of “theatre camp” as part of their overall experience.

“We really tried to think of…opportunities for connection,” Bousel explained. “Youth hostels, also, as their primary objective, really want to break down boundaries between people…and so, we just wanted to really lean in to that, and provide people the option.”

For Elana Swartz (Ariel Two/Ceres/Boatswain) this aspect of the production was a major part of the appeal. “Being able to have those unscripted moments with my castmates [and] with the audience during and after the shows, those really bring the community element to the forefront.”

For Wahl, taking on an acting role while also producing has been a heavy but rewarding, lift, which requires, she noted, “a lot of compartmentalizing.”

“Because this is such an unusual situation, and I am also part of the cast, I've found that this managerial aspect has become much more lateral, where everyone is engaging, sharing, and asking questions/convening meetings on their own authority,” she reflected. “I don't have to steer the ship as much, and I see our creatives and actors really engaging with this show in a much more empowered manner.” 

“Even just one night of community building…can have ripple effects for a very long time to come,” Bousel emphasized. “And that’s a major objective behind what we’re doing here, and always has been.”