Mandate

To provide innovative and affordable classical theatre for student and community audiences, and to provide high-level training and performance opportunities for teenagers.

Where we are, Whom we serve
We are in Edmonton, Alberta.  We serve schools in Alberta, as well as BC and Saskatchewan.

Main Goals and Artistic Objectives
To keep Shakespeare’s works (in addition to other classic theatre) alive as a tool people can use to explore and celebrate what it means to be human.  To make them accessible to modern audiences in their local cultures without watering down the content.  To celebrate and bring to immediate life other works that deal with great themes about humans as individuals and societies.

Our Role in the Arts Community
Our primary role is in arts education and audience development.  We like to give young performers a chance to fly.  Many of our student performers keep coming back to our projects in increasingly challenging roles.  We believe that putting faith in youth can only have positive psychological and sociological repercussions.

Company History

2009
Over the 2008/2009 season we toured Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet in repertory to Alberta schools.  We also participated in Workshop West's Canoe Festival in January with Maggie Now Part One, and in February launched what is to be our annual Serca Festival of Irish Theatre.

2008
Romeo and Juliet toured to Alberta schools, along with multi-day residencies of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Both plays featured some of Edmonton’s most exciting and versatile actors. We also enjoyed great success at the 2008 International Fringe Theatre Festival with Maggie Now Parts Three and Four.

2007
At the 2007 Edmonton International Fringe Festival, Theatre Prospero and the Prosperous Paddies Co-op built on their earlier success with Maggie Now Part One to bring the audience two hits: a richer Part One and the new Maggie Now Part Two. September saw first performances of Theatre Prospero’s second new work in two years, Blood Opera:  The Raven Tango Poems featuring text by Edmonton poet Jannie Edwards, images by Paul Saturely, tango choreography by Kathleen Ochoa, performances by Jennifer Spencer and Calvin Malaka, and direction and poeturgy by Mark Henderson

2006
Repeating and building on our success in 2005, we toured to over 50 schools in Alberta with Hamlet, Macbeth, and  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in addition to two major multi-week residencies.  In addition to this we staged the world premiere of Jennifer Spencer’s adaptation of Maggie Now Part One at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival to great critical acclaim, and announced our 2007/2008 season with a new production of Romeo and Juliet.

2005
We performed our new production of Hamlet at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, yet again, with a hugely enthusiastic group of student apprentices.  We continue touring our highly successful productions of  A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth, as well as a major tour of  Hamlet, to a grand total of over seventy schools across Alberta.

2004
We performed a highly successful student participation production of  Macbeth at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival.  The same production is toured to over forty Alberta Schools in the 2004/2005 season, rehearsing students into the play in mornings, and then performing it with them for their peers in the afternoon.  We also continued to tour our highly successful production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2003
We  performed an audience participation production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival to critical and audience acclaim.  The same production toured to thirty-six Alberta schools during the 2003/2004, rehearsing students into the play in morning, and then performing it with them for their peers in the afternoon.

2002
In the spring we had three successful artist-in-residence programs of A Midsummer Night’s Dream ranging from 5 to 15 days at Altario School, Buck Mountain Central and Youngstown school with between 50 and 150 active participants at each school involving students from K – 12 and community members.

2001
In the fall we toured Alberta with our highly successful one day workshop/performance of The Taming of the Shrew.  Five professional actors and up to 30 students presented the show to student and community audiences after a three hour workshop.  The Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) supported the tour.

Our AFA funded spring residency at St.  Joseph’s High School in Edmonton spanned almost 8 weeks and brought together over 200 students from Drama, Industrial Arts, English, Religious Studies, Philosophy, A.V. and Music.  Students re-wrote The Bacchae into a modern setting, featuring a chorus of ravers and their guru pitted against a neo-conservative regime and its fascistic leader.  They incorporated live video feed news reports and modern music.  The production featured student designed costumes, sound, set and props.  It was a very successful integration of many of this school’s special programs into an excellent modern telling of an ancient, yet relevant tale.

1999-2000
The Taming of the Shrew was staged with student participation (and generously co-sponsored by the Stanley Milner Library) in November 2000 at the library theatre.  Over 2000 students came out to see this highly successful production.  The Bacchae was used for a three-week, AFA funded Artists in Residence program at Ross Shepherd High School that focused on Euripedes’ tale.  Students from these residences (and from open auditions) were recruited to take part in the completely separate AFA-funded production of the play, which we mounted in May of 2000.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was performed as part of a two-week, AFA-funded Artists in Residence Program at Laurier Heights Elementary-Junior High.  Areas of instruction included acting, voice, movement, design, stage management, ensemble work, story telling, music and writing.  The Second Shepherds’ Play – our first foray into the field of Medieval Drama - was staged at McDougall United Church in December.

1998
The company teamed up with The Nataraja Studio to co-produce Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet in repertory for over 3,500 students at the Arts Barns Open Space.   Much Ado About Nothing marked our fourth Shakespeare since March 1994 with a mixed cast of student and professional actors.

The company ran a two-week Artists-in-Residence program at Laurier Heights Elementary-Junior High focusing on Charles Dickens’ The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby, which featured a cast of 250.

1996 and 1997
The Tempest reached an audience of over 1,600 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream played to 1,500 students over a five day run.

Theatre Prospero’s tours and residencies are produced and directed by Producing Director Mark Henderson (MFA Directing – University of Alberta) with assistance from Joyce Miller (MFA Drama – Lethbridge). Occasionally shows are directed by highly skilled directors hand-picked by Mark Henderson.  The company is registered with the Alberta provincial government as the Theatre Prospero Association.  Mark Henderson is an Edmonton director, actor and drama instructor.  He has taught scene study, directing, and introductory drama at the University of Alberta, from which he received his Masters of Fine Arts in Directing.  Mark has also taught teen acting for  the Citadel Theatre School, Camp Shakespeare (at the River City Shakespeare Festival), and for Theatre Zocalo.  Mark has directed numerous productions and residencies for Theatre Prospero, the most recent being Hamlet, which ran at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.  Mark has also acted in numerous productions for Theatre Prospero and other companies both in Edmonton and in other centres.  In addition to his MFA in directing, Mark also attained a BA in drama from Dalhousie University’s Acting Program.  He has twice studied at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts.  Further information on the company’s history and mandate can be provided by contacting Theatre Prospero.