JONESBOROUGH REPERTORY THEATRE

Jonesborough Repertory Theatre (JRT) and The East Tennessee Shakespeare Festival (ETSF) collaborated once again! JRT was proud to welcome director Karen Sabo. Sabo is presently an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Emory & Henry College. She is a Barter Theatre Alum.

"Karen Sabo is enthusiastic and an educator at heart. She is anxious to meet new actors and to explore, develop and create what is now considered one of Shakespeare’s best," says Kathleen Buttolph, JRT Artistic Director. "Full of fantasy, this tale of comedy and romance is sure to be a play for all lovers of theatre - those familiar and unfamiliar with the works of the Bard."

The Tempest, William Shakespeare’s last play, is one of the playwright’s most beloved comedies. Funny, bawdy, and full of action, this play is set on a magic island, the inhabitants of which are a sorcerer and his teenaged daughter, a mischievous fairy, and an apparently stinky creature named Caliban, described as “half-man, half-fish.” Prospero, the sorcerer, had been removed from his position as the Duke of Milan by his scheming brother, and the powerful magician sees his chance to take revenge on his brother Antonio and cohorts when a ship carrying the new Duke and the Queen of Milan sails close to the island where Prospero and his daughter were marooned many years ago.

Through use of Shakespeare’s always astute observations of human nature in all of its ugliness and glory, this production explores themes of revenge and forgiveness. Scenes of shipwrecks, first love, political scheming, and the unfortunate results of over imbibing spirits will leave audience members with a long-memorable theatrical experience.

“Full of fantasy, this tale is sure to be a play for all lovers of theatre – those familiar and unfamiliar with the works of the Bard.”

About the Director: Karen Sabo

Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Emory & Henry College

Karen Sabo is very pleased to be directing for her first time for the East Tennessee Shakespeare Festival and Jonesborough Repertory Theatre. Karen studies Appalachian theatre in East Tennessee State University’s MA in Liberal Studies program, and recently directed The Glass Menagerie at ETSU. She was a resident director and actor at Barter Theatre for six years, and also served as Barter’s speech and dialect coach.

Karen spent three years as a resident actor at Stage One in Louisville, and has performed in theatres all over the country, including the New Victory Theatre in New York City, the “Broadway for Kids” theatre. She is also an acting teacher, and was pleased to have recently been an adjunct theatre instructor at Emory & Henry. She has studied with the American Conservatory Theatre, Anne Bogart’s Saratoga International Theatre Institute, Tina Packer’s Shakespeare & Company, and with the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Karen is originally from upstate New York (think cows and hills, not skyscrapers and neon), and is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She and her husband, Derek Davidson, plan to open a professional theatre in Johnson City called the New Appalachia Theatre.

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