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The Torn Out
Theater company of New York teamed up with The Outdoor Co-Ed
Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society for the unique
production of "The Tempest," which completed its second set of
performances in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Saturday, following
a spring run.
The idea behind the free show is to use storytelling and theater
to get its message of body positivity heard.
"It's an interesting thing to feel like I'm not only making a
statement as an actor, getting to play an amazing part," said
Gina Marie Russell, who played Prospero, the duke of Milan.
"But I'm making a statement as a woman about female sexuality,
female nudity and really trying to normalize that and make it
non-sexual and non-threatening," she added.
Director Pitr Strait said he was a little apprehensive about the
play, but that everything went smoothly.
"Even I was kind of nervous the first rehearsal and then within
minutes I was like, this is normal - so normal that when we had
an actor come on in clothes, she looked strange," Strait said.
The production company had to obtain permits in order to perform
fully nude.
"It was sort of like you could feel like a new chapter turning,"
said actress Reanna Roane, who played Ariel.
"The first time was a nice gentle easy process into performing
nude. We had nude rehearsals, we had a lot of cast-building
rehearsals to build camaraderie and things like that so that by
the time the show actually came, I didn't really care about nude
or what people would think," added Roane. "It felt really second
nature."
"Some people are a little weirded out, which is to be expected,"
added Strait. "We knew that the show was going to shake things
up and make people question certain things."
The reimagined play had no problem filling seats, with the
audience including what Roane described "as a lot of curious
people."
"For the most part, the response has been really loving and
really giving," she said. "What someone might think of someone
being a creeper is really just someone going: 'Oh, I've never
really seen that before.'"
(Reporting by Alicia Powell in New York; Writing by Melissa
Fares in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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