The newest play to grace the Rice Auditorium stage will be The Tempest, a Shakespearean comedy with a little bit of everything. The recent award-winning theater students, and their director, are putting their all into this performance with only a few weeks of preparation.

“It’s been very stressful,” freshman Jason Shipps said. “We’ve had four weeks to put together a Shakespeare production. However, it’s coming together, and I think everyone will like what they see.”

The Tempest was one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote and was probably the last one in which he personally acted. The play follows Prospero, a sorcerer, who creates a tempest at sea and causes a shipwreck. Prospero’s brother and usurper Antonio, the Duke of Milan, and the King Alonso of Naples are marooned in the shipwreck on Prospero’s island. Prospero’s plan is to restore himself, and his daughter Miranda, to their rightful places.

Associate Professor of Theatre Tom Heiman, the play’s director, said they have had to make atypical casting choices for this production.

“We’ve had to cast some females in men’s roles,” Heiman said. “And quite literally the only female on stage is to be Miranda. Well, in Shakespeare’s time a boy would have been playing that part. So I feel no regret at all in saying, ‘I have had these excellent women auditioning and then cast them in those roles.’ . . . We’ve just cast the best person fit for the role.”

Because of this atypical casting, Heiman has changed a few of the characters’ names, like Alsonso became Alonsa, and Gonzalo became Gonzala.

Senior MacKenzie Sammons said that Shakespearean plays are often more difficult to put on, but she believes this cast is more than capable.

“Working with Shakespeare is always a challenge,” Sammons said. “But I think we’ve definitely risen to the occasion and are going to do a great job with such a good script and great cast.”

Five years ago, Sammons saw her first Baker University theater production,  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at a student matinee on its opening day. Now in her senior year, Shakespeare’s The Tempest will be her last play to act in at Baker. She feels her Baker theater experience is coming “full circle.”

“It was the first production I saw,” Sammons said. “And it was also the last time the department had done a student matinee. This is the first show in five years to have a student matinee and a Shakespearean play, which I am going to be involved in. It is coming full circle, and it’s really exciting. This department has gotten me ready for my future, and it is nice to be able to look back on the past and see how far we’ve come as a department, and me, as an individual.”

The Baker University theater production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest will open with a student matinee at noon and a 7:30 p.m. performance on Thursday, March 3, in Rice Auditorium. The show will continue running at 7:30 p.m. on March 4 and 5 and will conclude with a 2 p.m. matinee on March 6.