#ScribesAndMakers Nov 17. Tell us about a memorable performance of a play you've attended.

My parents were very much theater people, so I saw a lot of plays growing up.

But probably the one that sticks in my mind the best is the first time I saw Shakespeare live.

It was a showing of The Tempest by (I believe) the New York Shakespeare Company. (Not the public company that puts on places in Central park every year.)

Tempest has never been my fave of Shakespeare's plays. I went bc I was invited by a friend to go with their family that summer. So I wasn't really expecting much.

Completely blown away. So much amazing. The part that still sticks with me today is how they handled the role of Arielle, the air sprite.

They cast a modern dancer for the role and literally bound her arms to her body to show how she was bound by Prospero's enchantment and couldn't fly.

She literally danced across the stage, but there was always something missing, something broken about the way she moved, because she couldn't include her arms. At times she would drop the floor and roll around, fighting against the literal restraint that held her.

At the end, when Prospero released her, he unbound her arms and for the first time she could truly dance the way she was meant to and it really looked like she had suddenly taken flight.