House, Divided
 La Tempestad
 The Ballad of John Wesley Reed
 Girl Science
 The Allure of Oriental Wisdom
 Memorial Day (formerly Varia)
 Pride of the Lion
 The Dostoyevsky Man


 Monica for Chanukah
 Angie and Arnie Sanguine
 Edward and Ellie Supine
 The Lion Eats His Lunch
 The Lion in His Lair
 The Lion Leaves His Mark
 Prayers


 But Who's Counting?
 Emma Goldman Imagines the Millenium


 Just Before the War Between the Plates
 I Can Handle That


 Talking  with Lee Blessing

...with Tom Coash
...with Mary Fengar Gail
...with Richard Kalinowsky
...with Jamie Pachino
...with David Rambo
...with Jason Sherman
...with Naomi Wallace
...with Tom Gibbons
...with Dick Goldberg

For performance rights, please contact Elaine Devlin, Elaine Devlin Literary Agency, at edevlinbei@aol.com

Synopsis:

La Tempestad is the story of Prospero, the curator of a museum on the coast of Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Prospero, like his Shakespearian counterpart, is a man in exile, wary of his enemies who keep him constrained and vigilant. Like Shakespeare's Prospero, he shares his island with his daughter Miranda, who he fears will leave forever for the States. He is attended by his faithful servant Ariel, and bedeviled by the duplicitous and self-interested Caliban. Attached to Prospero's museum is a small guest house and café where vacationers interested in Prospero's museum lodge. When his island refuge begins to fill up with unexpected visitors who have flown in during a turbulent storm - Miranda's fiancé, Ferdinand, military advance men to oversee the bombing practice, a North American museum curator and his boyfriend come to survey Prospero's collection for a possible traveling exhibit, and a pair of brazen young lovers - Prospero must exercise his magic to keep everything important to him from being lost. La Tempestad is about identity, marriage, commitment, raising, protecting, and then letting go of your children, and about the power of forgiveness.

Reviews for the Resonance Ensemble's Production of La Tempestad
OHIO Theater, October, 2005

"Larry Loebell's new play La Tempestad is nothing less than a time capsule for the Bush Era in America. A group of diverse people wind up on Vieques, Puerto Rico following a nasty storm--not unlike the premise of Shakespeare's Tempest; and then an even stronger and sterner storm shakes them down to the marrow, with remarkable results.... Excellent and incisive! ....Rarely, a play captures a historical moment with profound acuity; such a play is Larry Loebell's La Tempestad." -- Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com

"...Larry Loebell thoughtfully tackles the rich subject of Vieques, Puerto Rico -- an island that has long endured U.S. military testing -- and demands to know what happens to native culture and American souls when someone's home becomes a minefield. Along the way, he also makes sharp observations about everything from racism to homophobia." -- Mark Blankenship, Variety

"...Larry Loebell starts with an intriguing idea and gets a fair amount out of it in "La Tempestad," a very modern play inspired by a very old one. Mr. Loebell's Prospero (Gordon Stanley), like Shakespeare's, is in a struggle for control of his island, though for him the main opponent is the military, whose bombing runs have long been a source of resentment for the local residents. Alonso (Ed Jewett) here is a military officer who alternately defends the need for the target practice (the play begins in late 2002, during preparations for the Iraq war) and debates spin control with his attaché, Gonzalo (James T. Ware). A disastrous accident raises the stakes considerably, and, under the direction of Eric Parness, the resulting exchanges between Mr. Jewett and Mr. Ware crackle.... with "La Tempestad" running in repertory with a three-actor version of "The Tempest," Resonance Ensemble is providing plenty of food for thought." - Neil Genzlinger, NY Times

Characters:

PROSPERO - Founder and curator of the local island history museum, housed in the Fortin Conde de Mellado; 62 Highly educated, degreed, erudite, eccentric. Puerto Rican of Spanish decent.

MIRANDA - Prospero's daughter; early 20's. Island raised, American educated, a chic mix of cultures.

FERDINAND - Miranda's intended, mid-late 20's. Island born, American raised, of Puerto Rican descent, but very assimilated.

TRINCULO - A museum curator from the states; gay, late 30's. Handsome, smart.

STEPHANO - His significant other, early 30's.

ALONSO - A United States Marine officer on special assignment; 40's.

GONZOLO - A military attaché, 30's - 40's; also on special assignment. African American.

CALIBAN - Bartender, concierge, tour guide, disgruntled employee of Prospero. Native islander, arguably of Taino descent.

ARIEL - Another of Prospero's employees, taken by everyone for less than he is. Puerto Rican of mixed decent.

IRIS - Young twenty-something tourist from the States; NYC born and bred, but of Puerto Rican extraction.

SPRITE - Iris's intended, same age, same background.

This play requires 11 actors. No doubling.

Setting:

This play is set on the Caribbean island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, largely in the terrace bar and on the beach directly in front of the Fortin Conde de Mellado, a restored Spanish fort and now modest but very well regarded museum of Spanish Caribbean history, with significant artifacts from pre-Columbian times to the present. The Fortin Conde de Mellado has a commanding view of the island coastline and the sea. On the same site there is a small hotel. The name of the terrace bar, which serves both the museum and hotel patrons, is La Casita del Amor.

Time:

October, 2002, Hurricane season in the Caribbean -- five months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Playing time:

Two hours

Production History:

La Tempestad was developed in workshop by the Working Writers Group in Philadelphia in late and early 2004. In June of 2004 it was given a public reading by Resonance Ensemble at Manhattan Ensemble Theatre. A week-long rehearsal by Resonance Ensemble leading to a staged reading followed in October, 2004, with Eric Parness directing. A full production of La Tempestad by Resonance Ensemble will occur in October, 2005, at the Ohio Theater, NYC.

Sample scene from La Tempestad:

ALONSO AND GONZOLO at their command post.

This is a nightmare. I have the governor up my ass, the Adjutant General's office screaming at me, and now this guy wants a personal audience. Who the hell does he think--

He's the guy who the press at home is quoting.

What are they saying?

All the usual stuff. The history. The cancer stats. The indifference to public safety.

Indifference? What the hell do they think you and I were doing on that beach? Twenty yards the other way, it could have just as easily been ... Screw it. What do you think.

Permission to speak freely?

Sure.

I think you have to ratchet it down. I think you have to be a little less dismissive. You want it to go away?

Where does he come off making propaganda out of this? A horrible accident kills a kid, not mention a pilot, and this guy wants to suggest what, we planned to ditch a ten million dollar aircraft just to piss him off? He thinks I wanted this? He thinks we have that kind of disregard--

He's got the parents at his hotel. You've let him parade them in front of the cameras without being there to tell your ... our side of the story?

There is no side to the story. It was an accident. End of story.

That's a side to the story. You have to say that.

They were two runaways fucking on the beach. In public, for Christ sake. Not even all that discretely. We can tell from the pictures what they were doing. It's a hell of a camera we've got in the nose of those planes. Survived the crash completely intact. We've got pornographic close ups. Let's show the press what they were up to.

They are lovers, returning to their ancestral home for a marriage proposal. That is what the press has already got. Are you crazy enough to want to run your morality up the flagpole here? You think you got something that will trump lovers hlding each other on the beach?

Fucking each other.

Let me tell you this as clearly as I can. You cannot torch their reputations.

It's obscene.

The way she died was obscene.

Who's side are you on?

I'm trying to tell you what you need to do.

So I let them say what? Anything they want?

Do you have kids?

What?

Do you have kids?

Two. A boy and a girl. Eleven, and fifteen.

You can't protect them.

The hell I can't. It's my duty.

I agree with that. We do the best we can. Maybe your daughter would never do something like this.

Trust me, she wouldn't.

Maybe. But she's going to do something you don't like at some time.

And I'll deal with it when it happens. If it happens.

She has parents who love her as much as you love your kids. You can't make them feel--

Ok. I get it.

You need to suck it up. Say you're sorry. Make a few vague promises.

What do you think I can promise?

To take it up with your superiors.

I can't take it up. I'm the backstop. That's my job.

You can take it up and you have to. You can tell your superiors exactly what happened and what resulted from what happened. You do not have to take a position. But you can tell the press that you are sorry, which you are, and that you feel for the parents, which you do, and that you are saddened by all loss of life, and that sometimes there are unintended consequences of vigilance. You can and you must.

Unintended consequences of vigilance. PR crap.

Without the attitude.

How long do we tell the fleet to hold off the touch and goes? How long until they can start to train again.

Until her parents fly the body out of here. Until the national press is looking elsewhere.

That could be days. This isn't some little candy ass fly over we're delaying. This is something global. While we're waiting this guy is sitting there in Baghdad--

Do the right thing here and you will preserve your ability to continue to practice here. Push them to the edge and you will be fighting a rear guard action against the New York Times and the goddamned Washington Post for the next ten years. You want to be the guy who's remembered for finally getting us kicked out of here?

This is why they sent you.

Yes.

An attaché.

I'm really more of an advisor. For when things need ... diplomacy.

A flack's a flack.

Call me what you want.

You know that military men hate guys like you. I should have guessed when you told me you never surf cast.

Military men are not diplomats. But diplomats are sometimes required.

Well fuck that.

Yea, fuck it. Fuck doing the right thing. Fuck the moral high ground. Fuck trying to make us look like we have our shit together for once, and we are doing something because we believe it and not because it's politically compelling or to avenge someone's daddy. Fuck all the soldiers who are going to stick their necks out for it, and fuck having ideals. Do whatever the hell you want. Take your swagger stick and smack these asshole around. You're right. That's the right way to handle it. Fuck everyone. Sir.

(After a long beat.) Set it up.

For information about performance rights, please contact Larry@loebell.com.