{"id":242972,"date":"2026-07-14T09:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242972\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:54:13","slug":"quantum-theatre-founder-reflects-on-her-final-show-the-tempest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242972\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum Theatre founder reflects on her final show, ‘The Tempest’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carrie Furnaces National Historic Landmark has long hosted arts and culture events, and Quantum Theatre knows the site well: The troupe has staged hit productions of two Shakespeare plays there in recent years, \u201cKing Lear\u201d<\/a> and \u201cHamlet.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

Heather Mull<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Quantum Theatre<\/p>\n

Karla Boos, who founded Quantum Theatre in 1990, is retiring at the end of next year.<\/p>\n

What makes this summer\u2019s Quantum-does-Shakespeare-at-Carrie especially notable is that, after 36 years at the helm, it\u2019s founder Karla Boos\u2019 final show as the troupe\u2019s artistic director. And she\u2019s going out on \u201cThe Tempest,\u201d the classic that\u2019s not only understood as the Bard\u2019s own farewell to the stage, but often serves as a valedictory pick for retiring theater artists.<\/p>\n

The show opens Friday, July 17<\/a>, and continues through Aug. 23 at the Carrie site, known for the opportunities it affords to create spectacular visuals against the hulking concrete and metal backdrop of a long-retired steel mill. <\/p>\n

In \u201cTempest,\u201d said Boos, Shakespeare \u201csays some final things to the world, and I can’t but find a resonance in that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘What’s past is prologue’<\/p>\n

Boos, who grew up largely in West Virginia and studied theater in California, founded Quantum on a shoestring in 1990, while still working day jobs.<\/p>\n

By decade\u2019s end, the company had become her full-time gig and established itself as arguably the city\u2019s most innovative theater troupe, staging visionary productions of both classics and newer works on purpose-built sets in nontraditional spaces: parks, cemeteries, disused warehouses and even, once, the empty swimming pool of the Braddock Carnegie Library.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jason Snyder<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Quantum Theatre<\/p>\n

Jerreme Rodriguez, as Caliban, with Carolina Ignacia Vargas Romero, as Miranda.<\/p>\n

Quantum has sometimes dealt in the surreal and the avant-garde, as in 2015\u2019s original immersive adaptation<\/a> of Jos\u00e9 Saramago\u2019s Nobel Prize-winning novel \u201cAll the Names.\u201d But Boos\u2019 abiding love of Shakespeare has manifested in 10 productions, starting with 1997\u2019s \u201cAntony & Cleopatra\u201d in the South Side\u2019s raw Industrial Arts Co-Op space (inside what\u2019s now the Brew House).<\/p>\n

Actors in that show included Jeff Carpenter, who two decades later would play the title role in Quantum\u2019s 2019 \u201cLear,\u201d and who directed its 2023 staging of \u201cHamlet.\u201d Now Boos has cast him in another plum role, that of the embittered and vengeful magician Prospero in \u201cThe Tempest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s just a Shakespeare empath,\u201d she says. \u201cHe really is. I mean, Shakespeare speaks directly through Jeffrey Carpenter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carpenter said he shares Boos\u2019 enthusiasm for challenging theatrical projects, perhaps especially when it comes to Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of like climbing a mountain,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what the outcome will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The production also features frequent Quantum collaborators like acclaimed choreographer, Carnegie Mellon professor and Broadway veteran Tom\u00e9 Cousin as the spirit Ariel, and Jerreme Rodriguez as the enslaved Caliban. Quantum newcomer Carolina Ignacia Vargas Romero plays Prospero\u2019s innocent teenage daughter Miranda (\u201cO brave new world \/ That has such people in\u2019t!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Other familiar names in the cast include Mark Staley, Joe McGranaghan, Corey Rieger, Adrienne Wehr and Jennifer Tober. And other long-time Quantum associates include scenic designer Stephanie Mayer-Staley, costume designer Susan Tsu, and lighting designer C. Todd Brown.<\/p>\n

‘This rough magic’<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tempest,\u201d first performed in 1611, was Shakespeare\u2019s final play. (He was only about 47.) The dialogue is rife with goodbyes, usually proffered in the voice of Prospero, who spends most of the play taking advantage of the chance to enact revenge on enemies who drove him from high office and stranded him on an island with his daughter, Miranda, and two beings he has enslaved, Ariel and Caliban.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Jason Snyder<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Quantum Theatre<\/p>\n

Tom\u00e9 Cousin plays Ariel.<\/p>\n

\u201cLend thy hand \/ And pluck my magic garment from me,\u201d he tells Miranda at one point. \u201cSo \/ Lie there, my art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, having taken retribution, Prospero says, \u201cthis rough magic \/ I here abjure,\u201d and promises, \u201cI\u2019ll break my staff \/ Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, \/ And deeper than did ever plummet sound \/ I\u2019ll drown my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one level, says Carpenter, the play is a lyrical account of an artist\u2019s need to re-integrate into normal society after devoting so much time and energy to creating imaginary worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter the amount of achievements we\u2019ve had throughout the years, at some point we have to hang up our rough magic and make way for the next generation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prospero, said Boos, is also coming to realize how much he has wronged those around him, especially Caliban and Ariel.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare, she says, \u201cis ruminating on the amazing human condition of clawing one’s way to the top, where one abuses those underneath them until the next person claws their way and knocks you off the top. That is the endless cycle of the human condition, right? And Prospero is in the cycle 100%. He was the abused, and he is the abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Our revels are now ended\u2019<\/p>\n

Boos announced her retirement<\/a> last year, though she\u2019s staying on through this December.<\/p>\n

Quantum expects to name her successor in the weeks after \u201cThe Tempest\u201d concludes its run.<\/p>\n

Boos spoke with WESA during rehearsals, about three weeks before opening night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m trying to be super present, as the kids say, right? You know, I’m really trying to enjoy every minute of it, and I am,\u201d she said. \u201cAll plays are a mystery to be solved and yet Shakespeare, it just yields and yields and yields. And I have a group of people who are delving deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retirement, for Boos, is also a brave new world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a mystery how I will feel when I’m not at Quantum anymore, right?\u201d she said. \u201cPeople ask me what I’m gonna do, and my answer is basically, \u2018I don’t know.\u2019 I’m leaving blank space in my life which I have not had in all this time, and to see what comes to me. You know, I’m feeling all the bittersweet feels, but I don’t know how I’ll feel in January.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carrie Furnaces National Historic Landmark has long hosted arts and culture events, and Quantum Theatre knows the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-242972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}