Chris Butler is the Production’s New Alonso, Currently Played by Wilson
OSF is proud to announce that beginning August 10, Tyrone Wilson, a favorite of the Festival’s audiences for 26 seasons, will take on the titanic role of Prospero in Nicholas C. Avila’s imaginative staging of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest,
which started its run on June 1 and continues through October 15 in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre. Wilson, currently playing Alonso, takes over from Kevin Kenerly, who departs the production to pursue another opportunity. Celebrated OSF actor Chris Butler returns to Ashland to assume the role of Alonso.
Tyrone Wilson has performed numerous roles to great acclaim throughout his 26 seasons at OSF. In the 2022 Season he also plays the titular character in The Cymbeline Project, an episodic, transmedia production of the Shakespeare play, conceived by Nataki Garrett and created by OSF Associate Artistic Director and Director of Innovation and Strategy Scarlett Kim, premiering in November of 2022 on the O! Digital Stage. This is Wilson’s third outing for The Tempest at OSF, having played Sebastian and Caliban in previous productions. His other OSF Shakespeare credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, All’s Well That Ends Well, Henry IV (Parts One and Two), Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II, Much Ado about Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, Pericles, and King Lear. He has also appeared in numerous new play productions, including Sweat, All the Way, The Great Society, Ruined, The Clay Cart, and Stop Kiss, among many others. Wilson earned his MFA from the Yale School of Drama and his BA from Middlebury College.
In four seasons at OSF, Chris Butler has played Macduff in Macbeth, Griffin in How to Catch Creation, the title role in Othello, Sir Nathaniel in Love’s Labor’s Lost, Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun, Lymon in The Piano Lesson, Don John in Much Ado about Nothing, and Twitch in Wild Oats. On Broadway, he was Noah in 110 in the Shade (Roundabout Theatre), and in regional theatres has performed in District Merchants and Death of a Salesman (South Coast Repertory), Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Center LA), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Gem of the Ocean, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Rubicon Theatre Company), Race (American Conservatory Theater), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), Stick Fly (The Matrix Theatre); Yellowman (The Fountain Theatre), Blue (Pasadena Playhouse), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Old Globe). Film and TV credits include Play Dead, 30 Nights, Burning Dog, Rescue Dawn, Women of the Movement, Animal Kingdom, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Shameless, Law & Order: SVU, The Fairly OddParents, Designated Survivor, Scandal, Modern Family, Longmire, Criminal Minds, True Blood, Major Crimes, King & Maxwell, iCarly, and The Good Wife. Awards: LA Ovation; NAACP; LA Drama Critics, Garland Awards: Best Actor, Yellowman. Butler holds an MFA in Theater from UC San Diego and a BA in Dramatic Arts from UNC-Chapel Hill.
"I am excited for our audiences to see what Tyrone will bring to the role of Prospero. He is a transformative actor, channeling each character he has undertaken at OSF through his own unique lens. I know both he and Chris, in the role of Alonso, will bring that same vulnerability and powerhouse performances to their respective roles," says OSF Artistic Director Nataki Garrett. "And I am grateful to Kevin for the leadership he brought to this production, and the care and craft he brought to this iconic role. It’s been deeply meaningful to have had his Prospero as part of my first full season at OSF."
In The Tempest, for 12 years, banished Prospero has been living on a mystical island and using magic to subjugate its natives. With vengeance weighing heavily on his mind, he conjures a storm to bring ashore a passing ship carrying his enemies, who find themselves at the mercy of his supernatural machinations. Avila’s production explores the good, the bad, and the gray areas of human nature.
In addition to Wilson and now Butler, the cast of The Tempest features Geoffrey Warren Barnes II as Ariel, James Ryen as Caliban, Grace Chan Ng as Miranda, William Thomas Hodgson as Ferdinand, Al Espinosa as Antonio, Michael J. Hume as Gonzalo, Nathan M. Ramsey as Sebastian, Jonathan Fisher as Stephano, Amy Lizardo as Trinculo, and Tim Getman as Adrian. The understudies include Royer Bockus, Julian Remulla, David Anthony Lewis, Russell Lloyd, Erica Sullivan, and Phil Wong.
The creative team includes scenic designer Sara Ryung Clement, costume designer Helen Q. Huang, lighting designer Dawn Chiang, composer and sound designer Vincent Olivieri, projection designer Shawn Duan, dramaturg Kristin Leahey, music director Jen Marie Dykstra, intimacy director Samantha Kaufman, fight director U. Jonathan Toppo, fight director Carla Pantoja, voice and text coach Rebecca Clark Carey, assistant director Bettina Mueller-Tuescher, associate projection designer Maxwell Bowman, movement consultant William Thomas Hodgson, assistant lighting designer Riley Nicole, production stage manager Sarah Dale Lewis, assistant stage manager Quy Ton, and production assistant Dawn Marie Kelley. Casting is by JZ Casting and Joy Dickson. The Tempest is produced by Festival Producer Donya K. Washington and Line Producer Heath Belden, and production managed by Production Manager Ben Jones.