Guest Post by our Stefano/Sebastian, Adam Huff!

Hello all! I am Adam Huff. I am originally from the North Huntingdon area, just a short drive away from Pittsburgh. I graduated last year from Clarion University of Pennsylvania where I earned a B.F.A in Acting and B.S. in Mass Media Arts and Journalism (focused on PR/Advertising). I have also studied acting with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA through their Summer Training Institute program. Last year, I was honored to work with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks as Slender/Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Some of my upcoming credits include various characters in Unseam’d Shakespeare’s Shakespeare in the Raw and Laertes (Hamlet, Poor Yorick’s Players). To support my acting habit, I’m currently working as a bartender for a club in the McMurray area.

For this year’s Shakes in the Parks production of The Tempest, I will be playing Sebastian and Stefano. Sebastian is the brother of Alonso, the King of Naples. Without giving too much away, Sebastian is a greedy fool and is eager to go along with anything with which he thinks he can get away. His main concern is himself and his…inheritance. The other character I’m playing is Stefano. Stefano is King Alonso’s steward. Stefano is a servant without much money or power of his own and is greatly distracted by booze and expensive things, not unlike the modern college student. Throughout the play he seeks to increase his supply of shiny things and, of course, more booze.

What I’m looking forward to most is you all of course! Shakespeare intended his audiences to be actively involved in the show, not stuck behind a fourth wall. Don’t worry, we’ll try not to pull you up on stage, but it is an absolute blast to have direct interaction with the audience. With a production like The Tempest, no doubt there will be hiding in the audience, sneaking around picnic baskets like a Shakespearean Yogi Bear, climbing in trees, dogs barking at actors, small children wandering onstage for a scene, LARPers battling it out on the hill near the stage, and all of the other unpredictable obstacles that make acting in the parks an absolute blast! And I’m supposed to cope with all of that while wandering around drunk (Stefano) or plotting my next move in this game of thrones (Sebastian…see what I did there)? It will be a challenge that I eagerly accept!

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