Fun fact: The first play two-time Houston Theater Award-winning actor Brandon Morgan ever acted in was William Shakespeare’s The Tempest during his freshman year of college.
Now, Morgan makes a long-awaited debut at the Houston Shakespeare Festival, tackling roles in both The Comedy of Errors and—in what he describes as “a good full-circle moment”—The Tempest.
While summer scheduling conflicts kept him away from the University of Houston-produced festival until now, Morgan recalls auditioning for HSF at the beginning of his career more than a decade ago. While he wasn’t cast back then, noting with a chuckle that he “wasn’t cast in a lot of things during that time,” he’s glad it’s happening now.
“I’m so much more comfortable with the text and the story,” says Morgan. “It’s a story that I’m super familiar with, so it feels more at home.”
In the story, an exiled duke, Prospero, uses magic to shipwreck those who have betrayed him on his island. In the Sharon Ott-directed production, Prospero is reimagined as Prospera, with Morgan playing one of her backstabbers, her brother Antonio.
“He is still human,” says Morgan. “He knows he has betrayed his family, and, as human as I can make it, there is a shred of guilt there. But ultimately, what trumps that is, what I gain from my betrayal, which seems more important to Antonio.”
Ott, who is also the director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston and the executive director of HSF, will make her Houston directorial debut with the show, often described as a revenge play.
“I’ve heard people describe it as a revenge play. I’ve actually heard some people describe it as a comedy. But I think it’s more about redemption,” says Morgan. “There’s a lot of room for revenge, but [Prospera] does not act upon that revenge. So, it has to be about redemption.”
Though Morgan identifies The Tempest as his favorite Shakespearean work, he admits that The Comedy of Errors, a work he had only read a couple of times years ago that’s now playing in repertory with The Tempest, has taken a hold of his psyche.
“I feel like I’ve been doing myself a disservice by not reading it all this time, because it’s actually terribly funny,” says Morgan.
In The Comedy of Errors, Morgan will play Antipholus of Ephesus, a twin, in a story he describes as your “basic Shakespeare plot: a case of mistaken identity.”
“There were two twins separated at birth,” explains Morgan. “Both have grown up in their respective areas, and my twin travels to my city, and when he gets there, the craziness ensues.”
Keeping that carefully choreographed craziness on track is the stage manager for The Comedy of Errors, Guy Spear.
“I feel like I make the magic happen,” says Spear. “The actors are going to initiate the magic, but if I don’t say ‘go,’ the magical light cue doesn’t happen.”
Spear graduated from the University of Houston’s Stage Management program in 2022 and recently completed his fourth and final season working for Houston Grand Opera.
“I’ve been very much in the opera world for the last few years. But recently, I’ve been itching to do a good play, and if there’s one man I know who can write a good play, that would be Mr. William Shakespeare,” says Spear.
But whether it’s theater, opera, ballet or fashion, Spear says the job requires the same skillset.
“It’s a lot of hard skills–note taking, calling cues, time management–but also a lot of soft skills because everyone in the room is an artist, from the production table to the creatives to the performers on stage,” says Spear. “The easy explanation is that we merge the technical and the artistic realms together.”
In The Comedy of Errors, the technical and artistic realms will merge to create a vibe similar to “a ‘60s sitcom,” with Spear describing the set, the costumes, and the colors as “very bright, very loud, very in your face.”
“We’re really stretching what you can do with Shakespeare these days,” says Spear. “We’re able to stretch his text and add our own flair to it–our own Houston flair, and our own HSF 2026 cast flair to it.”
Spear considers the comedy to be “more approachable” and one of the easiest of the Bard’s to get into, with both Spear and Morgan saying kids will absolutely love and understand it, too.
“I envision children watching this play on the Hill, being like, ‘That was great! I felt like I was watching a live cartoon,’” says Morgan.
Spear says HSF artistic director and director of The Comedy of Errors, Jack Young, has a knack for comedy, and Morgan adds that if he wasn’t in the play, he would be on the Hill with a beer watching it – which he attributes to Young.
Beyond the thrill of returning to The Tempest, Morgan praises the time he’s spent with Young in rehearsals for The Comedy of Errors.
“He directs in a teaching manner, and I appreciate that so much because I’m not a person who did a lot of years of schooling for theater,” explains Morgan. “I sit there and I’m just absorbing all of the little nuggets that he’s giving.”
Morgan says with a laugh that he plans to buy Young a 24-pack of LaCroix to thank him for the experience, adding, “If I wasn’t too old and I had some more money, I’d come back to school.”
Performances are scheduled through August 8 at 8:15 p.m. with a pre-show Bard Talk beginning at 7:45 p.m. as follows: The Tempest: August 1, 3, 5, and 7. The Comedy of Errors: August 4, 5, and 8. At Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive. For more information, call 832-487-7102 or visit milleroutdoortheatre.com FREE.
