The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA - "Dearer action is in virtue than in vengeance."

Louisiana actor Johnny Lee Davenport, the spitting image of Samuel Jackson, quotes Shakespeare from "The Tempest," the classic Elizabethan play about betrayal, revenge, love and forgiveness that will open later this week at the Powerhouse Theatre in Walla Walla.

It's the tragic comedy shipwreck adventure of Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan Davenport portrays in his search for redemption and vengeance and his ultimate discovery of heart and grace.

"The Tempest was the last solo play Shakespeare wrote at the peak of his career as a playwright," Shakespeare Walla Walla Artistic Director Stephanie Shine said. "It represents the search for the unknown (the island on which Prospero shipwrecks), which was very present in the minds of Elizabethans barely a century after the discovery of the New World."

Directed by Tennessee Shakespeare Company Founding Artistic Director Dan McCleary, The Tempest will run April 26 - May 6 as a co-production with the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.

Among others, 140 students from Waitsburg High School are expected to see the play on Tuesday, Shine said. Shine will lead an educational 10-minute pre-show event in the upstairs balcony of the theater before each performance of "The Tempest." This includes an introduction to "The Tempest" story, characters, and also highlights specific production elements to note when viewing the production.

"The Tempest" kicks off a series of three plays written by or about Shakespeare this summer. The other two are "Romeo & Juliet" and the "Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged."

Shine said all plays are very accessible, starting with "The Tempest," which "is very funny and has more music than any of his other plays."

The plays bring actors from all over the country, including

Davenport who said he has not starred in "The Tempest" before.

" It's an extraordinary gift," he said. "I love the simplicity and humanity of how Propsero has to deal with betrayal and revenge. Where to you put (those emotions). In the end, everything planned for revenge and retribution goes away and replaced by love and forgiveness."

For more information and ticket sales, contact the Power House Theatre Box Office at 509-529-6500 or visit www.shakespearewallawalla.org