The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

When some 140 students from Waitsburg High School see Shakespeare's tragicomedy "The Tempest" this week, there will be at least one character to whom they can relate.

It's the beautiful Miranda, 15-year-old daughter of the main character Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan with whom she has been banned to an island by the King of Naples.

Seemingly immune to teenage angst, the girl teaches a deformed monster on the island religion only to find herself on the receiving end of his unwanted physical attention and separately falling in love with the son of the Naples King. Typical "day in the life" at the WHS campus, right?

All kidding aside, "The Tempest" is filled with philosophical yarn that will prepare the students for life well beyond their teenage years. The play is all about the best plans for revenge and the bittersweet use of (magical) power yielding to love and forgiveness.

In a historical context, it deals with the discovery of new lands beyond the horizon in the Elizabethan era during which Shakespeare wrote his last play.

As director Stephanie Shine puts it: "The unknown was very much on the minds of the Elizabethans" and "magic and witchcraft were a part of their psyche."

For the magic of this "lessons-in-life" theater and the gift of Shakespeare in our local schools, our communities owe some gratitude to the founders and sustainers of the Powerhouse Theatre in Walla Walla.

Their vision to make Walla Walla a national destination for theater creates a very desirable local cultural asset for which we might otherwise need to travel to the likes of Seattle, Portland or Spokane.

Managing Director Harry Hosey laid out what's in store for the Powerhouse this year - a healthy mix of the famous English bard's plays and shows on the lighter side that follow in the footsteps of last year's successful "Marilyn Forever Blonde."

"The Tempest" will be followed in June by "Big Daddy's BBQ," a one-man Craig Thompsen production starring Jeff Wayne and bringing up Sally Fields and Ernest Borgnine (yes, he's 95 now) for opening night.

Then Shakespeare returns this summer with "Romeo & Juliet" (stick around teenagers!) and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare."

Following that, the "Jewel Box" echoes the "Four Tenors" from earlier this year with four vocalists impersonating famous country crooners and in December, the season will end with the Disney-esque "Blue Mountain Christmas" complete with dancing and animals.

"It's a big year," Hosey said.

Shakespeare started in Walla Walla five years ago with the outdoors "Shakespeare Uncork'd" featuring actors from Shakespeare Seattle, but this year "The Tempest" represents the first indoor Shakespeare play here that's a co-production of Shakespeare Walla Walla and Shakespeare Tennessee.

"The show is designed to serve two communities," Shine said about the production that includes 12 actors from various parts of the country.

Spectators should expect the magic of the lively set and "the magic of forgiveness," she said. "It's a play for all ages - very accessible with more music than any of Shakespeare's other plays."

Shine hopes younger theater goers will bring their parents to see the bard's plays, which she said are classics because "they touch us in different parts of our lives. They're a forum for conversations across genders, ages, religions and social status and reflect basic human conditions and emotions "we all share."