![Delaney Peterson as Ariel in The Mountain Shakespeare Festival production of "The Tempest." Ariel is the sprite who causes a storm to bring a collection of shipwrecked characters to a magic island governed by Prospero. The last performance is Friday, July 20 at the Pine Mountain Village gazebo theater. [Gunnar Kuepper photo]](https://mountainenterprise.com/fds/images/story/fs_10571.jpg)
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Delaney Peterson as Ariel in The Mountain Shakespeare Festival production of "The Tempest." Ariel is the sprite who causes a storm to bring a collection of shipwrecked characters to a magic island governed by Prospero. The last performance is Friday, July 20 at the Pine Mountain Village gazebo theater. [Gunnar Kuepper photo]![Beans Morocco, Michelle Moraine and David Stenstrom as Trinculo, Caliban and Stefano, who are hatching a plot against Prospero in "The Tempest." Its final performance is Friday, July 20. The comedy "Enchanted April" will be performed for the last time on Saturday, July 21.[Mel Weinstein photo]](https://mountainenterprise.com/fds/images/story/fs_10571_2.jpg)
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Beans Morocco, Michelle Moraine and David Stenstrom as Trinculo, Caliban and Stefano, who are hatching a plot against Prospero in "The Tempest." Its final performance is Friday, July 20. The comedy "Enchanted April" will be performed for the last time on Saturday, July 21.[Mel Weinstein photo]
The Mountain Shakespeare Festival is heading, much too soon, into its final weekend of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the comedy Enchanted April by Matthew Barber.
Sighing breezes whispered through the tops of tall pine trees like a choir of spirits Sunday, making Pine Mountain Village gazebo the perfect stage for The Tempest’s magical tale.
Prospero, an exiled Italian duke, puts his powers of alchemy to use to govern an enchanted island as he raises his daughter, Miranda.
He is master of a resourceful spirit, Ariel (played by a sparkling Delaney Peterson) and Caliban, an angry monster reduced to slavery (interpreted by resourceful Michelle Morain with a rastafarian accent to stop the show with her war cry of insurrection “Ban, ‘Ban, Caliban/ Has a new master / get a new man!”).
Miranda’s famous line: “O brave new world / That has such people in’t!” describes this band of Mountain Shakespeare Festival players. Their work is a gift to this mountain. See the shows; this is the last week. Take your friends.
— by Patric Hedlund
Final performances: Saturday, July 21 Enchanted April; Friday July 20 The Tempest. Curtain is at 8 p.m.; $12 adult / $10 seniors and students. To reserve tickets, go to www.MountainShakes.org .
This is part of the July 20, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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