One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or perhaps theatrical production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

The latter is true for Linfield’s theater program, as they have decided to tackle Shakespeare and this year’s place theme in one full sweep.

The set Professor Tyrone Marshall designed the set to utilize trash in imaginative ways.

Plastic bottles, used car seats, and paint cans litter the stage for the sake of art.

The set design for this production was inspired by competitions in New York in which participants were required to build a structure out of items found in local landfills.

The result of this inspiration is a deceptively sturdy set that relays a real sense of danger that is ultimately overwhelmed by the presence of artistic design.

Whether it is a ship weathering the seas or a tropical hideout, the cast interacts with the set in innovative ways that brings the entire production to life.

“It is very interesting interacting with the set, I’ve actually broken it a few times,” Antoine Johnson, ’19, said.

“I’ve got a fear of heights but as soon as we got rails I learned, I overcame, and I did it,” Murphy Jackson, ’17, said.

Beyond the set many interesting decisions were made in the production of this play.

Costume design incorporates the use of garbage ranging from potato chip bags to circuit boards to create memorable garb and a compelling new take on Shakespeare’s timeless characters.

“The costumes are so fun and so creative that you can’t help but feel a little more pumped up about it, interacting with a set that’s like a jungle gym and then wearing garbage for costumes, it’s got its benefits and its downfalls but it’s all worth it,” Jackson said.

Characters are further developed by decisions made by actors and the director alike including dual Ariels and a Jamaican Caliban.

“I grew up with my mom with a Jamaican accent, and one thing led to another and Janet [Gupton] thought it would be a good idea to use that accent because we’re on an island but it was hard to learn the language and then apply the accent,” Johnson said.

Magic played its own role onstage, influencing characters and the audience alike in casting a clever spell over the production.

“You have to ask the audience to go with you and suspend their disbelief and let their imagination work too,” Director and Associate Professor Janet Gupton said. “None of my actors learned how to be invisible and I almost didn’t cast them,” Gupton joked, “but what I think is magical is theater itself with its ability to use lights, set and sound to create that sense of magic.”

With some additional sex appeal of shirtless acrobatics it is hard to imagine how this play could not be attractive to the campus population.

Linfield’s production of “The Tempest” is one that thrives on audience involvement in multiple ways. Pop culture references are nearly sewn into the tapestry of the play, including a cameo from many students’ weekend nemesis Franzia.

“I feel like when you use something like trash as the idea, there’s so much you can do with it in terms of the lines the characters already have,” Johnson said.

“I’ve said this several times, Shakespeare begs to be altered in ways, and begs to be redefined and reskinned,” Jackson said.

Linfield’s theater program has taken a centuries-old play and extended its relevance beyond the reach of traditional Shakespeare into the modern world. “The Tempest” and the PLACE theme are melted together seamlessly in this production.

“We have kind of created this world in which we have a lot of trash that we generate and now we don’t know what to do with it and our hope in connecting it with the Place theme is to think about ways in which we could use materials that had been labeled as trash and repurpose it,” Gupton said.

“The Tempest” runs Nov. 5-7, and 12-14, at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8.