TORONTO - Christopher Plummer has arrived at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to begin rehearsals for "The Tempest," and director Des McAnuff says the legendary actor's turn as Prospero is not to be missed and will be "of historical importance."

Plummer, who earned his first Oscar nomination at 80 earlier this year, was just at the southwestern Ontario theatre festival two years ago for his tour-de-force performance in "Caesar and Cleopatra," but says that he likely won't be able to return for several years once "The Tempest" is done.

"I take a break from everything I do because I don't want to get in a rut and I don't want to outstay my welcome," the two-time Tony Award winner said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Palm Beach, Fla.

"There are huge gaps before each time I went to Stratford. I would leave, like, 10 years before going again. Just lately I've been going -- since 'Caesar,' I skipped one year and now I'm doing this -- but I think I will skip it for a while after this summer is over because I work elsewhere."

Des McAnuff, the festival's artistic director who is overseeing "The Tempest" -- which begins previews June 11 and opens June 25 -- says he's always trying to get Plummer to do more theatre there but faces "a lot of competition" from his other offers.

"He's hot as a pistol ... at 80. He's just coming into his prime," McAnuff said in an interview. "He's very much in demand and the message I have for Canadian theatregoers is: Do not miss this chance to see his Prospero. Do not miss it. This is of historical importance.

"He's very likely the greatest actor of his generation and to see him in 'The Tempest,' this is a rare opportunity."

The Toronto-born Plummer -- who earned the Academy Award nomination for playing ailing Russian author Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station" -- first performed at the Stratford festival in 1956 in the title role of "Henry V." Since then, he's starred in several productions there, including "Hamlet," "Twelfth Night," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Romeo and Juliet," "King John" and "Macbeth."

He keeps returning because he "believes" in it, he said. "It's our main theatre in the country, really, and I'm a Canadian so I think one should support that theatre.

"It's also a joy to work there. The eating is good because the cooking school is there ... and you can always move on from Stratford to somewhere else."

Another big lure: McAnuff.

"I think he's terrific for the place. And he dares, you know?" said Plummer. "He brings a lot of very fine directors there, which we were not getting before. People were not going out into the world and searching for top directors and he's done that and he'll experiment and bring people up that perhaps are unconventional.

"He's bringing the theatre into the 21st century."

"He's trying to also improve it technically. A lot needs to be done with the sound and even with the lighting and it needs to be rehauled and he's very much into that. In fact, now he's given quite a sizable amount of money himself towards it, so he's a terrifically valuable person to have and I think he's shaken the whole place up in the right way."

McAnuff got to know Plummer through the actor's daughter, Amanda, a theatre performer whom the director worked with at La Jolla Playhouse on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

It took them several years to come together on a project, "so now I'm trying to make up for lost time," said McAnuff,

"He's such a meticulous artist. He spends months and months in preparation. He's also a great collaborator and partner for me creatively and he puts a lot into this. He's quite magnificent."

Plummer says London is already showing interest in Stratford's production of "The Tempest," and organizers hope to film it as they did with "Caesar and Cleopatra."

"There should a record of these plays," he said. "It's a shame that the only thing that's wrong with the theatre is that it's sort of buried with yesterday's newspaper, unless it's recorded."