By Jenna Kubly, Dramaturg
A nobleman and his friends chance upon a drunken Christopher Sly. For their amusement, they decide to fool Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself. As part of the charade, Sly is entertained by a troupe that puts on a show about Baptista, a wealthy gentleman with two fair daughters. Baptista's younger daughter Bianca already has two suitors, Gremio and Hortensio, vying for her hand in marriage. His older daughter Katherina, due to her unladylike behavior, has none. Lucentio, with his servant Tranio, enters town just in time to catch a glimpse of Bianca, with whom he immediately falls in love. Baptista informs Bianca's suitors that until his elder daughter is wed, he shall allow no man to see Bianca, unless he be a learned man who can instruct her in music and languages. Lucentio and Tranio switch clothes; Tranio pretends to be his master Lucentio, and Lucentio disguises himself as a language teacher.
Petruchio, who seeks a wealthy wife, arrives with his servant Grumio to visit his friend, Hortensio. Hortensio suggests that Petruchio consider marrying Katherina. While his friend is courting Baptista's eldest daughter, Hortensio plans to gain access to Bianca by posing as a music master.
Several suitors arrive at Baptista's house. Petruchio inquires after Katherine; Gremio, Lucentio (as a language teacher), Hortensio (as a music master), and Tranio (as Lucentio) are there to court Bianca. While Lucentio and Hortensio vie for Bianca's attention, Petruchio attempts to woo Katherine in a contest of wit and words. Baptista, delighted that a man is willing to marry his daughter, agrees to a swift wedding.
The wedding day arrives. Petruchio makes a late entrance, dressed not in matrimonial finery, but in roguish attire. Gremio describes the unconventional wedding to the other servants. Petruchio then departs with Katherine before the wedding feast even begins.
An already fatigued and disoriented Katherine arrives at her new home. Her seemingly erratic and irrational husband expresses displeasure with everything, and subjects her to further torments by denying her food and rest. Meanwhile, Baptista decides to marry his younger daughter to the wealthy Lucentio (Tranio in disguise), but expresses a desire to meet Lucentio's father, Vincentio. Tranio hires a passerby to pose as the old man. Bianca, however, shows a preference for the real Lucentio. A disgusted Hortensio, watching the two lovers depart, resolves to marry a wealthy widow instead.
Hortensio, newly married, joins Petruchio and Katherine on their journey to Baptista's house. Katherine, wearied by being denied food, rest, and new clothes, obeys her husband's bidding to greet the true Vincentio, whom they chance to meet, as a young virgin. Vincentio is on his way to visit Lucentio. Greeted by a false son (Tranio) and an imposter of himself, Vincentio fears for his son. Lucentio arrives, reveals himself, and announces his marriage to Bianca.
At a feast, the three married men trade barbs over the worthiness of their wives. This leads Petruchio to propose a wager: each man shall send for his wife. They all appear confident of the outcome but the results are surprising.
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PRODUCTION CONCEPT
By Oliver Gerland, Director of Dramaturgy
Director Robin McKee considers The Taming of the Shrew a “wonderful and difficult play” to produce today, particularly by a female director. What should the audience think of the lively and intelligent Katherina’s submission to her husband Petruchio? The key to the play for McKee lies in the genuine relationship that grows between the couple. Coming to know one another, they exchange the roles they played at the start of the action--Kate the spoiled rich girl and Petruchio the unfeeling fortune-hunter—for a reality of mutual love and respect.
McKee underscores the role/reality idea by placing the action in a drive-in movie theatre. It is a hot night in 1950s Miami, a place and time that helps make sense of Katherina’s limited options. In Bruce Bergner’s fanciful scene design, palm trees swing in the wind and lovers cuddle in parked automobiles. Suddenly players leap from the silver screen and begin performing the story of Baptista and his daughters. It is the world of Father Knows Best until Petruchio arrives with the revolutionary force of Brando in The Wild Ones. Costume designer Don Mangone uses familiar movies like these as inspiration for the characters’ clothing, and adds clever inventions of his own like a Hawaiian tuxedo shirt. The atmosphere on stage is hot and lively, accentuated by sparkling marquee lights designed by Julie Mack and the rocking beach tunes of sound designer Kevin Dunayer.
For director McKee, The Taming Of The Shrew is not about submission but about surprise, the surprise that two strong people experience when they meet—and fall in love with—their match.
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SHAKESPEARE'S GENTLER "SHREW"
By Jenna Kubly, Dramaturg
Past productions of The Taming of the Shrew, such as the well-remembered 1978 RSC production directed by Michael Bogdanov, have emphasized the rigid structures of a patriarchal society and Petruchio’s abusive treatment of Katherine. An investigation into the cultural tradition out of which The Taming of the Shrew arose, however, shows that Shakespeare has transformed his subject matter from a common folktale into a humane, refined and sophisticated comedy.
Folklorists have amassed from both oral and literary traditions around the world over four hundred texts of The Taming of the Shrew story. The different sources vary in detail, but the central plot elements remain surprisingly consistent: the wealthy man with a shrewish daughter, the suitor who is warned to stay away, a bizarre wedding, and a trip to the husband’s home as well as a return trip in which the husband wagers his wife’s subservience are found in nearly all the sources.
Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew between 1591 and 1594. At this time, there were several popular ballads, poems, and a few earlier Tudor plays with which the contemporary audiences would have been familiar. “A Merry Jest of a Shrewde and Curste Wife, Lapped in Morrelle’s Skin, for Her Good Behavyour,” a ballad a little over 1100 lines, and published around 1550, is most frequently cited by scholars. While The Taming of the Shrew ends with the promise of marriage finally to be consummated, in this ballad, the husband strikes and proceeds to brutally consummate the marriage with his unprepared wife. When the wife continues to be disobedient, the husband swears that he “shall coil [beat] both back and bone,/ And make her blue and also black,/…I will make her bones all to crack,…” He then proceeds to have his old horse, Morelle, which had served him well, killed, flayed, and the horsehide salted and preserved. The wife again refuses to serve her husband; he takes her to the cellar, strips her clothes off, and beats her with “sharp rods” until “on the ground the blood was seen” and she “swoons.” To ensure that she has truly learned her lesson, the husband wraps his wife in the salted horsehide of Morelle. The wife promises to obey her “dear husband/in [the] presence of people, and eke alone.” In other versions of the tale, the husband kills a cat or wraps the wife in sheep’s skin.
Only traces of the plot of the brutal and bawdy old ballads can be found in Shakespeare’s comedy. One scholar sees the witty sparring between Petruchio and Kate as a verbal representation of the traditional English courtship dances. Another scholar sees in that same repartee a parallel to ceremonies of aggression, in which the apparent attack of the other is actually a gesture of appeasement. In Shakespeare’s hands, the ritual of courtship has displaced violent misogyny. The physical beatings of the folktales have been transformed into a witty contest of words and wit between two equals who are secretly delighted to discover that each can outdo, yet also succor, the other.
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CAST
Director______________________________Robin McKee
Dramaturg/Assistant Director______________Jenna Kubly
Scenic Designer________________________Bruce A. Bergner
Costume Designer______________________Don Mangone
Lighting Designer_______________________Julie Mack
Sound Designer________________________Kevin Dunayer
Fight Director_________________________Payson Burt
Voice, Speech, Text Coach_______________Ben Furey
Setting
The Huntsmen Drive-In, Miami, South Florida. In the care-free days of the 1950’s.
Cast List (in order of appearance)
Hostess_________________________Melinda J. Scott
Christopher Sly___________________Erik Hildebrand
Lord___________________________Kevin Landis
Huntsmen_______________________Ian Andersen
Jessie Laura Butler
Bob Horan
Alex Robertson
Servers_________________________Alex Smith
Melissa Garin
Lucentio________________________Shaun Flaherty
Tranio__________________________Alex Robertson
Biondella________________________Kyra Lewandowski
Baptista_________________________Stuart O’Steen
Kate___________________________Sarah Fallon
Bianca__________________________Emily Hagburg
Hortensio________________________Alex Smith
Gremio_________________________Chuck Wilcox
Petruchio________________________Tony Molina*
Grumio__________________________James Beneduce
Servant__________________________Ian Andersen
Gertie___________________________Melissa Garin
Joshua___________________________Alex Smith
Philip____________________________Ian Andersen
Nichaela_________________________Jessie Laura Butler
Nathan__________________________Kevin Landis
Peter____________________________Bob Horan
Tailor___________________________Kyra Lewandowski
Haberdasher______________________Jessie Butler
Pedant__________________________Ian Andersen
Vincentio________________________Kevin Landis
Officer__________________________Bob Horan
Widow_________________________Melinda J. Scott
*Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association
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BIOGRAPHIES
Robin McKee: Director, The Taming of the Shrew
Robin McKee studied acting and directing and received advanced theatrical
degrees from the University of California at Irvine, The British Theatre Association, California State University Sacramento, and the University of California at Los Angeles. Ms. McKee began her career as an actress/director and producer in Los Angeles where she worked with such organizations as The Mark Taper Forum (LA), The Los Angeles Opera and Theatre West (LA). As a freelance director for the last thirteen years, Ms. McKee has worked with theatres such as Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Asian American Theatre Co. in San Francisco, The Western Stage in Salinas, and around the country in cities such as in Baton Rouge and Lincoln, in addition to many cities in California and Colorado. In addition to directing well-known plays and musicals, Ms. McKee is known for directing, developing and conceptualizing new plays. Ms. McKee is the Founder and Artistic Director of California Performing Arts Festival: the largest, most varied professional performing arts festival in California which takes place each October (www.californiafest.org).
*Tony Molina, Guest Artist playing Petruchio
Tony Molina most recently played Ed in Keith Glover’s In Walks Ed at Southern Rep of New Orleans. Other Louisiana credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, A Confederacy of Dunces, Tracers, Angels in America/ I, II, the eponymous roles in Hamlet and Othello, and Jacob Marley in John Dennis’ production of A Christmas Carol. Film credits include appearances in JFK and Woody Allen’s Alice. Mr. Molina’s play Method won critical acclaim at The Black Theatre Festival of New Orleans. Last summer at CSF, Mr. Molina played Banquo in Macbeth and Tujaques in Shakespeare in Briefs! (2 seasons)
*Appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association
Sarah Fallon, Guest Artist playing Kate
Sarah Fallon was born and raised in Irving, Texas, and recently completed her graduate training at the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program. Recent roles at CSF include: Rosalind in As You Like It, Regan in King Lear, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Some of her favorite roles include: Goneril in King Lear, Bridget in Translations, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Rosaline in Love’s Labours Lost, Annabelle in All the King’s Men, Madame Danglars in The Count of Monte Cristo, Candida, Medea and Saint Joan. (3 seasons)
For a complete list of actor bios, please see the CSF 2003 program.
Artistic Staff:
Don Mangone: Costume Designer, The Taming of the Shrew
Don Mangone is currently on the theatre faculty at the University of Pittsburgh as head of design and costume designer. Designs for dance include the Transitions Dance Company at the Laban Centre, Ballet Rambert and British Broadcasting Channel’s Educational Television (London); and the Hubbard Street Dance Company (Chicago). Mr. Mangone has also designed costumes for a variety of productions at the Manhattan Ensemble and National Shakespeare Company in New York, the Florida Studio Theatre, and the Ciba-Geigy and Hoffmann-LaRoche Corporations in New Jersey. Mr. Mangone is a member of United Scenic Artists, New York. He previously designed costumes for the Merry Wives of Windsor at CSF. (2 seasons)
Bruce A. Bergner: Scenic Designer, The Taming of the Shrew
Bruce A. Bergner has designed scenery and lighting for more than 15 years. His work has been seen at regional theatres on the West Coast, in Chicago, St. Louis and the Southeast. He is both the resident scene designer for the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Department of Theatre and Dance and designer of the CSF exhibit at the CU Heritage Center. Recent notable productions include As You Like It and The Two Gentlemen of Verona at CSF in 2001, A Thousand Cranes at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, On the Town at Stages and Candida at the Clarence Brown Company. Mr. Bergner is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829. (3 seasons)
Julie Mack: Lighting Designer, The Taming of the Shrew
Julie Mack was CSF’s master electrician in 1996 and 1997. She designed the last two seasons of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival (Othello, Love’s Labours Lost, Coriolanus, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice), and is a cofounder of Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre in Fairbanks, Alaska, now in its 11th season. Ms. Mack has worked for Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago’s American Theatre Company and Chicago’s Theatre on the Lake, as well as New York’s Fourth Street Theatre, Tucson’s Borderlands Theatre and the Arizona Repertory Theatre in Tucson. She is an associate professor of lighting design at Illinois State University. (3 seasons)
Kevin Dunayer: Sound Designer, The Taming of the Shrew
Kevin Dunayer, who earned his BA from the University of North Carolina-Asheville and his MFA from California Institute of the Arts, has designed sound for more than 250 shows—including 50 Shakespearean productions—at theatres nationwide. He has worked as a sound engineer for the world premieres of American Vaudeville, directed by Anne Bogort, and Svengali, directed by Gregory Boyd, for President Clinton’s 50th birthday celebration with Whoopi Goldberg and Harry Belafonte, and for the (1997) Grammy Awards. Locally, Dunayer has been nominated for two Denver Critics’ Circle Awards. He is a member of I.A.T.S.E, Local 1, in New York City. (17 seasons)
Payson Burt: Fight Director, The Taming of the Shrew
Payson Burt is a certified teacher/fight director through the Society of American Fight Directors. Faculty credits: Temple University (Philadelphia), University of the Arts (Philadelphia), University of Alabama, California Polytechnic Institute (Pomona) and North Carolina School of the Arts. International credits include Fight Directors Canada’s National Workshop, the Paddy Crean Workshop (Washington, D.C. and Canada) and The International Stage Combat Workshop (Tucson). As a fight director: over 100 credits including theatre, ballet, opera and TV/film. Mr. Burt has had numerous articles on acting and stage combat published and is author of Of Paces, a training manual for footwork. (4 seasons)
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