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The Taming of the Shrew

  • Jan 30, 1998 - Mar 21, 1998

  • Loeb Drama Center

  • Run Time: 2 hours 50 minutes with 1 intermission

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A rich Paduan merchant has two daughters—the gentle, lovable Bianca, and the razor-tongued Katharina. And though Bianca has several suitors, she may not marry until the elder Kate has found a husband. When the boorish Petruchio announces his willingness to marry any woman with a large enough dowry, Bianca’s dilemma seems to be solved. But is it possible Petruchio has met his match in the wild Kate? In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare casts the battle of the sexes as a boisterous farce, and the result is a noisy, politically incorrect, irresistibly funny romp! Andrei Serban, who created some of the highlights of the A.R.T.’s first decade—including The King Stag, Sganarelle, Three Sisters, Twelfth Night,and The Good Woman of Setzuan—returns to direct after an eight-year absence.

SYNOPSIS

Christopher Sly, a drunken tinker, is thrown out of an inn and falls asleep in the gutter. A passing nobleman finds him and, deciding to play a trick on him, takes him home, dresses him in rich clothes, and engages a troupe of actors to perform a play for him.

The play tells of Baptista Minola, a wealthy merchant of Padua, and his two daughters, the shrewish Katherina and her younger sister Bianca. Much to the frustration of Bianca and her many suitors, Baptista has decreed that she may not marry until a husband is found for Katherina.

Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and, hearing of Katherina and her considerable dowery, resolves to marry her, whether she wants him or not. Baptista gladly consents, and Petruchio and his new bride set out for home.

With Katherina gone, her sisters’s suitors battle for Bianca’s affections. After a complex series of disguises and impersonations, Lucentio, a citizen of Pisa, wins the day.

Meanwhile Petruchio has decided to tame the wild-tempered Katherina. He deprives her of sleep, food and clothing, forcing her to obey him and acknowledge his authority before he will allow her to return to her native Padua for her sister’s wedding.

The play over, Sly cannot decide whether he has been dreaming or awake. Announcing that he, too, now knows how to tame his wife, he stumbles out of the castle and heads for home.

Credits

Creative team

By

William Shakespeare

Adapted and directed by

Andrei Serban

Adapted and directed by

Andrei Serban

Director Andrei Serban (Pericles) has been associated with the American Repertory Theater for more than two decades, and has directed Lysistrata, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, The King Stag, Sganarelle, Three Sisters, The Juniper Tree, The Miser, Twelfth Night, and Sweet Table at the Richelieu. In the United States, Mr. Serban has also worked with LaMama ETC, the Public Theater, Lincoln Center, Circle in the Square, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, A.C.T., and the New York City, Seattle and Los Angeles Operas. In Europe, Mr. Serban has worked at the Welsh National Opera, Covent Garden, Théâtre de la Ville, Helsinki Lilla Teatern, the Bucharest Municipal Theatre, and the Paris, Geneva, Vienna, and Bologna Opera Houses, among others.  He has worked in Japan with the Shiki Company of Tokyo. He has taught acting and directing at Yale, University of California, Carnegie-Mellon, Sarah Lawrence, the Paris Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique, and the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard.  Mr. Serban has received grants from the Ford, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller Foundations. Several of his productions have been nominated for Broadway and Off-Broadway awards. He is a tenured professor at Columbia University, where he heads the MFA acting program.

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Set design by

Christine Jones

Set design by

Christine Jones

Christine Jones, the set designer for Nocturne, previously designed The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Man and Superman, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Hot 'n' Throbbing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Silence, Cunning, Exile, and The L.A. Plays for the American Repertory Theater. Her other credits include The Green Bird (for which she received Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award nominations) for the New Victory Theatre in New York, Texts for Nothing and Richard II for the New York Shakespeare Festival, Tartuffe and Richard III for Hartford Stage, and sets and costumes for Iolanthe at Glimmerglass Opera.

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Lighting Design

Michael Chybowski

Lighting Design

Michael Chybowski

Lighting designer, Lady with a Lapdog. The American Repertory Theater's resident lighting designer (1997–2001). AntigoneFull Circle, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, The Master Builder, Phaedra, The Bacchae, In the Jungle of Cities, The Taming of the Shrew, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Wild Duck at the A.R.T. Other: Moby Dick and Other Stories with Laurie Anderson, The Grey Zone (Long Wharf Theatre), Andrei Belgrader's production of Waiting for Godot (Classic Stage Company), Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (Steppenwolf Theatre), and the original production of Wit. For the Mark Morris Dance Group, he has designed over thirty dances, including Four Saints in Three Acts for English National Opera and Falling Down Stairs, which toured the U.S. with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Nominated for an American Theatre Wing design award for his lighting of David Rabe's A Question of Mercy and also for The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson. Received a 1999 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, the American Theatre Wing Design Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award for 1999.

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Sound design by

Christopher Walker

Sound design by

Christopher Walker

Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.

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Movement by

Richard Colton

Richard Colton performed with Twyla Tharp Dance from 1977 to 1988 and was a member of the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. He was a guest performer and teacher with the White Oak Dance Project, directed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has staged the works of Twyla Tharp for the Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Twyla Tharp Dance, where he served as rehearsal director. Mr. Colton appeared in the films Hair and Amadeus, directed by Milos Foreman, the PBS Great Performances presentation of "The Catherine Wheel," and on Broadway in Singing in the Rain. Mr. Colton currently co-directs SPENCER/COLTON, a company of dancers and actors formed in 1989 to perform his work in collaboration with Amy Spencer. The company, based in Boston, has been presented by Jacobs Pillow, Boston Dance Umbrella, the American Repertory Theater Fall Festival, Harvard Summer Dance Performance Series, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and New York's Dance Theater Workshop. Mr. Colton has choreographed the A.R.T. productions of The Cherry Orchard; Henry V; The Threepenny Opera, directed by Ron Daniels; and Ubu Rock, directed by Andrei Belgrader. Each year since 1989, in collaboration with Amy Spencer, he has created an original dance-theater work with the actors of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Mr. Colton has choreographed productions for Trinity Repertory Theatre, Boston Conservatory Dance Theatre, and the Boston Ballet. He is currently on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and co-directs the dance program at Concord Academy.

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Movement by

Amy Spencer

Amy Spencer was a member of Twyla Tharp Dance from 1981 to 1988. During that time she worked on the films Amadeus, Zelig, and "The Catherine Wheel," and appeared on Broadway in Singing in the Rain. She was a collaborator and performer in Martha Clark's Vienna: Lusthaus and Miracolo d'amore at the Public Theater, and has been a guest artist with Pilobolus and the White Oak Dance Project, directed by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Ms. Spencer co-directs, creates work for, and performs in SPENCER/COLTON, a company of dancers and actors based in Boston. The company has been presented by Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dance Theater Workshop, Boston Dance Umbrella, and Harvard Summer Dance Center. She has choreographed productions for the American Repertory Theater, Trinity Repertory Theatre, and the Boston Ballet. Ms. Spencer has taught movement to actors at N.Y.U. through Playwrights Horizons and taught dance at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence College and N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts.

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The Induction
Christopher Sly Harry S. Murphy
Hostess Patricia Kelley
Tapster Justin Campbell
Lord Dmetrius Conley-Williams
Lady Sophia Fox-Long
Huntsmen Leopold Lowe, Scott Lucy, Robert Ross, Kevin Varner
Silver, the dog Luca Lucretia Azzolina
The Players Themselves
Page (as a woman) Remo Airaldi
The Play
Lucencio Scott Harrison
Tranio Ben Evett
Baptista Jeremy Geidt
Gremio Will LeBow
Katharina (Kate) Kristin Flanders
Hortensio Jason Weinberg
Bianca Caroline Hall
Biondello Michael Cecchi
Petruchio Don Reilly
Grumio Stephen Rowe
Curtis Patricia Kelley
Pedant Remo Airaldi
Vincentio (alternating performances) Robert Brustein, Jerry Flynn
Haberdasher Leopold Lowe
Tailor Dmetrius Conley-Williams
Widow Danielle Delgado