January 29, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

The Acting Company returns with terrific young actors in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew

Summary Facts:

• The Acting Company
• William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
• America’s foremost touring repertory theatre
• Returning to UCSB after its sold-out success A Comedy of Errors in April 2001
• Tuesday, March 5 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $28/$25, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts &Lectures at 893-3535

The Acting Company, America’s foremost classical touring repertory theatre, will present a new production of Shakespeare’s popular classic The Taming of the Shrew on Tuesday, March 5 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. The Acting Company was founded in 1972 by current Producing Director Margot Harley and the late John Houseman to present superior productions of classic and contemporary plays as a means to build a discerning national audience for theater, thereby helping preserve and extend our cultural heritage. The Company also provides continuing opportunities for young actors to practice their craft, nurturing the growth and development of generations of theater artists, including distinguished alumni like Frances Conroy, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, David Ogden Stiers and Jeffrey Wright. The Miami Herald declares, “Customary though this observation has become, it must be repeated: The Acting Company is one of this country’s most exciting, creative and impressive theater companies.”

The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1592-1594) is a play-within-a-play. The actors present a comedy called The Taming of the Shrew to Christopher Sly, a drunken tinker. Set in Italy, the play concerns the marriage and consequent taming of the shrewish Katharina, elder daughter of a wealthy Pauduan. No one wants her, but everyone wants her sister, Bianca, who cannot be given in marriage until Kate is off her father’s hands. Fortunately a swaggering adventurer, Petruchio, appears, seeking a rich wife. Petruchio and Kate meet, fight, and marry under ridiculous circumstances, with Petruchio on the wedding night keeping Kate hungry, sleepless and frustrated until she agrees to do everything he says. Eventually Kate sees that her shrewish behavior is unnecessary, and at Bianca’s wedding, makes a speech to the women and men about the respect that women and men owe each other in marriage. As the play-within-a-play ends, Sly awakens, saying he will go and “tame his wife,” whereupon he is kicked out into the street by the tavern’s barmaid.

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Audiences have always loved the zest of the plot and the sharply drawn comic characters. It has been the basis for several films, including the Franco Zeffirelli 1960 version with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and the 1999 high school version Ten Things I Hate about You. Cole Porter’s musical Kiss Me Kate borrowed liberally from the plot of The The Taming of the Shrew. The Acting Company’s production will be freely drawn from the Elizabethan world, much like the film Shakespeare in Love, and will be both a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare’s work for students and an entertaining evening for adults.

The Taming of the Shrew’s director Eve Shapiro was born in South Africa, and has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1976, where she has directed such plays as The Three Sisters, Mother Courage, Guys and Dolls, Man and Superman and Hedda Gabler, among many others. She was a director and teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and Associate Director of the York Theatre Royal.

During the 2002 season, along with The Taming of the Shrew. The Acting Company is touring Puddin’ Head Wilson, Charles Smith’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s 1894 novel. That production is part of its “The American Century” five-year program that commissions, develops and produces new American plays adapted from American Literary classics.

In Arts &Lectures’ on-going effort to make our events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, The Taming of the Shrew will be a signed performance. This evening is the second of three such nights during the 2001-2002 season, following the SITI Company performance of War of the Worlds—The Radio Play in October. The remaining signed performance will be one evening of The Vagina Monologues in April. Sign interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center.

Arts &Lectures began its long history of presenting The Acting Company in April of 1975 when the troupe performed Edward II, The Time of Your Life and She Stoops to Conquer. The Acting Company’s most recent performances at Campbell Hall have been The Rivals in April 2000 and a sold-out show of The Comedy of Errors in April 2001. This performance of The Taming of the Shrew is presented by UCSB Arts &Lectures. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency. Tickets are $28 and $25 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.