Calvin Theatre Company presents The Taming of the Shrew

The Calvin Theatre Company (CTC) presents William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." For its 80th season interim production, CTC welcomes Nancy Wagner as guest director of this classic Shakespearean comedy with an updated setting, 1870s Missouri. Calvin's production of "The Taming of the Shrew" explores themes of gender and what true love is.

"The Taming of the Shrew" centers on the characters of Petruchio (Andrew McClelland) and Katherine (Dena Nederhood). Katherine is well known throughout Jefferson City as an outspoken, wild, gun-toting shrew. This is a stark contrast to her younger sister, Bianca (Emily Wetzel), who is sweet and has men chasing after her. Unfortunately marriage is forbidden for Bianca by her mother, Baptista Minola (Merideth Beukelman), until Katherine is married. This is the scene that greets Lucentio (Sam Camp), a young shipping heir from New Orleans, and Trania (Sarah Tighe), his tutor and good friend.

Lucentio quickly falls in love with Bianca and devises a plan to win her love. Gremio (Steven Barre) and Hortensio (Tim Lim), fellow rivals for Bianca's love, pull together a plan to marry Katherine off to the fortune hunting Petruchio, so that Bianca can be free to marry one of them. Petruchio takes this as a challenge and swears to tame the wild Katherine. After a strange wedding, Petruchio takes Katherine home to St. Louis and begins taming her. The success of this task is another question all together.

CTC's production of "The Taming of the Shrew" features scenic design by David J. Leugs, costume design by Amanda Ytzen, and lighting design by Steve Haase.

Tickets are available at the Covenant Fine Arts Center Box Office, by phone at 616-526-6282 or online at www.calvin.edu/boxoffice/tickets.

Performances are January 31-February 2 (school matinee on February 1) and February 7-9 at 7:30 p.m. in Calvin's Gezon Auditorium.

Contact Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence at jfl4@calvin.edu

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Received on Mon Jan 28 15:05:32 2013