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Photos by David Kinder at www.kinderpics.com.

Cast List 

Kate Petruchio Baptista Bianca Lucentio Vincentio Hortensio Gremio Tranio Grumio Biondello  Christopher Sly/Pedant Curtis et al. Designer/Servant Bartholomew Lord Hostess/Widow

Maureen Porter* James Farmer*  Gary Powell Foss Curtis Peter Platt Ted Schultz Sam Dinkowitz David Heath Grant Turner Nikolas Hoback Joel Patrick Durham Nathan Dunkin Rusty Tennant Crystal Munoz Matt Kerrigan Brian Hartcourt Hadley Boyd

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Comments from Director Michael Mendelson 

Artistic Director Michael Mendelson directed the The Taming of the Shrew, which was adapted by Cole Porter for his famous musical, Kiss Me Kate, and is the basis for the film 10 Things I Hate About You. “I am excited to explore the lengths a person will go to to transform somebody they love into the person they wish them to be.  Do we gain a healthier and more fruitful relationship or do we lose the essence and spark of what ignited our passion and drew us to the person in the first place?  There is no better journey than that of Kate and Petruchio to explore love and marriage in both a traditional sense and one for a modern sensibility.  I can hardly wait to begin the journey.”

Reviews

Bob Hicks, in Oregon ArtsWatch, says:

“Just go see it. It’s a rich, funny, self-assured production, tumbling with witticisms high and low, and it whets the appetite for John Fletcher’s rarely performed “response” play, “The Tamer Tamed,” which the Shakespeare Project will open later this month and run in repertory with “Shrew.” (Yet another variation, the Cole Porter/Sam and Bella Spewack musical “Kiss Me Kate,” opens August 3 at Clackamas Rep.) Director Michael Mendelson has fluffed the thing up with period visual touches, reinstated the usually dropped “dream” bookends featuring the drunken tinker Christopher Sly, and goosed the action with a circusload of physical shtick.”

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“The heart of the play, though, is still the fearsome misfits Kate and Petruchio and their squabble royal for supremacy or equivalence. And Mendelson’s antagonists are pretty scarifying. James Farmer gives Petruchio a feral, calculated psycho edge: he’s a pretty scary guy, with a head harder than limestone. As Kate, the wonderful Maureen Porter moves from fevered wildcat anger to a lovely underlined humor that widens her outlook and frees her from the curse of understanding both too little and too much.”

Full Review:  CLICK HERE

Patrick Brassel, in Broadwayworld.com, says:  

“Farmer and Porter, as Petruchio and Kate, are outstanding. Porter finds modern touches in Kate’s angry speeches in the first half of the play, and she challenges the formidable Farmer in their fight scenes. She makes Kate’s harshness funny, and she even convinces when she gradually melts under Petruchio’s maltreatment and comes to love him.”

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“What’s great about this production is that it’s flat-out hilarious.”

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“By the end of the show, the actors from the introduction have been worked into the action of the play, and we get a final wrap-up from the drunk and the hostess. At that point, we’ve had such a great time with these characters, we don’t want them to leave. I just wanted to sit there and watch them dance and party for a while longer. You won’t want to go home either.”

Audience Comments

“MUST SEE Taming of the Shrew – Michael Mendelson and his incredible cast have created the most brilliant version of this show I have ever seen. The Bard in 60s Laugh In style with some modern nods thrown in is only the beginning of what makes this show exceptional. The overall vision, acting, timing, set design and costumes make this a thoroughly enjoyable night of theatre – you will love it!”

 

“You don’t usually think of Shakespeare as rollicking good fun, but this production is just that. It’s like Austin Powers time travels to meet up with William Shakespeare and they produce this together.”

 

“Highly inventive and hilariously spirited, Portland Shakespeare Project delivers a delightful Taming of the Shrew that is guaranteed to be well worth your time spent in the theatre! Go see it; you will have a blast!”

 

“We enjoyed this so much, that we are going again. This talented cast makes courtship and marriage a joy. Do not miss this.”

 “Congratulations to the cast and crew of PSP’s “Taming of the Shrew”. Saw it last nite and was totally entertained and very much delighted. Best wishes for a great run Michael Mendelson, cast and crew.”