By Sarah Swinderman ~
The Blackfriars Playhouse at the American Shakespeare Center. (Source: American Theatre )
On November 1st, Eisenhower Auditorium welcomed the American Shakespeare Center, and their performance of The Taming of the Shrew. The ASC is based in Staunton, Virginia, in the Blackfriars Playhouse, which is the only recreation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater, but they also tour to different venues across the United States.
The mission of the American Shakespeare Center is to recover “the joys and accessibility of Shakespeare’s theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education.” In their production of The Taming of the Shrew at Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium, they did just that.
The performance really brought the comedy of the play to life, and the audience was really engaged the whole time. In their staging, the American Shakespeare Center has a few techniques that help to maintain both authenticity and also to make the play more accessible and current.
They leave the lights in the theater on because that is how the play would have been viewed in Shakespeare’s time as well. The actors are able to see the audience and therefore connect and engage with the audience more than if the audience were in the dark. Some audience members are also are seated on stage to the left and right of the actors, which allows the actors to engage even more with these audience members, giving them props to hold, or looking to them for a response to a line they just delivered.
Though Shakespeare originally cast only men, the American Shakespeare Company had both men and women in their production, but they still play with gender by having women play men and men play women. They also double parts, so multiple actors play multiple parts, which is another authentic aspect of their renditions.
The sets are also simple, which allows the actors to shine and the action to be the main focus.
A touch I really liked was that before the play and during the intermission, the actors came out and performed a few modern songs, such as “No Diggity” by Blackstreet and “Just a Girl” by No Doubt.
I think that The Taming of the Shrew in particular is a difficult play to make current, as the majority of the play is about the “taming” of a woman, a concept that is extremely outdated to current audiences, and the abuse that the character Kate endures is uncomfortable at times. Another confusing aspect to play is Kate’s eventual obedience to her husband, which Shakespeare provides little to no explanation for.
With that being said, I thought the ASC did a great job of sticking to the original script, while using action to mend the discrepancies. The actress who played Kate was able to convince the audience that she did fall in love with Petruchio, and then play her obedience as an aspect of that love.
The American Shakespeare Center will continue their current tour into the Spring, and they are currently showing Peter and the Starcatcher, Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Fall of King Henry (Henry VI, Part 3), and if you want to see The Taming of the Shrew, they are showing that in the spring.