The Taming of the Shrew - March 6 to 10

two actors in profile smile face to face with a third actor between them in the background

by William Shakespeare
Directed by Ryan Garbayo

Department Performances

  • Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 8pm - Purchase tickets here
  • Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 8pm - Purchase tickets here
  • Friday, March 8, 2024 at 3pm - Purchase tickets here
  • Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 2pm - Purchase tickets here
  • Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 8pm - Purchase tickets here
  • Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2pm - Purchase tickets here


Unfolding with music and merriment, a nearly all-female cast of players takes on Shakespeare’s classic comedy about the politics of empowerment and who wears the pants when two fabulously headstrong individuals fall in love.
 

  • Advance tickets: $17 general public / $12 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff
  • Day of show tickets: $22 general public / $17 students, seniors & UAlbany faculty-staff

Program

(Photo by Nia Samerson)

One of Shakespeare’s earliest works, The Taming of the Shrew dates from the 1590s and “was a hot-button domestic comedy even then,” notes Garbayo, who is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Acting at UAlbany and also a professional actor with nearly two decades of experience performing Shakespeare at our country’s most respected classical theatres. 

While Shrew has survived for four centuries, it is performed much less frequently in the 21st century. “The play is a lesson to a drunken buffoon on how on how to put unruly women in their place. It’s no wonder audiences have soured on the themes,” says Garbayo, “But I keep asking myself, have things really changed, in our currently political landscape?”

In this production, gender is flipped on its head with nearly all the roles played by female-identifying students, embodying masculine archetypes — including Petruchio who comes to woo the “waspish” Kate. “The play ends with a surprising and heartbreaking conclusion,” says Garbayo. “My hope is that by watching these very funny but low-brow comedic characters — played mostly by women — the audience will ask themselves if they should be laughing, or if these jokes are even funny to begin with.”

This production features the work of Visiting Assistant Professor of Costumes Anne Croteau, who together with her student crew is building the period costumes from the ground up, in the UAlbany costume shop. The scenic design features the work of Visiting Assistant Professor of Set Design Nora Smith, who designed the hyper-realistic diner kitchen in the Theatre Program’s recent production of Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage.

Together with guest lighting designer Jared Klein (a Skidmore faculty member in his first UAlbany collaboration), they will transform the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s flexible Lab Theatre. Garbayo describes the vision as a “three-dimensional Shakes-perience, where the audience is definitely a part of the world of the play.”

According to Theatre Program Director Kate Walat, this production reflects the continued commitment to provide students with the experience of performing in verse: “We hope to produce a work of Shakespeare or other classical texts every other spring, alternating with a musical.” Last spring’s offering was the rock musical Rent.

“This particular work of Shakespeare also kicks off a larger dialogue we’re having this semester about gender relationships,” says Walat, citing the upcoming Authors Theatre staged reading of playwright Amina Henry’s work-in-progress Little Rapes. Closing out the Theatre Program’s season will be the Fresh Acts festival of new plays written, directed and performed by students working in collaboration. The festival runs from April 10 through 13.