Artwork by Allison Rich

Shakespeare in Clark Park is set to return this week with The Taming!, a “raucous comedy” presented in two “very different” acts. The new production pairs Shakespeare’s problematic masterpiece, The Taming of the Shrew, with a community-created adaptation of John Fletcher’s Elizabethan revenge play, The Tamer Tamed.

The Taming of the Shrew is directed by Kathryn MacMillan while The Tamer Tamed has been adapted by Charlotte Northeast and is directed by Ang Bey.

The creative team of The Taming! is exploring themes of love, patriarchy, and domestic violence, and will contextualize Shakespeare’s original text from a modern viewpoint and from multiple perspectives. The community members who make up the Active Conscious Chorus in the adaptation of The Tamer Tamed will respond to the text.

“They will be the framework by which we question what theatre means, what it means to be in a community, and what it means to be in love,” says playwright and adaptor Charlotte Northeast.

The eight community members who will perform in The Taming! were selected after a series of community workshops and auditions held this Spring. For The Tamer Tamed, director Ang Bey’s vision is that the show, “will preserve the themes of femme/women’s liberation, love, and bravery, while also serving as a love letter to Black community and culture that makes West Philadelphia West Philly.”

In addition to the Active Conscious Chorus, MacMillan and Bey direct a company of professional actors many of which will play different roles in Act 1 and Act 2: Jo Vito Ramirez (Young Petruchio/Rowland), Kira Player (Katherine/Ensemble), J Hernandez (Old Petruchio/Vincentio), Donovan Lockett (Maria/Ensemble), Brian Anthony Wilson (Baptista/Moroso), Josh Browns (Gremio/Petronius), Morgan Charece Hall (Livia/Tailor/Widow), Adam Howard (Grumio/Jacques), Frank Jimenez (Hortensio/Sophocles), David Pica (Tranio), Minou Pourasharati (Bianca), and Ben Bass (Lucentio/Ensemble).

The Taming! runs July 27th-31st. All performances are free and staged at 7 p.m. in “the Bowl” of Clark Park, located near the intersection of Chester Avenue and 43rd Street. The rain location is the Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St. (reservations are required). To attend the indoor performance you must be fully vaccinated.

For more information, please visit shakespeareinclarkpark.org.

Shakespeare in Clark Park performances draw large crowds (archived photo/West Philly Local).