Dinner is hardly romantic between the determined Petruchio (Jim Eernisse, left) and shrewish Kate (Lizzie Chasen) in “The Taming of the Shrew,” opening Friday at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre for 10 performances. Others in the cast are Thomas Alford, Justin Bridges, Laith Dobbs, Cory Gold, Stacy Helton, Laura Holland,
Casey Jackson, Sandra Jennings, Judy LaMance, Stephanie Oppenheimer and Greg Rambin.IF YOU GO¦ What: “The Taming of the Shrew.”¦ When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28-March 1; 7 p.m. Thursday, March 6; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 7-8; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 9; 7 p.m. Thursday, March 13; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 14-15; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 16.¦ Where: Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St.¦ Admission: $25 ($12.50 side-section seating available Thursdays and Sundays).¦ Phone: 423-267-8534.¦ Website: www.TheatreCentre.com.BONUS EVENTS¦ Friday, Feb. 28: Opening Night Gala (sold out), 8 p.m. curtain¦ Thursday, March 6: Real-time captioning, 7 p.m. curtain¦ Friday, March 7: Q&A with actors and director after performance, 8 p.m. curtain¦ Friday, March 14: Girls Night Out, 8 p.m. curtain¦ Sunday, March 16: Unveiling of life-size statue, “Young Shakespeare,” by sculptor Lawrence Holofcener at 5 p.m. on the lawn following final performance at 2:30 p.m.
Director Scott Dunlap will offer a reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” in the next Circle Stage production at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. It opens Friday on the Chattanooga Theatre Centre Circle Stage and runs through March 16.
The last time Dunlap took on a work by Shakespeare, the result was the dramatic and riveting “Mr. & Mrs. M” (“Macbeth”), which won the Theatre Centre’s Miss Annie Award for best production in 2012. This time it’s a romantic comedy, one of the Bard’s funniest.
“I like Shakespeare, and I appreciate a great story,” says Dunlap, “but I’m not a purist.”
As such, he has no qualms about reimagining Padua as a town like Manhattan’s Little Italy and setting it in one of Dunlap’s favorite periods, the early 1960s. But even set to the beat of a score of familiar tunes by Louis Prima, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, the love story remains the same.