Posted in Entertainment

The ‘Steaming’ of the Shrew

   May 14, 2014

shakespeare
Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company presents Shakespeare’s classic comedy in June

Things are ho-hum in Padua, and Katherina Minola is annoyed by all the men in town tripping over each other to woo and win her sister, Bianca. Then, in walks time-traveling Petruchio, and sparks fly. In the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company’s production of the bard’s send up of sexual love and romantic mores, the characters inhabit a neo-Victorian world in which the strait-laced, stiff-backed status quo is confronted by the atrocious manners of two of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular characters. It has been said that “anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists,” and SETSCO’s production incorporates elements of Steampunk culture to highlight the differences between Petruchio and Kate and the rest of the characters on the stage.

Steampunk culture asks the question – What if the Victorians had the technological know-how of today but only the steam engine to power it? Classic literature from the genre includes the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

“In a way, it gives technology a kind of classic style,” said director Michelle Hancock. “The time traveling device that local artist, T.M. Lindsey, has designed for us looks old-timey and cool as well as transports Petruchio anywhere in time and space he wants to go. He is an adventurer par excellence, and Kate is mightily attracted to that.”

All of the actors in the production are teens. They range in age from 13 to 19 and come from Pensacola, Pace, Gulf Breeze, Perdido Key, and Navarre. Some of the youngest cast members have never been in a show before, while veteran members of the company fill the play’s major roles.

SETSCO presents The Taming of the Shrew at the Pensacola Cultural Center the first two weekends in June. Tickets are available through the Pensacola Little Theatre box office or website.

The Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to providing teens in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties with instruction and performance opportunities that lead to their significant growth as artists, community members, and human beings.

Event: The Taming of the Shrew
Date: June 6,7,8 and 13,14,15
Time: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2:30pm
Venue: Pensacola Cultural Center, 411 S. Jefferson Street
Cost: $10-$17
Tickets: pensacolalittletheatre.com or 850-432-2042
Information: setsco.org or pensacolalittletheatre.com

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