Theatre Discipline Lead: Shannon Kearns

The Collin Theatre Center continues our annual summer tradition of staging one of William Shakespeare's greatest plays. A delightful family event that makes Shakespeare accessible to everyone!

The Taming of the Shrew is set in Padua in the late 1500s. Two daughters of a local rich merchant Baptista are the focus of the story. Shy Bianca is courted by a number of good-looking and well-to-do young men, but Baptista announces that she cannot marry until the older daughter Katharine is first wed.

As Katharine is out-spoken and far from demure, none of the men in the town want to marry her, so Bianca remains unwed even though many suitors hover to woo her. When Lucentio arrives in Padua he sees the competition and poses as a servant, getting a job in the house where Bianca lives so he can be near to her and figure out to wed and bed the beauty. When Petruchio -- a rough-and-ready land owner -- comes to Padua shopping for a rich wife and lays eyes on Katharine, he falls in love with the fiery femme. After a furious, aggressive, and combative courtship they marry, and move to Petruchio's rustic mansion where their combative relationship continues challenging Katharine's sense of honor.

Back in Padua Lucentio confesses to Bianca that he is not a student but the son of one of the most respected men in town, and the couple decides to marry with Baptista's blessing. At the wedding all the couples and folks from the town arrive and Katharine, humbled from a new-found wisdom from her honeymoon with Petruchio gives advice to Bianca on how to be a successful wife. The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's best known -- and most produced -- plays.

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Browse The Taming of the Shrew (2011) Collections:

The Taming of the Shrew Gallery