SHAKESPEARE
1-24 at the downtown park with Shakespeare’s well-known relationship comedy “The Taming of the Shrew,” a tale that has been adapted countless times for the stage and screen. Some of the most famous versions include the 1967 film starring the always explosive combo of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me Kate” and the 1999 teen movie “10 Things I Hate About You,” starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.
Although it has been widely adapted, the story of the courtship between headstrong Katherine and uncouth Petruchio has garnered widespread controversy for what some perceive as its misogynistic themes.
Caprice Woosley, who as Oklahoma Shakespeare’s dramaturg researches and develops its productions, will direct the season opener.
“I really wanted a female director because … you need to deal with the opinion of people that just think it’s anti-feminist,” McGill said. “This is a play that people either love or hate. Feminists look at it as a man beating a women into submission, and I’ve never seen the play that way. I think it’s two headstrong people that are in a society that does not accept headstrong, intelligent people, and they find each other. So, I think it’s more about two people who are meant to be together finding each, and that’s her take on it.”
The season will close Sept. 14-30 at the Myriad Gardens with another of Shakespeare’s iconic works, the ever-quotable tragedy of “Hamlet,” the prince of Denmark. “There’s probably six or eight Shakespeare plays that are the foundation stones certainly of any Shakespeare company and of his work,” said Michael Gibbons, Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park managing director. “‘Hamlet’ is one of the foundation stones.”
Even people who think they don’t like Shakespeare probably have absorbed at least a few lines of the cultural touchstone, for which Shakespeare coined nowfamous phrases like “To thine own self be true,” “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” and of course, “To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
“It’s almost a perfect play,” said McGill, who will play the role of Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. “And the language is such that he’s just at the height of his powers with that play.”
D. Lance Marsh, head of performance for Oklahoma City University’s School of Theatre, will direct, while Luke Eddy, who teaches movement and stage combat at OCU, will take on the title role.
“He came in and auditioned and I went, ‘Oh, I could watch that for four hours,’ “McGill said. “You want to make sure
Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park’s 2017 season
www.oklahomashakespeare.com or 235-3700 “The Taming of the Shrew” June 1-24 Myriad Botanical Gardens Water Stage, 301 W Reno Ave. “Or,” July 13-23. Shakespeare in the Park on Paseo, 2920 Paseo “Private Lives” Aug. 17-27 Shakespeare in the Park on
Paseo “Hamlet” Sept. 14-30 Myriad Gardens Water
Stage that whoever plays Hamlet that you want to be able to watch him. … It’s not going to be four hours long, but man, he’s on stage a lot.”
At home in Paseo
When not acting out Shakespeare in the Myriad Gardens, the nonprofit theater is making itself at home in a former art gallery space in the Paseo Arts District while staying true to its longterm goal of moving down the street into the 30,000-squarefoot Paseo Plunge, a former swimming hole and later Italian restaurant that owner Joy Reed Belt currently is renovating into a neighborhood hub.
“We don’t want to stay here too long. Still our goal is to get down to the Plunge,” McGill said. “But in this space, because we don’t have to fill as many seats, we can do more experimental stuff. … Usually, it’s smaller casts and more intimate stories.”
For the third season, Oklahoma Shakespeare will be decamping from the park in the heat of summer to put on two shows. After directing two of the theater’s productions last summer, Oklahoma City native Laura Standley, an assistant theater professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, will return to her hometown to helm the comedic biopic “Or,” July 13-23 at Oklahoma Shakespeare’s Paseo home.
“She’s a smart cookie,” McGill said. “She got her start with us when she was a kid. I love that kind of circle … of being able to bring back people who have worked with us in the past.”
McGill will take on the lead role in “Or,” Liz Duffy Adams’ acclaimed 2010 play based on the life of Aphra Behn, known as the first credited female playwright.
“She was also a spy for King Charles, which is fascinating. And that’s the truth. So she was a spy and a lady playwright. I mean, imagine that as a theme for a play: She’s trying to get out of the spy trade and make it as a writer,” McGill said.
“The chance for us to do a female-driven play is always something I’m looking for … and it’s a classically themed play about a female playwright that was not in Shakespeare’s time but just right after.”
The company also will present an uproarious tale from one of Britain’s most famous playwrights not named Shakespeare with its Aug. 17-27 Paseo production of “Private Lives,” by 20th century stage and screenwriter, composer, actor and film director Noel Coward.
“We have wanted to do Noel Coward, and I always wanted to do ‘Private Lives.’ I kept trying to visualize it at the Myriad Gardens, and I could not do it,” McGill said. “It’s airy and it’s funny, but the humor is in the language and the wit. There’s not a lot of physical action, so this space is perfect for it.”
The play centers on a glamorous divorced couple who unexpectedly meet again across their hotel balconies in the South of France — while each on their honeymoons with their new spouses. Emily Heugatter, associate professor of theater arts at the University of Central Oklahoma, will mark her directorial debut with the comedy, considered one of the best ever written.
“The turn of a phrase and the way people banter … and toss language back and forth, I just love that kind of humor because it’s really smart humor,” McGill said. “This is like ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ on steroids.”