All The World’s A Stage

‘Plain Kate’ fun introduction to classics

Jules Taylor, Arts Live Theatre’s educational director and author of their current show “Plain Kate,” is no stranger to taking the works of Shakespeare and giving them a new, creative spin. A few years ago, she did it with an Arts Live production that was inspired by “Romeo and Juliet.”

“I mixed it up and took big chunks of actual [Shakespearean] text and intertwined it with some really silly, anachronistic stuff,” she says with a laugh.

This time around, it’s the Bard’s “Taming of the Shrew” that she’s using as a jumping-off point for her new script, which takes Kate and Bianca to high school .

“I almost hesitate to call this one an adaptation,” she says. “It’s really a mash-up of a lot of different stories. It’s set in high school, and the kids are getting ready to go to the dance — it’s really fun. I did add a little Shakespearean text here and there, because there’s a sort of B plot where the school is doing a production of ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ and the kids are getting ready for the auditions.

“When I wrote it, I thought it was funny, but then when I saw the rehearsal and saw our young

actors bringing what they bring to a show — it’s really funny because they’re just so good.”

Taylor says exposing students to the classics is a priority at Arts Live and introducing them to Shakespeare through work that was inspired by one of his classic plots is one way to do that.

“The goal is to get Shakespeare out there, even in this contemporary vernacular, [to get] young people more interested in going back to read the source material,” she says. “I did take one of the most famous Shakespearean passages — ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ — I kept the speech as intact as I could, because I know that young people have heard that phrase. I want them to get a little more context. Maybe that, too, can pique their interest.”

Taylor adds that a longtime Arts Live collaborator is directing.

“I wrote it and handed it to the amazing Jennifer Nesbitt,” Taylor shares. “She’s been directing for us for the last three seasons, and she’s done some really excellent work. She just graduated with her MFA from the University of Arkansas, so she’s coming in very fresh with a lot of knowledge of Shakespeare that she studied as a graduate student. She’s mounting the show so uniquely — it’s different than anything else we’ve done in the space in the way that’s she’s staged it. We’re using the entire space, so that it’s more immersive.”

And when “Plain Kate” closes, Arts Live will have one more original script out in the theater world to claim as its own.

“For the last 10 years or more, we’ve created a lot of original scripts, most written by Mark Landon Smith — and several of them have been published and have been done all over the country,” Taylor reveals. “When you open a script, the first thing you see is the names of the actors who were in the original production, so you see our actors’ names, and that’s pretty cool. I’ve said, ‘Please, when you’re in rehearsal, if there is clunky dialogue, let’s talk about changing it,’ and that’s really exciting as an actor, lending your own voice to something original.”

Courtesy Photo “When I wrote it, I thought it was funny, but then when I saw the rehearsal and saw our young actors bringing what they bring to a show — it’s really funny because they’re just so good,” says playwright Jules Taylor.