• Kiss Me, Kate
    by Cole Porter, Sam and Bella Spewack
    Director  John Johnson
    		  
    Stage Manager
    Caitlyn Blevins, Lily Johnson
    		  
         
    Date March, 3-5, 2017  
    Location North, Mainstage
    		  
     
    SYNOPSIS
    Fred Graham (Sam Heichelbech) is mounting a new musical production of The Taming of the Shrew for Broadway.  He has hired his ex-wife, the one time movie star, Lilli Vanessi (Emily Sipes) and a pair of night club dancers, Bill Calhoun (Ciaran Hill) and Lois Lane (Grace Terry) to star.  Kiss Me, Kate takes place during a fateful out of town tryout in Baltimore.  Fred and Lilli's passions reignite and then burn with rage, falling into their own patterns and being reminiscent of the tempestuous relationship of Katherine and Petruchio in Taming fo the Shrew.  Lois and Bill are a young couple eager to get ahead, doing whatever it takes.  For Lois, that means shamelessly flirting with any man that may get her to the next level, including Fred.  For Bill, that means finding the next big score.  When Bill intentionally signs an IOU to a criminal boss using Fred's name, the boss send two men (Joe Robinson, Nathan Patton) to collect the sizable debt.  Add in to this mix Lilli's dresser Hattie (Brittany Davis), who may be looking for her own shot on the stage, Fred's dresser Paul (Sam Beggs), who is looking for this week's love, Harry Trevor (Sam Lay), a character actor with a tooth ache, Lilli's fiance General Harrison Howell (Mark Salle-Tabor) who has ambitions towards the White House and the harried stage manager Ralph (Steven Walters) who just wants to keep the show going.  Now, you have a backstage farce ripe for comedy.
     
    This is arguably Cole Porter's greatest theatrical score, with songs including "Another Openin', Another Show", "Wunderbar", "So In Love", "Always True To You Darling in My Fashion", "Too Darn Hot" and of course "Brush Up Your Shakespeare". The auditorium had caught fire previous to auditions, so most of the rehearsal period was spent in other locations.  Production was denied access to the space for so long, that both the set and costumes were rented, a first for the organization.
     

     
Last Modified on September 19, 2017