A man walks out with a lute clearly smashed on top of his head. This is Hortensio, disguised as Licio, the music tutor. He disguised himself because he wanted to be near Bianca. However, Bianca's older sister, Katherine, did this to him when he tried to teach her how to play the lute.
Later on, Petruchio's servant, Grumio, tells the tale and acts it out in a very physical and comedic manner what happened explaining while traveling with Petruchio and Katherine. She purposely falls on the ground, she pantomimes many problems that occurred, purposely trying to make people laugh.
Grumio is played by Kassie Coltrin and her performances stands out among the rest of the cast. Her character is meant to be a jester, but the amount of effort she goes through in order to give an amazing performance shines.
Petruchio is also always impressive whenever he is in a scene. He shows how puffed up he is, acting like he is wonderful when he is truly after Katherine's dowry and not there to look for . love. Petruchio is played by Louis Barrilleaux. He gives true dedication to the character. He gives a wonderful vocal and believing physical performance for the type of man Petruchio is supposed to be.
Of course, the play would be nothing without the rest of the cast and there wasn't anything that anybody said or did to make the play seem less than realistic. The only thing that happened a few times were some slips of the tongues with trying to remember lines or trying to say words. The slip ups did not make the play any worse as they were corrected immediately, so they easily could have been the characters slipping with their speech.
Others in the cast are Sean Hinchee (artist, haberdasher, servant), Ashley Vidrine (fruit vendor, Josephine), Antonio Dre (Lucentio), Rebecca Harris (Tranio), Taylor Novak-Tyler (Baptista), Andres Germosen (Gremio), Dylan Conley (Hortensio), Raye Floyd (Katherine), Anna Sternaman (Bianca), Rylee Hall (Biondello), Jeffrey Underwood (Curtis, Vicentio), Aimee Mayeux (tailor, widow), Alex Hebert (Philomene), Neveah Brown (Petrah), and Matt Dye (pedant).
The play was directed by Charles McNeely and co-directed by Dan Sadler. Sadler was also the set designer and decorator. He did an impressive job with the buildings, making it look like Italian arches. Some people may insist that they were missing a small big at the top, but there are places in Italy with arches that do not have those.
Other crew included James Johnson (set decorator), Heather Partin (costumes), Jonathon Richards (lighting designer), Robert Grider (lights and sound), Quaid Nichols (lights and sound), Justin Litpak (lights and sound), and Liz Trahan (program).
The play is in Lake Charles for seven more performances. They can be seen at the following dates and times.
- Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 2pm
- Friday, November 15, 2019 at 7pm
- Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 7pm
- Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 2pm
- Friday, November 22, 2019 at 7pm
- Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 7pm
- Sunday, November 24, 2019 at 2pm
Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for seniors (those 65 years and older), and $10 for students. Group tickets are also $10 per person as long as there are at least 10 people in the group. Tickets can be bought at
The Lake Charles Little Theater The Taming of the Shrew Vendini site. Reservations can also be made by calling
337-433-7988. Tickets are also available at the box office on the evenings of performances. Lake Charles Little Theater is located at 813 Enterprise Blvd in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The show is done in Shakespeare's language. If you feel like you would not understand the play, you can read the
the side by side version of Shakespeare's text and the modern day English version from Sparknotes.
