Scripts in hand, the solid and crew of “Kiss Me, Kate” started rehearsing the Quintessence Theatre Group’s newest providing on the morning of election day.
It proved to be extra related than anybody anticipated.
The play — a Cole Porter musical riff on William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” — is a backstage comedy a couple of highly effective lady who gained’t be tamed and makes her personal selections.
Though Quintessence selected the play lengthy earlier than the election, and even lengthy earlier than Kamala Harris grew to become the Democratic nominee, the connection between the occasions of the day and the message of “Kiss Me, Kate” weren’t misplaced on its solid and crew.
The play “says there’s a place for highly effective girls, to be themselves, to talk for themselves and to be equal companions for themselves,” stated Todd Underwood, who has traveled from New York to choreograph and direct Quintessence’s manufacturing, operating from Nov. 27 by Jan. 5 on the Sedgwick Theater in Philly’s Mt. Ethereal neighborhood.
“Collectively, with none ego and with none artifice, it reveals how two folks, a bunch of individuals, a nation, a world, how we should always all be equal and we should always all have a say,” Underwood stated.
“Colourful, highly effective, empowered, headstrong — when [these words] are hooked up to girls, it’s a destructive,” he stated. “This play says, `No, these are positives.’ ”
Shakespeare’s play, penned round 1590, facilities on the character of Katherina, the title shrew, recognized to be headstrong and outspoken. Many suitors search to wed Bianca, her lovely youthful sister, as she is taken into account to be the best lady. However her father, a wealthy nobleman, gained’t consent to any marriage till Katherina is wed.
Figuring out her father’s wealth, Petruchio sees a possibility and marries Katherina, “taming” her psychologically.
To what extent the bard’s work is misogynistic has been the topic of many a time period paper and is a part of the dynamic that exists in the present day and existed in 1948 when Cole Porter’s Broadway hit had its pre-Broadway tryouts at Philadelphia’s Shubert Theatre (now the Miller Theater).
A play inside a play inside a play
In Porter’s re-staging, the lead characters, Lilli Vanessi/Katharine and Fred Graham/Petruchio are actors in a revival of Shakespeare’s play. Divorced, they each love and detest one another. There are a lot of backstage subplots and plenty of nice songs to accompany them, together with the traditional, sung by gangsters, “Brush Up On Your Shakespeare.”
Underwood says the backstage, behind-the-scenes component is a part of “Kiss Me, Kate’s” enduring attraction.
“It’s kind of the voyeurism of getting the within scoop,” Underwood stated.
“This group of 12 individuals are telling the story inside the story, inside the story, inside the story,” stated Underwood, who additionally choreographed the Broadway touring manufacturing of “Kiss Me, Kate,” with double the solid.
The characters, he stated, “are so particular person at first. They play the crew of the present. Then, they go off stage and develop into the actors within the present. After which, a few our actors go off stage and develop into completely different characters within the present.”
Taking part in the lead is native favourite Jennie Eisenhower, of Paoli, who has had an extended historical past with “Kiss Me, Kate.” As a young person, she directed it for a college manufacturing at Conestoga Excessive Faculty on the Major Line. In faculty, she carried out within the play. And, in 2016, the identical yr Hillary Clinton ran for president and misplaced, director Peter Reynolds solid Eisenhower within the lead function for a manufacturing at Ambler’s Act II Playhouse.
“The roles are so juicy and complicated,” she stated. “I perceive there’s an ungirding of Shakespearean misogyny baked into it, however there’s an fascinating exploration of how it’s retrofitted for a up to date viewers by Porter.
“She really makes the feminist selection on the finish of the piece,” Eisenhower stated. “It looks like she’s acquiescing to this highly effective man, however beneath it’s the wink and the nod to the concept that she should bow to her husband.”
Presidential prerogative
Eisenhower, who has appeared on a lot of the area’s levels, acquired her begin as a teenager, performing “How A lot Is That Doggy In The Window,” for her grandfather, former president Richard Nixon, then dwelling in Saddle River, N.J. Her great-grandparents are former president Dwight Eisenhower and his spouse, Mamie Eisenhower.
Nixon’s dwelling, the place little Jennie Eisenhower watched Shirley Temple motion pictures together with her grandmother, Thelma Catherine “Pat” Nixon, had pocket doorways within the eating room that slid open right into a corridor, serving as stage and curtains.
To play the a part of the doggie within the window, Eisenhower recruited her youthful sister, who ended up stealing the present. “They are saying, `By no means seem on stage with canines or kids. They get all the eye.’ I used to be setting myself up for failure,” she laughed.
Years later, her grandfather got here to see Eisenhower carry out at Conestoga Excessive within the starring function of Little Pink Using Hood in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into The Woods.”
“He got here and noticed me and stayed” signing autographs,” she remembered. “He was there for hours, and two weeks later, he handed away.”
FYI
“Kiss Me, Kate,” Nov. 27-Jan. 5, Quintessence Theatre Group, Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, 215-987-4450.