Kiss Me Kate

Feb - March 2008
Directed by Michael Cheak

Another Op'nin' Another Show welcomes you to Baltimore and to the opening of a musical version of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." The cast of the play is on stage and receiving final instructions from Fred Graham, the director. A play-within-a-play unfolds, where each of the four main cast members' on-stage performance is complicated by what is happening in his off-stage life. Fred takes the roles of director and male lead, Petruchio. His ex-wife Lilli, now a movie star with a reputation for being difficult to work with, plays Katharine, the shrew. Fred's current love interest, Lois, plays the role of Bianca, and the other man in Lois' life, Bill, plays the role of Lucentio.

Before the curtain rises on "The Shrew" we find out that Bill has a gambling problem. He tells Lois that he signed a $10,000 IOU for a debt in Fred's name, instead of using his own name. Not long after Lois begs Bill to stop gambling, two thugs show up at the theater to make it clear that Bill will have to make good on that IOU. But they confront Fred instead of Bill, since Fred's name is on the gambling debt. Lois asks Bill Why Can't You Behave? Fred and Lilli reminisce nostalgically about their other performances together, and their warm feelings for each other return -Wunderbar. When flowers sent by Fred to Lois mistakenly get delivered to Lilli, Lilli falls even more deeply in love with Fred -So in Love.

KISS ME, KATE played for 1,077 performances on Broadway at the New Century Theatre and for 501 performances in London at the Coliseum Theatre. The original cast included Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. The original cast album issued in 1948 by Columbia Records had the distinction of being the very first Broadway cast recording to be issued on LP.

We will be doing the version of KISS ME, KATE which was revived in 1999 at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway, where it played for 881 performances starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie, and at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, where it played for about 300 performances starring Brent Barrett and Marin Mazzie.

MPC's Box Office is
located at:

Monterey Peninsula College
Theatre Building
980 Fremont Street
Monterey, CA 93940

and is open Wed—Fri,
3PM—7PM

& 2 hours prior to
All Performances

You may telephone us at:
831.646.4213

Or fax the Box Office at:
831.646.4277

Or email the Box Office at:
MPCBoxOffice@mpc.edu

Purchase Tickets Online
www.TicketGuys.com

Audition Information
GBolen@mpc.edu

Monterey Peninsula Community Theatre Company Charitable Trust
PO BOX 761 ∙ Monterey, CA 93942
©2006-7, no part of this page may be reproduced without written permission

01/21/2008 12:13:26