Horse Trade Theater Group & DMTheatrics Present The Taming of the Shrew

The American Shakespeare Factory proudly announces the latest salvo in their ongoing war against boring classical theater, as the Bard's controversial farce about the eternal war between the sexes is brought screaming and kicking into the modern-day American South. When the rascally Petruchio weasels his way into a wealthy family by hitching himself to the hellraising oldest daughter, Kate, he must find a way to tame the fiery lass before she ends up taming him -- which she just might.

This bold and shameless new take on a venerable stage classic is brought to you by the company that produced the fastest-selling show in NYC indie theater history, the infamous Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, as well as past classics such as Bitch Macbeth, Sugarbaby!, and the smash-hit Plan 9 From Outer Space, which The New York Times called "just about perfect". This is guaranteed to be the sensation of the season, and is the perfect intro to Shakespeare for people who hate Shakespeare.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW will feature Lindsey Carter (Plan 9 from Outer Space with DMTheatrics; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with Untitled Theater Company #61), Edgar Eguia (Goliath in the Planet Connections Theater Festivity), Josh Potter, Adam Swiderski (Bitch Macbeth with DMTheatrics; Willy Nilly with Piper McKenzie Productions), Kymberly Tuttle (Titus Andronicus with DMTheatrics), and Brianna Tyson (Two Gentlemen of Lebowski with DMTheatrics).

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, presented by DMTheatrics' and Horse Trade Theater Group, will play a four-week engagement at The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery), June 23-26, June 29-July 2, July 5 & 6, and July 10-13 at 7:30pm following a preview benefit performance on Wednesday, June 22. Tickets ($20/$30 preview) are available online at www.horseTRADE.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

FRANK CWIKLIK (Director) is now in his second decade of pumping out loud, excessive, almost entirely pointless theater in various NYC venues, despite the pleas and entreaties of audiences and critics, and in defiance of several court orders and Federal regulations. With his needlessly gargantuan theater company, the roundly despised DMTheatrics, he has produced and/or directed over thirty shows since 1999, and has worked as an actor and designer for dozens of shows for other defenseless entities in that time. His best-known works include the influential S&M futuristic fantasia Bitch Macbeth (whose third appearance at Williamsburg's Brick Theater smashed box office records and earned a 4-star review in Time Out New York); the controversial political satire Sugarbaby! (published in the 2004 NYTE Plays and Playwrights Collection, available on Amazon.com); the smash-hit Vegas version of Antony and Cleopatra (winner 2003 OOBR Award for Outstanding Production); an infamous series of Ed Wood adaptations which played to sellout crowds at the legendary Todo Con Nada, as well as The Red Room, The Brick, and The St. Marks Studio Theater; and countless more. Recently, he produced and directed the world theatrical premiere of the viral phenomenon Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, which broke indie NYC theater attendance records and attracted audiences from as far away as Sweden and the U.K; and the stage adaptation of Plan 9 From Outer Space, which the New York Times called "just about perfect", which proves their standards have slipped precipitously. His most recent work, Bible and Wine, played at The Kraine Theater in February of 2011, and featured two new tracks from orchestral pop pioneer Eric Matthews. Cwiklik's immersive, eccentric, aggressive directorial style has earned him praise from The Village Voice, The New York Times, Time Out New York, nytheatre.com, Backstage, and Show Business Weekly, and has influenced many directors working both on and off Broadway. Cwiklik's DMTheatrics Laboratories are busily constructing the next phase of his ongoing assault on delicate sensibilities, including American Shakespeare Factory entries As You Like It and Hamlet; an adaptation of the noir classic Scarlet Street; and God's Comic, a fantasia based on the work of silent comedy great Harry Langdon.

DMT was founded as Danse Macabre Theatrics in 1999 by producer/director Frank Cwiklik in New York City. DMTheatrics was launched with the express purpose of creating theater for audiences, not agents or academics, and for taking advantage of the immediacy and aggressiveness of live performance by creating immersive, emotionally engaging and spectacular theatrical pieces. By looking back to the classic forms of burlesque, vaudeville, cabaret, linear storytelling, and spectacle, DMT hopes to create new and exciting theater for the present and help usher in the future of performance with clean, direct, attractive works that excite, inspire, and most importantly, entertain. DMT does not workshop its pieces, nor does it hold staged or seated readings, as we firmly believe that the only way to truly "break" a show is by doing it, no pretention, no discussion, no nonsense. Even with an 18-month break in the middle of its first decade, DMT has staged more shows in the past 11 years than most theater or production companies manage in a quarter century, and has more shows planned and prepared for staging than many people have even seen. Our shows may be loud, they may be chaotic, they may be eccentric, they may even be stupid, but they are always heartfelt and engaging, and they are never, ever boring.

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York - the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.