Amy Freed's SHREW! Has World Premiere At South Coast Repertory

Playwright Amy Freed has always been a Shakespeare fan. Her breakout hit, The Beard of Avon (SCR-commissioned and premiered, 2001), was a smart, funny look at the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Now comes SHREW! (March 24-April 21, Segerstrom Stage), in which Freed has re-imagined The Bard's play, The Taming of the Shrew, as a wickedly funny love story of two people who find their way to true, deep and mutual love. Art Manke directs SHREW!, which is an anchor production of the 2018 Pacific Playwrights Festival. Tickets are available at www.scr.org.

"Amy Freed is one of the smartest people I have ever met," said Manke, whose long-term collaboration with Freed goes back to graduate school at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre. Manke directed Freed's The Monster Builder last season at SCR, a work that had been developed through the theatre's new-play development program. "Her unique view of the world makes her plays delightfully surprising to work on."

Freed's reboot of the story delves into Kate's and Petruchio's back stories. For Kate, it's breaking free of the constraints on women of the late 16th century and enjoying all the rights and opportunities that men in her society enjoyed. For Petruchio, it's a smoothing-out of his stock braggadocio with more complicated dimensions and creating in him a suitable spouse for Kate.

Freed is the author of The Monster Builder, Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon, Freedomland and You, Nero, all commissioned and performed at SCR. Her other plays include Them That Are Perfect, Restoration Comedy, The Psychic Life of Savages, Still Warm and Claustrophilia. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist (Freedomland) and recipient of both the Joseph Kesselring Award and the Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award. Her work has widely been produced in a variety of houses including Arena Stage, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Goodman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She is an artist-in-residence at Stanford University.

The cast includes Elijah Alexander, Stephen Caffrey, Peter Frechette, Jeremy Peter Johnson, Sierra Jolene, Martin Kildare, Colette Kilroy, Mike McShane, Matt Orduña, Susannah Rogers, Bhama Roget, Brett Ryback and Danny Scheie.

The design and creative team includes Ralph Funicello, scenic design; David Kay Mickelsen, costume design; Jaymi Lee Smith, lighting design; Steven Cahill, composer and soundscape; and Joanne DeNaut, CSA, casting. The production manager is Joshua Marchesi and the stage manager is Lora K. Powell. The dramaturg is John Glore.

SHREW! has generous support from Honorary Producers Geoff and Valerie Fearns, Timothy and Marianne Kay and the Argyros Family Foundation. The media sponsor for the show is 89.3 KPCC Public Radio.

Tickets: May be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the Box Office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Performances run March 24-April 21. Ticket prices start at $23. Low-priced previews run March 24-29. SCR's performances run Tuesdays-Sundays; there are no performances on Mondays.