Rochester Community Players’ social media ‘Shrew’

For 29 years, the Rochester Community Players has provided local theatergoers with a summer highlight: a free outdoor Shakespeare production. This summer it’s one of the bard’s best-known plays. “The Taming of the Shrew” opens at Highland Park Bowl on July 9 and continues until July 25.

Shakespeare’s comedy about the love-to-hate-you relationship between the unlikely couple of Petruchio and Katharina has been popular since the 1590s. Its many adaptations include a 1967 movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor; Cole Porter’s popular Broadway musical “Kiss Me, Kate”; and “Ten Things I Hate about You,” a 1999 high school rom-com spin on the story with Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.

Rochester Community Players first staged “The Taming of the Shrew” in 1964, and times have changed considerably since then. Changing social attitudes have raised new questions for its actors and directors. Why should an independent-minded, opinionated woman be called a “shrew”? And who says she needs “taming”?

“I think this play’s big problem now is that it’s 400 years old,” says director Jonathan Lowery. “Our society and culture have changed completely in regard to subjects like misogyny and domestic abuse, and this story looks very different in 2026.

“At its heart, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’  is a play about seeking healthy and authentic relationships,” Lowery adds. “By taking a more contemporary approach, and making some judicious cuts, I think we’re telling the story Shakespeare intended to tell.”

Katharina and Petruchio’s story ends well, but they don’t exactly meet cute: They hurl acid insults at each other, and occasionally hurl each other, from the get-go.

The male lead, Petruchio, comes to the town of Padua specifically “to wive it wealthily.” Katharina’s family is eager to get their fractious older daughter married off so their much more popular daughter Bianca can also marry. Petruchio’s initial interest in Katharina is not in her personality, but in her price tag.

“Petruchio starts out assertive, self-centered, and obnoxious,” says Michael Riches, who also describes his character as “a real huckster and unfathomably greedy.” (“That’s not who I am!” he adds with a laugh.)

“But once Petruchio has been scammed into a real relationship with a woman, he realizes that he doesn’t have everything. He learns to work together with someone to be happy in a relationship.”

One of Katharina’s unsuccessful suitors calls her “an irksome, brawling scold,” but Kayla Perconti, who plays her, sees a much deeper character.

“She’s a turbulent young woman, full of angst and anxieties, and resistant to the idea of being close to someone else,” Perconti explains. “Rather than her being ‘tamed,’ I think this play is about her finding someone who understands her.

“Katharina and Petruchio eventually realize through their interactions that they’re like yin and yang. Each of them learns that they need somebody who can take it and can dish it out.”

Lest this all sound too serious, Lowery (a veteran of PUSH Physical Theatre) ensures that this production will still include plenty of the rowdy physical comedy for which “The Taming of the Shrew” is famous. In fact, to judge from a recent rehearsal, the cast almost never stops moving.

There’s another contemporary twist: Lowery sets this story in 2015, which he calls “the dawn of the social media age.” The characters are not only in the story, but constantly comment on it: taking cell phone photos and videos, texting, and posting to Instagram. (Bianca is now a rising online social influencer and “It Girl.”)

“There were many golden opportunities for using social media in 2015,” Lowery says. (No TikTok, however; it didn’t start until 2016.) “But having a social media presence also led to massive social pressures. How can you create an online social image that’s not inauthentic?”

The audience can get into the act too, viewing a live social media feed on their cell phones as characters in the play share “asides” revealing their off-stage thoughts and feelings, and even some of Petruchio and Katharina’s wedding photos.

Rochester Community Players present Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 9, through Saturday, July 25, at Highland Park Bowl, 1137 South Avenue. ASL deaf interpretation for July 18 performance. Free admission; no shows on Monday or Tuesday nights. Any cancellations due to weather conditions will be posted here, on Facebook, and @roccommplayers.

David Raymond is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.

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