The excitement and cameraderie were palpable on the opening night of the Hidden Room Theatre's "original practices" staging of The Taming of the Shrew. This was a gathering of Austin's acting fellowship, in the audience as well as among the company. Director Beth Burns and assistant director Stephanie Delk greeted familiar faces; storyteller-actress Bernadette Nason served the refreshments; musician Jennifer Fielding of the Baron's Men offered masks for sale at the concession stand. After the house was opened, the animation and anticipation were so great that one of the town's most appreciated Shakespearian actors managed to spill his white wine in front of the seats on the south side. Director Beth Burns took the mishap in good humor and went down on her knees with a towel, scrubbing to make sure the playing space was dry and safe.
One fellowship was assembled within the meeting hall of another, for Burns had obtained the gracious permission of a masonic order to use its space to create a court theatre like that of Shakespeare's royals.
A consort of ten musicians led by Jennifer Davis provided enchanting period music with voice, recorder, stringed instruments and percussion, both before the play and at intervals throughout.
The Taming of the Shrew opens with an Induction or prologue, often abandoned today. An aristocrat returning from the hunt discovers the drunkard Christopher Sly passed out in the street. The lord and his serving men bring Sly into comfortable quarters. They fool him into believing that he himself is a great lord and they offer him the company of a wench, impersonated by Bartholomew, a male page. Sly wants to go to bed with his new lady but agrees to the diversion of a pleasant comedy -- the story of Katerina Minola and Petrucio.
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