Kenneth Seivers' Critique de The Taming of the Shrew

I recently saw CCBC’s production of The Taming of the Shrew twice. I am not familiar with the original production, so I interviewed the director of the play, Donald Ray Schwartz, and got some of his own thoughts to share. Donald Ray Schwartz has directed television commercials over twenty years ago. For him: it’s been a long desire to direct the play in this fashion. He saw the cast members in other productions. The actors are great, intelligent wonderful, compassionate. They brought the play to life. The director also commented that misogyny is big the original production and that he adapted it to make women equal. He reduced a four hour play to less than two.
I asked Schwartz about Sam Lukowski (role of Lucentio) and he said that Sam is a good actor. Furthermore, Sam was going to stay a techie—specifically a member of stage crew, but Terri Raulie (Technical Director/Scenic and Lighting Designer) ushered Sam to audition. That audition made the director very happy.
After seeing the performance, I interviewed Sam Lukowski. What was his perspective on the direction and interpretation of the play? He says verbatim: “Well, as an actor, we all tend to love or at least honor Mr. Shakespeare, but unfortunately I find that if you aren’t a theatre kid, already Shakespeare’s kind of lost on you. Bringing a real Vaudeville and Burlesque feel to one of Shakespeare’s comedies, I think, was a great way to connect with the audience. So, I really enjoyed bringing that feel to classic theatre. Plus, sex appeal always sells tickets—hope we were able to entertain.”