First Year Players dazzled its audience with its performance of the musical “Kiss Me, Kate” in the Student Activities Building last week. Based on William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” the play was electric. Moving sets, jewel tone tights, and choreography that literally lifted people off their feet kept audience members at the edge of their seats, waiting impatiently for the next sizzling song and dynamic dance routine.
The play began quite fittingly with the song “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” where a troupe of actors prepare to put on a production of “The Taming of the Shrew.” The first couple, the two leads of the show, are divorced but still in love. The second couple is a tad corrupt — one’s a gambler, the other’s a gold digger, but the two are also in love.
The play presented relationships and priorities that were constantly strained and reversed. Throughout the show, the ex-husband attempted to get a kiss from ‘Kate,’ and gangsters gained an appreciation for Shakespeare as they tried to collect money from an IOU.
Director Theresa Pazanowski, a third-year College student, said she had two main goals for the production.
“The first was to push everyone involved in the show, including myself, to do something that scared them and help them overcome those fears,” she wrote in her director’s note. “The second was to make this show as fun as it could be.”
For members of the cast, the use of Shakespearean language was a new challenge.
“I had never done any Shakespearean acting before, so the language was foreign to me” said first-year College student Shade Wilson. “And then as the process went on Theresa, the director, helped me feel more comfortable with lines. First Year Players has been a very great environment to be in, they are a very welcoming community and have helped me grow as an actor and a person throughout the course of two semesters.”
First-year College student Katherine Donnally, head costumer for the show, described the creativity used to overcome a shortage of costumes.
“I thought everyone was going to be naked,” she said. “At the beginning of the semester, we were counting on there being stores of Shakespeare costumes available for FYP, but they had just recently auctioned them off and we had literally nothing, so we started exploring every option.”
Eventually, the costume department was able to obtain costumes from sheds of various drama departments on Grounds, as well as create many of their own garments.
The cast and crew’s dedication and skill combined for an enthralling viewing experience — oozing with the supportive community atmosphere members say makes FYP special.
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