Q&A with Director Valerie Rachelle on The Taming of the Shrew
Director Valerie Rachelle is returning to the Utah Shakespeare Festival this season with an uproariously funny production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Festival audiences may remember her as the director of last year’s delightful Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical. Additionally, Rachelle was the Assistant Director of USF’s 2005 production of All’s Well That Ends Well.
Her other directing credits include the Utah Festival Opera, Syracuse Opera, PCPA Theatrefest, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Oregon Cabaret Theatre, where she also serves as the Artistic Director. In addition to directing, Rachelle has an extensive academic career, with teaching experience at the University of Southern California, PCPA, and Southern Oregon University.
Rachelle received her MFA in Directing from UC Irvine, and her BFA in Acting at CalArts.
The Festival met up with Rachelle to ask her more about her experience here this season.
The Festival: Why were you excited to direct this play?
Rachelle: I [was] excited because of the challenge and the design we’ve come up with. It’s a world you want to watch and be a part of… and to surprise the audience with what we’re going to do. I’m excited that Lindsay Jones is creating new music and to be in the outdoor theater, because you’re out in the elements and you have to accept the world you’re in and live in this live environment.
The Festival: This play is often considered “problematic” because of its challenging themes of patriarchy, abuse, and sexism. How do you plan on tackling the “problem areas” of the play?
Rachelle: A lot of people don’t [perform] the induction Shakespeare wrote, which includes two scenes before the play starts. It includes Christopher Sly mistreating a female innkeeper, and some higher-ups observe this and decide to take Christopher Sly, dress him up as a lord, and show him The Taming of the Shrew to teach him a lesson. The whole point of the play is not to teach men how to tame their women, but to teach Christopher Sly how to treat others better.
Shakespeare actually didn’t finish the play. Usually [other productions] will bookend the induction with an [epilogue]. We aren’t adding any text, but we will highlight what Christopher Sly has learned.
We are setting up The Taming of the Shrew as a play-within-a-play; as theatre magic. It’s going to be colorful and cartoony. All of the violence in it is going to be done with feathers and food items. There’s no weapons in the show. We are approaching the abuse as slapstick farce, not actual abuse. It’s to heighten it and show Christopher Sly how ridiculous he is treating people.
The Festival: As playgoers, what should we watch for in this play that would help us more fully enjoy and understand it better?
Rachelle: The first goal is for audience members to laugh. It’s going to be very silly on purpose. We want to take this world and put it into something that isn’t real life. We want audience members to see these characters and recognize their faults—we will heighten them to the extreme, so we can laugh at them.
We are adding musical numbers, and so my goal is for audience members to be cheering them on to change Christopher Sly. I also want them to see that in the play, there is true love. Kate and Petruchio do love each other, and if society would allow them to be who they are, they wouldn’t have to live in this cocoon of “the man is in charge and the woman has to follow.” They have an understanding of their relationship and that it’s more equal, but society is forcing them to act a certain way.
The Festival: What challenges came with preparing to direct this play?
Rachelle: The biggest challenge [was] trying to make the theme work in a contemporary society. It’s hard to show a lesson that’s like “The woman should follow the man in every footstep.” We’ve found a way to present it in a way that we’re showing these behaviors—not to say that that’s how it should be, but that’s what it shouldn’t be.
True love is more about listening and responding to each other honestly, rather than forcing will upon somebody. But we’re going to illustrate this in a way that will make you laugh rather than make you cry. We’re going to use music, color, and comedy to do this.
A lot of companies decide not to do this show because it’s “problematic,” but I think they forget that the play is showing us what not to do, rather than what to do.
The Festival: What do you hope audience members will take away from this play?
Rachelle: I hope audience members leave laughing, and that they feel that Christopher Sly got what was coming to him. I want them to come to their own realization of how to better listen to and understand their own partners.
The Festival: You directed Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical last season. Can patrons expect any parallels with this show?
Rachelle: It’s a very different story and very different style of play, but similarities might be that it’s about being a better person, finding love, listening and changing, and following your heart.
The Festival: How long have you been a director? How long have you been with the Festival? What draws you to directing?
Rachelle: I’ve been directing since I was 22, which means I’ve been directing for 27 years. This is my third season with the Festival, and I continue to direct because I love it so much. It’s the love of my life.
The Festival: Anything else you want Festival audiences to know?
Rachelle: It’s all storytelling. Musical theater, dance, opera, anything live—it’s all storytelling, just done in different ways. That doesn’t mean the story changes; you’re just telling it in a different way. That’s what I love about live arts—it’s all just for the audience to be entertained, enlightened, and engaged. We create empathy by telling stories, and we don’t have to tell super serious stories to do that. Sometimes you worm your way into minds through laughter.
Get your tickets to The Taming of the Shrew, running now through September 7 in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre. Visit bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX.
