‘Taming of the Shrew’ opens this week Galt Gardens

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 5, 2023.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Jeff Graham and Trevor Loman rehearse a scene from "The Taming of the Shrew," directed by Jesse Thibert. Shakespeare in the Park begins a new season Thursday with a performance of the classic comedy at 7 p.m. in Galt Gardens.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Shakespeare will be performed in the park once again.

The Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society will once again be entertaining audiences this summer in Lethbridge and elsewhere in southern Alberta

The troupe, formed in 2012, will stage 18 performances (including previews) of “The Taming of the Shrew” starting Thursday in Galt Gardens at 7 p.m. People who miss the Thursday performance can catch it on Friday or July 20 and 27. Legacy Park will be the venue on July 13.

Performances will run not only downtown at the venerable Lethbridge park but also at the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, Legacy Park, the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod, the Coutts Centre in Nanton and The Venue in High River.

This year’s play is directed by Jesse Thibert, who starred in “Hamlet” last year. Thibert has modernized the “Shrew,” setting it in the “Swinging Sixties.”

Costumes were designed by Amanda Epp, who has been with the troupe for about four years.

“We’re really happy with what she does,” said LSPS president Kate Connolly last week during a preview night at The Gate.

Thibert picked the play, said Connolly. A short list of three plays is offered for discussion and then the director decides upon the one he or she would most prefer to do, she said.

“He’s a very good actor as well as an excellent director. Full of ideas,” said Connolly of Thibert, who hails from Winnipeg.

“We’re excited to see what he does with this.”

Eight shows will be staged at Galt Gardens, the society’s original home. One show will be run at Legacy Park in North Lethbridge and three will be held at Nikka Yuko.

“All of our performances in the parks are free with a collection taken at the end,” said Connolly. The exception is Nikka Yuko which has tickets available on site.

“That’s kind of fun, it’s the most beautiful setting,” said Connolly.

“We’re back to full strength which is great because COVID, of course, slowed us down a bit and it took awhile to get going back up to full speed. Eighteen is the most shows we’ve ever done since we were formed in 2012,” added Connolly.

Thibert had multiple reasons for setting Shrew in the 1960s.

“The Sixties is coming back in society nowadays. Kids are very much into the free love and the free peace and baggy clothes and tie-dyed clothes,” said Thibert, adding he thought doing it in that time period would open it up to a larger audience, attracting younger as well as older theatre fans.

“The Taming of the Shrew,” written by William Shakespeare around 1590, is about the courtship of Petruchio and Katherine.

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