"Utah Shakespeare Festival’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is Sharp and Energetic at the Engelstad Shakespeare Theater"
by Elise White“Director and Choreographer Valerie Rachelle gives a fresh look at this classic comedy, offering an interpretation that resonates with a more modern audience, taking some of the more problematic elements of Shakespeare’s storyline and twisting them simply with onstage physical gestures from the actors while the play’s core elements remain.”
“Instead of only leaving the audience to grapple with gender roles and societal expectations, we are left pondering the definition of selfless love and what it means to truly care for each other.”
“The actors’ physical dramatics and broad gestures, much of which is designed by the director/choreographer Rachelle and fight director Stefan Espinosa effectively complements the director’s vision and adds another layer of depth to the story.”
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The ’80s music and choreography that bed the performance are some of the best parts of “Merry Wives,” thanks to Williams’ collaboration with Composer and Sound Designer Paul James Prendergast and Choreographer Valerie Rachelle.
[a] vibrant, five-person show… What emerges from all this is an expansive portrait of Cash’s America, a place of poverty and chance, humor and pathos, sin and redemption… It’s a poet’s vision and Cash was the poet, an American original.