Thursday
Today we moved ahead with our plan to read through the rest of the play, and we did exactly that. A few of the women had done this on their own ahead of time, and they were pretty upset by how “sexist” some aspects (some would argue, all aspects) of the play are. After we read through the play as a group, having brief discussions along the way, there was still some discomfort from some of the women, but others thought that Kate had been “tamed” or “broken” only in as much as she’d finally learned how to play the game. It’s going to make for some great debate as we move forward in our process. There are differing opinions on Petruchio’s true nature as well.
The ensemble then voted on whether to continue with review or move ahead with casting on Tuesday, and a large majority voted to do the latter. We have always done this in the past sitting in a circle, leaving every casting decision open to group discussion and voting if necessary. This ensemble is made up of a lot of team players, so I’m hopeful that it will go pretty smoothly. I’m looking forward to it.