The Tina Packer Playhouse hosts an 11-show run of the reimagined comedy
Shakespeare & Company delves into the themes of identity, gender roles, and the clash of wills with The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Nicole Ricciardi, August 14 through 24 at the Tina Packer Playhouse.
Ricciardi said that, on the surface, The Taming of the Shrew may appear to be a traditional farce.
“Instead, I would argue that this play is actually quite radical, undermining the very stereotypes and cultural norms it seems to reinforce,” she said. “It is no simple comedy. But undoubtedly, it’s one of the best.”
Bobbin Ramsey, assistant director and Shakespeare & Company’s 2025 Women of Will Directing Fellow, added that The Taming of the Shrew is not known for being the most feminist of Shakespeare’s plays.
“Yet, it speaks to what it means to be a woman in our current climate, where traditional gender roles are being touted and encouraged and enforced,” she said. “A lot in the play can be uplifted as a counter to the idea that this is right and true.”
Tickets range from $26 to $95, including student pricing, and $5 Card to Culture tickets are available for participants of EBT, Massachusetts Health Connector, or WIC programs. For more information, visit shakespeare.org or call the Box Office at 413.637.3353. The Taming of the Shrew is underwritten in part by Berkshire Money Management.
About Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, attracting more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of over 150 artists.
Photo Caption: The cast of The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Nicole Ricciardi, August 14 through 24 at Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Playhouse.
Cast/Directors
Nicole Riccardi
(Director)
S&Co: King Lear, Time Stands Still, Creditors, 4000 Miles, The Taming, The How and the Why, and Cassandra Speaks. She has directed, developed, and assisted productions at Third Avenue Playhouse, Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Flea, Primary Stages, the Drama Book Shop, Chelsea Repertory Lab, Circle East, Bushwick Arts, Central Square Theatre, Two River Theater Company, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Shadow Lawn Stage, and the Irish Repertory Theatre. She is on the faculty of The Theatre School at DePaul. MFA, Carnegie Mellon University. S&Co Month-long Intensive, ’01.
Bobbin Ramsey
(Tina Packer Women of Will Directing Fellow)
Bobbin Ramsey is a theatre and film director based in New York. Recent work includes a workshop of BRKN by Abigail Onwunali at Ensemble Studio Theater and ENRON by Lucy Prebble at the Atlantic Acting Conservatory. Other productions include: Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks, Macbeth, and the world premiere production of Cactus Queen by Doug Robinson (Yale School of Drama); Arlington by Enda Walsh, Udo by Abigail Onwunali and Nomé SiDone, a devised piece titled The Betrayal Project (Yale Cabaret); Barron’s Dance Nation; Jennifer Haley’s The Nether; Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Washington Ensemble Theater); BrechtFest, an original mash-up of Brecht plays served over a 3-course brunch (The Horse in Motion); and a site-specific Waiting for Godot performed on a Seattle pier (Arts on the Waterfront). She is an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Directing Fellow, an alum of the SDCF Observership Class, and an SDC Associate Member. BA: Unversity of Washington, MFA: Yale School of Drama.
Juan Luis Acevedo
(Tranio)
Juan Luis Acevedo is thrilled to be making his Shakespeare & Company debut. His vast New York, Regional and International credits include among others: Anna in the Tropics at Asolo Rep., Henry IV at NY Classical, Destiny of Desire (2020) at Cincinnati Playhouse, Jardin Salvaje, House on the Lagoon, The Mayor of Zalamea, Fuenteovejuna (US & Spain), Tierra del Fuego, Verano Verano, Life is a Dream (US & Spain), As You Like It, Preying on Instinct, Woyzeck, Hamlet, Cuarto adentro, Camino Real, The Order of Things, “Experiencias Clásicas” Spain. Film: Kiss of The Damned, 79 Parts, Fake. TV: Billions, Blacklist, Law & Order SVU and Criminal Intent. Juan Luis is excited to return to Massachusetts where he began his professional acting career performing Shakespeare with CSC in the Boston Commons.
Sheila Bandyopadhyay
(Grumio/Baptista)
Sheila Bandyopadhyay is an actor, director, devisor and movement specialist. You may have caught her last summer as a ferocious goldendoodle in GBPT’s production of Dog People (Jesse/Betty). At Shakespeare & Company: Puck/Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). NY Theatre selected: Tamora in Titus Andronicus (The Humanist Project); Miranda/Stephano in The Tempest (Stages on the Sound); Dubois/Officer in The Misanthrope (Hunger & Thirst). In NYC, Sheila has developed and directed work at the Brick, the United Solo Festival, the Tank, the Women in Theater Festival, the West End Theater, and the 78th St Theatre Lab. Faculty/Guest Artist: NYU, Brandeis, FSU Conservatory/Asolo Rep, Dell’Arte International, Middlebury, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson, Westfield State. Sheila is a member of the Humanist Project, an affiliated artist with Leviathan Lab and Project Y, and proud member of AEA. Center for Actor Training alumna: January Month-long Intensive, 1999.
MaConnia Chesser
(Kate)
S&Co: An Iliad (Berkshire Theatre Award, Outstanding Solo Performance), King Lear, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Intimate Apparel, Fringe Festival producer (2017-2019). NEW YORK: Ensemble Studio Theatre, York Shakespeare. REGIONAL: Front Porch Arts Collective, SpeakEasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Franklin Stage, Elm Shakespeare, Hanover Theatre Repertory, Notre Dame Shakespeare, WAM Theatre, Ancram Opera House, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Kennedy Center, NJ Rep (company member), Theater Alliance, Tennessee Shakespeare, Advice to the Players, African Continuum Theatre, & Totem Pole Playhouse. FILM/TV: The Shape of Destiny (Official selection, 2018 Women in Comedy Festival), Ghosts of Hamilton Street (Mike Flanagan, dir.), HBO’s “The Wire.” EDUCATION: S&Co (Center for Actor Training alum, 2016 Month-long Intensive), National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Alcorn State
University. For my mom Dorothy D. Scott Chesser, and my friend Dennis Krausnick.
Rory Hammond
(Bianca)
This is Rory’s 35th season with us. Last Summer she played Angelo in The Comedy of Errors which won the Broadwayworld.com award for Best Ensemble. She is currently teaching Voice for the Actor at the University of Hartford (UHart Conservatory). Rory just earned her MFA and Linklater Designation in London, at the Rose Bruford College of Music and Drama. During her London studies, in addition to her concentration on the Linklater Method, she was immersed in the work of Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as Trish Arnold’s Pure Movement, and the Michael Chekhov technique. Throughout these studies there was an emphasis on devising, working to create one’s own performance pieces through the art of theatrical storytelling. In addition to her studies at Rose Bruford, Rory has also been focused these past few years on directing and teaching Shakespeare to kids from ages 7–18. Directing Credits: Do you feel Anger, at the University of Hartford. Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth, all for the Fall Festival of Shakespeare at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. New York acting credits include: Pericles, directed by Edward Berkeley, produced by Animus Theatre Company at SoHo Rep; Measure for Measure, also directed by Edward Berkeley, at Circle in the Square Theatre School; Bachelorette, directed by Lesley Headland, produced by Animus Theatre Company at Circle in the Square; John Patrick Shanley’s Where’s My Money, produced by Animus Theatre Company at the Cherry Lane Theatre; Shakespeare & Company credits include: Measure for Measure, Duke Vincentio, directed by Alice Reagan; Love’s Labour’s Lost, Princess of France, directed by Kelly Galvin; Christmas at Pemberley, directed by Ariel Bock; Ugly Lies the Bone and Taming of the Shrew, both directed by Daniela Varone; King John, Richard III, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, all directed by Tina Packer. The Wharton Salon at the Mount: Autres Temp, Xingu, and Summer, all directed by Catherine Taylor Williams. TV credits include: Dr. Pepper commercials circa 1998. Rory received much of her early training at Shakespeare & Company, starting with Young Company and ending as a member of the Summer Performing Institute (SPI). Rory is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City, and is a founding member of Animus Theatre Company in New York City. www.animustheatre.org. This performance is dedicated to Alan Langdon, my beloved acting teacher, mentor, and friend.
Jamal James
(Petruchio)
Jamal James is thrilled to have his debut at Shakespeare & Co. An actor who has performed all over the country, Jamal currently lives in sunny LA exploring Hollywood and its vibrant community. Always willing to talk about God, Star Wars, and Superheroes at any given time, he has worked in voiceovers, television, features and short films, improv and is currently working on writing his own projects. Some of his recent favorite productions include: The Royale, Hamlet, Feeding Beatrice, The Color Purple, Beauty and The Beast, Violet: The Musical, Barter Theater; TV/Film Credits: Blue Bloods, GOTHAM, City on a Hill, FBI: Most Wanted, Hit Me, Power Out, Lost Time. All love to God, his family and friends and to you and yours.
Dennis Trainor, Jr.
(Gremio)
Previously at Shakespeare & Company: The Comedy of Errors. Recent acting credits include How I Learned To Drive, Let The Right One In, and The Merchant of Venice (Actors’ Shakespeare Project) and The Inheritance (Speakeasy Stage). Additionally, has appeared at New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Company One, Lyric Stage, Soho Rep, The Flea, The Kraine, and others. As a playwright, his plays include Manifest Destiny’s Child (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Plug, and I Coulda Been a Kennedy (Rude Mechanicals). Directing credits include Antigone or And Still She Must Rise Up (Boston Conservatory), The Trojan Women: A Love Story (Stonehill College), Plug, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rude Mechanicals). He produced and directed the documentaries American Autumn and Legalize Democracy. Dennis was the founding co-artistic director of the NYC-based Rude Mechanicals Theater Company. Currently, he serves as an Associate Professor of Theater at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Austyn Williamson
(Lucentio)
Austyn Williamson is thrilled to be returning for this season at Shakespeare & Company. Shakespeare & Co.: The Contention: Henry VI, Part II, Regional Theatre: The Inheritance Parts I & II (Trinity Repertory Company), The Tempest (Oak Park Festival Theatre), How To Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens Theatre), Brown/Trinity Rep. MFA: Ironbound, Cold War Choir Practice, Hamlet, and several more. Austyn is a recent graduate of the Brown University/Trinity Rep. MFA Acting Program. He would like to thank his family, the B/T ’25 Cohort, as well as his fellow cast and crew for all their love and support!
Ryan Winkles
(Sly/Hortensio)
Ryan has been a company member of Shakespeare & Company since 2006 and some of the productions he has been in include: As You Like It, Henry V, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Creditors, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Learned Ladies, Mother Courage, The Mystery of Irma Vep, and It’s a Wonderful Life. Regional Credits include: Great Barrington Public Theater: The Stones, Breakwater; WAM Theatre: ROE, The Old Mezzo; Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: The Winter’s Tale, Universe Rushing Apart; Gloucester Stage: Mr. Fulllerton: Between the Sheets; The Huntington Theatre Company: Joy and Pandemic. Film: The Boston Strangler (Hulu). TV: Time Traveling Bong (Comedy Central). Ryan has a BA from FSU, an MFA from UW-Madison, and he is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG.
