Katrina The Shrew premiere

Kat­rina the Shrew pre­miered this past June 2 at the Cen­tral School of the East Hanover (NJ) School Dis­trict. This musi­cal adap­ta­tion of the Shake­speare play, The Tam­ing of the Shrew, was adapted by Emily Thomp­son Schweer (book and lyrics) and I wrote most of the music for the evening’s songs. (Emily had already writ­ten two of the songs, which I arranged.)

Emily is the G & T teacher at this school, and every year she presents a musi­cal­ized adap­ta­tion of a Shake­speare play. The per­for­mances are pre­sented by her 4^th Grade group, the Stu­dent Actors’ League of Arts and Drama, also known as SALAD.¬†I’m delighted to be join­ing her for the first time in writ­ing music. I was very impressed by the huge num­ber of stu­dents who participated–all of whom rehearse dur­ing lunch recess or after school.

Here are sev­eral pics from the show.

Padua School of Arts

Alexan­dra Altonjy, pianist, with Emily Thomp­son Schweer and students

The cast per­forms the title number

The cast per­forms, “That’s the Way to Deal with a Shrew”