'Taming' a Tough Role
Woodard Finds a 'Shrew' She Can Live With; Constellation Theatre Beats the Drum

By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

"No" was Charlayne Woodard's first response when director Rebecca Bayla Taichman asked her to consider playing Katherina in "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Shakespeare Theatre, where it is running through Nov. 18. "I just said no right away. And that was it, no explanation," recalls the actress.

Yet that impulsive rejection nagged at her. Why did she say no? "One, it is a controversial play," she says she told herself. "Two, you haven't done Shakespeare in a very long time and three, my schedule was crazy." Even so, she says, "I just kicked myself" for shrinking from a dare.

"Theater is stepping into the dark. There are some roles you know you can rock and roll with, no problem. And then there are those challenges," she says. So when Taichman called again, Woodard said yes. Paraphrasing a favorite teacher's long-ago admonition, Woodard says wryly, "All you can do is fail. You can't die."

Woodard's career has included the original production and more recent revival of "Ain't Misbehavin'," the New York premieres of plays by the prize-winning likes of Suzan-Lori Parks ("In the Blood") and Lynn Nottage ("Fabulation"), films ("Unbreakable," "The Crucible") and television ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Chicago Hope"). She also is a playwright whose solo pieces, "Pretty Fire," "Neat" and "In Real Life," have been performed by herself and others around the country.

Tackling concerns that Shakespeare's "Shrew" is irredeemably sexist, Woodard says she and Taichman came up with "a version of this Kate and this story that works for us." Their Kate is in a rage "from some deep-seated hurt and betrayal" -- her father is, in a sense, prepared to auction off his motherless daughters to prospective grooms. "These girls are controlled by men and money is at the very center of the whole thing and that is a disgusting thing. And that is a truth of a lot of women in the world to this day," Woodard says. Kate, she adds, "sees the unfairness in the world, so she decides I'm not playing this game. . . . Then she meets Petruchio and sees that this man is not afraid of her . . . right away, wonderful."

Though Petruchio (played by Christopher Innvar) "breaks" Kate's defiant spirit, Woodard still sees the play as a love story, however thorny. "It's all in their wits and she's brilliant. The language is so brilliant. No one even attempts to go toe to toe with her and her wit. He does," Woodard says. "And he goes toe to toe with her physically."

In an age when women who were deemed troublesome could be chained to the hearth or have a contraption put on their heads to prevent them from talking, Shakespeare wrote a comedy about marriage, riffing on the shrew-taming formula that fueled many a lesser play in his day. "It's a comedy . . . but it's the truth . . . These women had no lives. And the oldest daughter, my goodness, she had to get married. She's cursed."

Constellation of Sounds

Allison Arkell Stockman has of late heeded the beat of a different drummer, and not just because she's chosen a life in the theater.

The artistic director of the fledgling Constellation Theatre Company has enlisted the talents of percussionist-composer Tom Teasley for "The Arabian Nights," at Source through Oct. 21. Teasley performs live at every show, using "a combination of ancient instruments and modern technology" -- an array of drums, tambourines and modern gizmos such as a hand-drum synthesizer -- in a mix of composed and improvised music and sound effects.

One of his weirdest instruments, an "aquasonic," looks, the musician jokes, rather like a bong (whatever that is), consisting of a metal oval with about half a cup of water in it and a long metal tube sticking out of the top. Teasley creates an eerie sound by drawing a bow across wiry spokes set into the oval. When he sloshes the water at the same time, it sounds like a genie is screaming to get out.

Teasley plays in an alcove at one end of designer A.J. Guban's three-tiered set, which is framed with Islamic arches and swathed in 30 Oriental rugs (on loan from a local merchant). Neither the director nor Teasley believes his presence onstage pulls the audience's eyes away from the actors for long. "The music has brought so much to the storytelling," Stockman says. Adds Teasley, "All the sounds are meant to call attention to the text."

Constellation is using an earthy, Chauceresque 1992 adaptation of "The Arabian Nights" by Chicago-based director Mary Zimmerman, who will direct her retelling of Greek myth and tragedy in "Argonautika" at the Shakespeare Theatre in January.

This is Constellation's second production; the company debuted last season with "A Dream Play" at Source and will be among the arts groups offered a full-time residency at Source next spring, after the space is renovated. She has big ideas for Constellation, reflected in her choice of "The Arabian Nights."

"Part of me is attracted to this because of the part of the world it is about," says the one-time comparative religion major fascinated by "the nature of the sacred" and the links between religious ritual and theater. "The idea of storytelling and art being transformative and redeeming a man who is horrifically violent is terribly appealing," she says of the tale of Scheherazade, who spins her yarns for 1,001 nights to stay the sword of the murderous king.

The play also celebrates "the nature of ensemble, which is at the root of Constellation's mission," Stockman adds. "When you see an actor playing multiple parts, it reinforces the idea that we are responsible for our own actions and that we are free to choose the kind of person we want to be."

Stockman says her cast and crew are working for "not quite pennies, but nickels." Teasley, who was an artist in residence at the Kennedy Center and collaborated on a project with the National Symphony Orchestra, took a pay cut to work with her. "I bought into her vision," he says.

Follow Spots

¿ The League of Washington Theatres has announced that Oct. 18 will be a Free Night of Theater, when more than 16 area venues will offer blocks of free tickets to encourage new theatergoers. To fit their schedules, some theaters will have "free nights" on other dates between Oct. 9 and Nov. 4. Visit the League Web site at http://lowt.org.

¿ Citing family reasons, Matthew Arkin (son of Alan) has bowed out of Theater J's production of David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow," opening Oct. 18. Danton Stone will take on the role of Hollywood mogul Bobby Gould.