*The Taming of the Shrew,* outdoors Aug. 8-16

The Way-Off-Broadway Theater Group invites you to bring picnics and blankets and lounge on the grass (in an enclosed courtyard on the west side of the Gonzaga Prep campus) for a free, abridged, 90-minute outdoor performance of Shakespeare's comedy, directed by Kevin Connell, principal at G-Prep.

Four matinees over two weekends: Saturdays and Sundays at 2 pm on Aug. 8-9 and Aug. 15-16.

Connell himself will play Baptista Minola, father of Bianca and of Katherine the Shrew. The production, in modern dress, will be performed by Gonzaga University students but on the campus of Gonzaga Prep, 1224 E. Euclid Ave., just east of Nevada St. Seating will be on the grass. Park in G-Prep's west parking lot. Call Connell at 994-2788.
[photo: Millie Duchow as Katherine and Michael Heye as Petruchio, left, struggle as Lucentio, Baptista, Hortensio and Gremio look on, in the Way-Off-Broadway Theater Group production of *Shrew* at G-Prep, August '09]

Shanley play at Empyrean, April 23-26

The Way Off-Broadway Theatre Group continues bringing contemporary plays to Spokane's best coffeehouse on Thursday-Friday, April 23-24, at 7:30 pm; on Saturday, April 25, at 6:30 pm; and on Sunday, April 26, at 4 pm, with performances at Empyrean, 154 S. Madison St.

The show this time is John Patrick Shanley's “The Dreamer Examines His Pillow” (1985), written just a couple of years before Shanley won the Oscar for best original screenplay for *Moonstruck* but a couple of decades before his recent stage and film success with *Doubt.*
Tickets: $7; $5, students. Call 313-6551 or write russob@gonzaga.edu.

Tommy lives in a shabby apartment and imagines himself to be an artist. Donna wants to be his girlfriend, but isn't pleased that Tommy has been fooling around with Donna's 16-year-old sister. So she recruits her dad (played by Gonzaga theater professor Brian Russo) to clarify the situation. With all the philosophizing, misogyny and resentments, "Dreamer" shapes up as "an anti-romantic comedy." Performances will be just 75 minutes long.
[ photo: John Patrick Shanley at wwd.com ]