William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew,” presents many controversial themes, including topics of sexism and gender-based aggressions, though in a comical and whimsical way.

In an effort to turn those themes on its head, the San Diego City College theatre program, under the direction of Katie Rodda, explores the classic play through the lens of a cross-gendered cast.

Not only does the change in casting allow for more modern elements, but Rodda’s decision to set the production in the colorful age of the 1970s proves to be a groovy choice.

“We set the play in 1974,” said Rodda, co-chair of visual and performing arts at City. “It’s second-wave feminism. The women’s movement was gaining steam and taking hold. It was a way to sort of explore those themes.”

The bright multi-level stage of the Saville Theatre and the wonderful costume choices by designer Charlie Amon burst with color, acting as a visual reminder of the seemingly bold ideas of the time.

Shakespearean plays can be difficult to understand with their made-up words and long-winded monologues.

It requires skill from the actor to deliver in a way the audience can understand, a challenge the cast took in stride, Rodda said.

Jaden Richardson, a music major who plays Lord and Curtis, suffers from dyslexia and at first wasn’t sold on the idea of tackling Shakespeare.

“I used to have a really bad lisp when I was younger, so it made it difficult to speak,” Richardson said. “And sometimes I catch myself fucking up the lines. I want to do my best every show, and I don’t want to have the audience think that I’m messing up lines, but it’s quite a challenge.”

“The Taming of the Shrew” centers around two sisters whose views of love and duty wind their way to the same end – arranged marriage, one in love and the other by force.

In City College’s cross-gendered version, Petruchio, a traditionally dominant male character played perfectly by Natalie Zaidan, explores the female power dominance the role presents while taming Katherine, played by David Thornton.

For many in the cast, this was their first Shakespearean play and their first time playing a character of the opposite gender.

Bianca, the ingenue, played instead by the charming film major Noah Valdez, undertook the challenge of playing the younger sister head-on. Bianca finds love and is allowed to marry only after a match has been found for her older sister, Katherine.

“This would be my first time playing a female role, which has been really fun,” Valdez said. “This has quickly become one of my more favorite shows that I’ve done, because it’s such a unique challenge acting-wise.”

This show had it all: cross-gendered casting, a bit of cross-dressing, and, as in many Shakespearean productions, characters who undertake the guise of another. 

The double swap of cross-gendered casting and the switching of positions by the suitor Lucentio, played by Katherine Boroff, and his servant Tranio, played by Lily Wrieden, reflects an ease within the play to take things as they are presented, convoluted as they may be.

Luckily for the audience, both actors take hold of their characters as they negotiate the successful arrangement by the servant Tranio, in the guise of Lucentio, to be married to Bianca, all while the actual Lucentio wins the heart of Bianca.  

Actor Claire Sparr said she had a lot of fun playing another crucial character, Baptista, the father figure, who unapologetically decides the fate of his daughters.

Baptista may have agency over his daughter’s choices, but the cross-gendered casting opens up a wide range of feelings as we watch the male-presented characters navigate the roles as the daughters in the 70s.

“I think (gender swapping is) a great choice,” Sparr said. “It’s been kind of nice and interesting to see a new perspective. I think it’s a very wise choice to set it here, because that’s kind of when women were starting to revolutionize, and I feel like that’s kind of what Katherine is doing as well in the play.”

The cast did well to avoid generalizing characters and truly owned the relationships and themes of love, patriarchy and duty. 

Theatre major Presley Cooper, who played Grumio, one of a horde of suitors to the young Bianca, said the process of attacking this character was the same as in any new role.

“I thought it was very similar to my normal process, but it was definitely interesting to look at it through the lens of gender,” Cooper said. “I’m not going to be playing into gender stereotypes, since I think that was a large part of it, we didn’t, because of the nature of the show, we didn’t want to be playing into gendered stereotypes.”

City College showed courage in mounting a 16th-century play in 2025 and proved that the topics are as important to discuss as ever. 

Adaptations of “The Taming of the Shrew” will continue to evolve, as does society and its relationship in confronting sexism, gender dynamic and the roles people in love and marriage play in our lives.

This story was edited by Chrisdan Peralta and Nadia Lavin.