Shakespeare in a Box Taming of the Shrew [With 10 Playing Scripts, 1 Director's NotesWith Players' CardsWith Flute, Wig, and Groucho Glasses

I'm writing this not so much to recommend a wonderful product -- if you want to get people interested in something, you have them _do_ it, rather than read about it -- but to post a mini-memorial for my friend, Bill Hamlin, who passed on in February. (I can't include a URL, but you can learn about him by Googling "bill hamlin" + gentleman.) I gave Bill copies of "The Taming of the Shrew" and "King Lear". He and his fellow actors performed "Shrew" at a party and thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps the best thing about these sets (besides the rubber eyeballs in "Lear") is the way the parts are divided up so that just a few people can perform the play. A great deal of fun. Recommended without reservation.

I bought this kit on sale at my local bookstore and it has turned out to be money very well spent! My friends and I had so much fun putting it on this weekend! It took a little longer than the kit said to get everything together at the beginning, but no longer than 30 minutes. There were 8 of us and 11 parts, so the "doubling chart" came in handy. My biggest question when I bought it was would I be able to use it more than once? The answer, it turns out, is yes! We all decided that we would gladly do it again. We are all eager to try a different part or invite other friends to play with us.

We bought the "Taming fo the Shrew" box because we knew that the box contained a blond wig, funny glasses and a broken recorder. The kids just had to have the props. But what I didn't expect was how enthusiastic the whole group of kids was to perform the play at our family reunion. It truly took about 30 minutes for the kids, ages 11-14 (with one adult present but not presiding), to assign all the parts, quickly rehearse and get their act together. The play has been perfectly abridged so that it makes sense to the kids as well as to their audience and is such a great way to entertain at a family or social gathering, much better than "How to Host a Murder" which is so much more work than this. My only advice would be to go over the pronuciation of all names with the whole "cast" before show time. There were a few glitches, but it all made for bigger laughs! (Wish there were more than just the two sets!)