Press Kit

Fact Sheet

About The Podcast Series

The Banging of the Shrew is a 6-episode comedic fiction podcast that reinvents Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew as a sex-positive satire with modern sensibilities and updated gender politics.

The tone of the podcast is a brash melding of new and old. It sounds just like Shakespeare, but is framed as a tongue-in-cheek porn parody (although it is explicitly not a work of pornography, but rather a delightfully R-rated send-up of the genre).

The story is set in a seventeenth-century brothel, owned by Madame Baptista, where two relationships evolve: a naïve, hormone-driven romance between Luke and Bianca (a young, idealistic pair), and a struggle for dominance between Peter and Mistress Kate (both of whom are world-wise, independent, and fiercely competitive).

All dialog, except the Narrator’s, is written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter).
The language is a blend of Early Modern English and modern English. Vocabulary, phrasing, slang, and profanity are drawn from all eras.
The story structure is that of a 5-act Shakespeare play, and its plot is patterned primarily from The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet.

The Banging of the Shrew is a direct response to the problematic themes and ambiguous irony of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It explores the issues of gender roles, power dynamics, objectification, and misogyny under a modern lens, and subverts the themes and plot of the original story.

The sexual content, profanity, and double entendres serve as a direct entry point into the stylized language and meter of Shakespeare. Sexual innuendo (à la the classic Monty Python’s sketch “Nudge nudge”) is something that can be universally understood, and can create an accessibility to meaning and context in Shakespeare’s work that is often otherwise obscured.

The Production

The Banging of the Shrew was recorded in Los Angeles, CA in 2019 with a cast composed of professional actors and voiceover artists who have, in addition to a shared love of Shakespeare, extensive experience in the Los Angeles theater scene.

The sound design was meticulously crafted to be immersive and filmic in style. It includes custom foley recorded by JRS Productions (Toronto) in addition to effects sourced from sound libraries. Close attention was paid to creating a naturalistic atmosphere for each location/scene, and to imbue the physical presence and movements of the characters with realism.

The editing, sound design, mixing, and mastering was done by writer/director Joseph Stephen Leonardo.

Cast & Crew

Our sound engineer was Lynne Earls, an Irish music producer, songwriter, engineer and owner of the label Earls Music Productions (EMP Studios LA).

Original music for the podcast was created by Zach Tabori, an LA-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer specializing in all things eclectic.

Mistress Kate was voiced by Bridget Garwood, an LA-based actor with a powerful alto voice and a natural ear for interpreting Shakespeare.

Peter was voiced by Isaiah Musik-Ayala, a professional opera singer (bass-baritone) who performs regularly with opera companies throughout the US.

Bianca was voiced by Briana McKeague.

Luke was voiced by Mason Aiken.

Signore Horence was voiced by Perry Shields.

Madame Baptista was voiced by Debba Rofheart.

Helen Hecate was voiced by Melissa Marks.

Dr. Laurence was voiced by Michael Grandcolas.

Grayson was voiced by Allen Merritt.

Maria was voiced by Glenda Suggs.

The featured players–Josephine, Nicole, Rachel, Carrie, Petra, and John–were voiced by Maggie Gagliardi, Angela Iranna Perkins, Mia Passarella, Claire Munds, Keely Jimenez, and Matt Soson, respectively.

The Narrator was voiced by Sam Keller.

About the creator of The Banging of the Shrew

Joseph Stephen Leonardo originally wrote The Banging of the Shrew in 2015 as a full 5-act stageplay. He drew from his lifelong love of the works of Shakespeare, but also was influenced by sexploitation films from the 60s and 70s, independent web comics, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Joseph has over 15 years of experience as a professional performer, teacher, and DJ of Argentine tango (an improvisational social dance practiced by a vibrant and diverse community worldwide). This experience has given Joseph a deep interest in themes related to interpersonal communication and the perception of others, such as emotional intimacy, power dynamics, fantasy, objectification, and the confabulation of art and reality.

After a successful table read of the stageplay in late-2018, Joseph adapted The Banging of the Shrew into an audio drama script and used film production techniques to produce it as an independent podcast.

Podcast Details

Website: bangingoftheshrew.com

Email: bangingoftheshrew@gmail.com

Download / Subscribe: The podcast is available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Amazon Music, or can be streamed directly from the website.

The full series will also be available on Youtube with full captions starting in mid-December 2022.

Schedule: The six episodes of the series will be released weekly, on Wednesdays at 12am EDT (UTC-4), during the month of November 2022, and all episodes will remain publicly available.

Social Media and Links

Instagram: instagram.com/bangingoftheshrew

Twitter: twitter.com/banging_shrew (@banging_shrew)

Facebook: facebook.com/bangingoftheshrew

Youtube: youtube.com/@bangingoftheshrew

IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt22376212

Audio

The teaser trailer for the series in mp3 format:

Download mp3 (right-click and “save as”)

Transcript of audio

The audio file and transcript are included in the press kit .zip file.

Video

The teaser trailer in video format with animated text:

Please embed the video from Youtube whenever possible.

Embed code for trailer (modify as needed):

Youtube link: youtu.be/APAUlFQtGy0

The teaser trailer video for the series with animated text of the dialog has also been included as a .mp4 in this press kit, thumbnails of the cover art, and a sidecar closed caption .srt file.