Drama professor Esther Van Eek designed these costumes for a production this summer by Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, of a comedy loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew. Photo by Enrico Spada, Shakespeare & Co.
“All the world may be a stage, but the theatre is a definitely a small world,” says UWindsor faculty member Esther Van Eek.
A professor in the School of Dramatic Art, she recently returned from her fourth season designing costumes for Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts.
While there, Van Eek was assisted by a student who spent the last academic year at Ohio State University working with Windsor drama grad Joshua Quinlan (BA Drama 2013). Another connection to Windsor comes through the tailor’s assistant working on the production, who currently studies with UWindsor alumna Kristen Nuhn (BA Drama 2015) at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.
“It’s exciting to see our graduates launching themselves into the profession,” says Van Eek. “Our Windsor alumni are showing that our great drama program belongs on the world stage.”
This year she worked on The Taming, a rollicking political comedy very loosely based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Lauren Gunderson’s timely play explores American political extremism, feminism, beauty queens, and liberal angst, and features an unlikely cast of characters—American founding father George Washington, Miss America, and a hipster blogger.
Reviewers called Van Eek’s costume designs “terrific,” “delectable,” and “inspired.”
