Shakespeare in a Box: The Taming of the Shrew

family merely players, with their exits and entrances-and 45 minutes of utter enjoyment. Created by an imaginative drama teacher, The Home Shakespeare Festival is a complete theater company in a box.

Home Shakespeare is like a host-your-own-murder game, but with an intellectual and artistic bent. Beginning with one of Shakespeare's best-known, best-loved works, the comedy The Taming of the Shrew, each kit has everything needed to produce and act out a thoroughly entertaining 45-minute version of the play: cards for a director and technical director, showing how to cast the play, direct it, stage it, and create easy sets and sound effects; cards for each of the major parts, with a summary of the character and suggestions on how to play him or her; ten cleverly abridged copies of the script; and key props. For Taming of the Shrew, each kit contains a working plastic recorder (a "flute" instead of a lute) and plastic Groucho eyeglasses.

Each kit also contains a booklet introducing the wonderful world of Shakespeare, acting tips and exercises, recipes for grog, and other good party games to play.