Photo by Deb Gau After being locked in a strange hotel room, Patricia, played by Tailer Benson, confronts her captor Katherine, Played by Bryn Mongeau, in a scene from “The Taming.” Two comedies, “The Taming” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” open this weekend at SMSU.

MARSHALL — At first, they sound like three topics that have nothing to do with each other: politics, reality TV, and Shakespeare.

But modern-day influences and classic comedy all fit together for the first shows of Southwest Minnesota State University Theater’s season. Starting tonight, students will be performing in a pair of comedies that take different approaches to William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.”

“Taming of the Shrew” opens Friday night at the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre, and “The Taming,” a play inspired by Shakespeare’s comedy, opens tonight.

Producing two plays at the same time is a unique twist for SMSU Theatre, said Professor Nadine Purvis Schmidt, who directed both productions.

“We’re always looking for things that are new experiences,” she said. “It was so interesting to have two different shows that kind of speak to each other.”

While the two plays have some shared themes, they take different approaches. In “The Taming of the Shrew,” comedy ensues when suitors pursue two sisters with very different temperaments. The gentle Bianca has been forbidden to marry unless her sister, the argumentative and mean Katherine, gets married first. Petruchio, a man seeking adventure and a rich wife, decides to “tame” and marry Katherine. Cast members say this production of “Taming of the Shrew” puts the characters in a setting inspired by the reality TV shows of today.

Meanwhile, “The Taming,” a comedy by Lauren Gunderson, takes elements of Shakespeare’s play and adapts them to the world of American politics. In the play, Katherine, a Miss America contestant with big ambitions, kidnaps a conservative senator’s aide and a liberal activist blogger, and locks them in a hotel room together. Katherine won’t let the two women leave until they overcome their differences, and help her draft a new Constitution.

With two plays in production at the same time, students are playing multiple roles, both on stage and as crew. Bryn Mongeau, an SMSU junior, plays the role of Katherine in both shows.

“They’re both very, very ambitious characters,” Mongeau said. While the two Katherines have different styles, there’s plenty of humor to them both. “I think they’re definitely really connected.”

Mongeau and fellow cast members Tailer Benson and Kelsey House also take on multiple roles within “The Taming.” House said some of the characters she’s playing are polar opposites of each other.

Benson said she’s enjoyed playing Patricia, the driven congressional aide in “The Taming.”

“I think Pat has a very beautiful character arc,” Benson said. At the start of the play, she said, “She’s very intense, it’s like ‘my way or the highway.'” Benson said Patricia grows to become more willing to work with others.

Cast and crew members said it’s been fun getting to work with the comedic elements of the two plays, as well as getting to perform Shakespeare. Although “Taming of the Shrew” is a play more than 400 years old, its humor is still sharp and zany, they said.

“It kind of feels like if ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was written by Mel Brooks,” said Brady Berg. Berg, an SMSU senior, will be playing Petruchio.

“Taming of the Shrew” cast members said performing using Shakespeare’s language has been a fun experience. Mongeau said saying the lines out loud made a big difference in shaping her performance.

“It’s almost like memorizing a song,” senior TJ Tjeerdsma said about learning lines. Tjeerdsma will be playing the role of Bianca.

“For me, I love getting to use the language,” said Alexander Castro, an SMSU junior playing a couple of different roles in “Taming of the Shrew.” “Nobody writes like this anymore.”

“The Taming” and “The Taming of the Shrew” will both start performances this week, with alternating show times. “The Taming” performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 20, 28 and 29, and at 2 p.m. Oct. 22. “The Taming of the Shrew” performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 and 22, and at 2 p.m. on Oct. 29 and 30. All performances will take place at the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre.

Tickets are available at www.SMSUtickets.com as well as at the door. Performances are free to SMSU students with a valid student ID.