Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is being considered as the first show in the Public Theatre's 1999 Shakespeare in the Park season at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Public spokesperson Carol Fineman said the production was nearly confirmed and that Mel Shapiro would direct.

The Shakespeare comedy tells of Petruchio, a strutting suitor to the man hating Katharina, who weds fiery Kate, attempts to tame her and finally grows to respect her as an equal. The timeless story is the basis of the 1948 Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate.

The Public Theatre mounted the play at the Delacorte in 1990, in a production which starred Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman.

Fineman said no casting was available. There was, likewise, no information about the second Shakespeare in the Park production.

In recent seasons, the Public has scheduled works other than Shakespeare's for the park season. Last year, for instance, saw a revival of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. In 1997, George C. Wolfe mounted the musical On the Town, later bringing it to Broadway in a revised form. --By Robert Simonson