Gil Junger · 1999 · shot in Tacoma and Seattle · after Shakespeare’s Shrew
1Things I Hate About You
The drive gear is still. Press it.
Shakespeare’s Padua, rebuilt in a Tacoma summer. Padua High is a château that was built as a railway hotel; the dates are in Seattle, under a bridge and at an old gasworks.
Julia Stiles in New York in April 2007, eight years after the film. No free photograph of her from 1998–99 was found. David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0Julia StilesKat Stratford · shown 2007
Heath Ledger at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2006, seven years after the film. No free photograph of him from 1998–99 was found. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0Heath LedgerPatrick Verona · shown 2006
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in March 2009, ten years after the film. No free photograph of him from 1998–99 was found. Original photo by CAryn Loveless · CC BY 3.0Joseph Gordon-LevittCameron James · shown 2009
The rule, and everyone it turns
The scheme.
Walter Stratford’s rule: Bianca may date only when Kat does. So Cameron needs someone to date Kat, Michael gets Joey to pay for it, Joey pays Patrick, and Patrick has to win Kat round. Each gear here is one of them, sized by its teeth, and each hub is the real place where the film shot that link.
Where we read it
Walter’s rule; Cameron choosing Patrick; Michael persuading Joey to pay; Kat turning down Patrick’s first tries; the prom.
Stadium High School in evening light, 2014. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0
Cameron · 12 teeth · 111 North E Street, Tacoma
Stadium High School
Cameron, new at Padua High, wants Bianca. Bianca tells him to find someone to date Kat.
A working public high school; see it from North E Street and the streets round it. Do not go in during the school day.
Where we read it
The school about 1915, nine years after the unfinished hotel became Tacoma High School. Albert Henry Barnes · Public domain
Tacoma · Stadium District
Padua High was a hotel.
The château over Commencement Bay was begun as a luxury hotel for the Northern Pacific Railway. It never opened. It was gutted by fire, bought by the school district, and has been a high school since 1906.
1906: It opens as a high school.
Where we read it
Begun in 1891 as a hotel; halted in the Panic of 1893; gutted by fire on 11 October 1898; bought in 1904; opened on 10 September 1906.
Stadium High School in evening light, 2014. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0
Padua High
111 North E Street, Tacoma
Stadium High School
Stadium High School is Padua High. Many of the film’s scenes were shot here, on a bluff above Commencement Bay just north of downtown Tacoma.
It was begun in 1891 as a luxury hotel for the Northern Pacific Railway, in Châteauesque style. Work stopped in the Panic of 1893, and on 11 October 1898 fire gutted the shell.
The school district bought the burnt-out building in 1904; it opened as Tacoma High School on 10 September 1906.
Its centenary on 16 September 2006 drew 3,299 alumni, a Guinness World Record for the largest school reunion.
A working public high school; see it from North E Street and the streets round it. Do not go in during the school day.
Where we read itThe Stadium Bowl and Commencement Bay, February 2020. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Three takes
Beside Stadium High School, North E Street, Tacoma
Stadium Bowl
Patrick serenades Kat from the stands of the Stadium Bowl. The bleachers scene took just three takes.
The bowl was dug out of Old Woman’s Gulch with steam shovels and water jets in 1909–10, and dedicated on 10 June 1910.
The gulch was named after fishermen’s widows who once lived in shacks there.
The school’s stadium, open to Commencement Bay at its north end. Narcity lists it as free to visit; keep off the field when the school is using it.
The view from Kerry Park, September 2018. SounderBruce · CC BY-SA 4.0
Fremont, Lake Union, Queen Anne
Seattle, for the dates.
The scheme moves north. Patrick is found in a Fremont biker bar, Bianca is quizzed beside a troll under a bridge, and the date is at a gasworks turned park. The skyline in the opening credits is the view from Kerry Park.
Fremont in October 2006, the neighbourhood of the old Buckaroo Tavern. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0
Closed
4201 Fremont Avenue North, at North 42nd Street, Fremont, Seattle
The Buckaroo Tavern
Cameron and Michael track Patrick down in this biker bar to talk him into taking Kat out.
The Buckaroo has since closed.
The tavern has closed; this is the corner where it stood. The photograph shows Fremont in 2006, not the tavern.
Where we read itThe Troll Avenue street sign in Fremont, 2015; the avenue was renamed for the sculpture in 2005. GeoTrinity · CC BY-SA 3.0
Under the bridge
Troll Avenue North at North 36th Street, under the Aurora Bridge, Fremont, Seattle
The Fremont Troll
Cameron pumps Bianca for what Kat likes beside the Troll.
It is 18 feet high, made of steel rebar, wire and concrete, and clutches a real Volkswagen Beetle.
Four artists built it in 1990 after a Fremont Arts Council competition for the space under the bridge. The road beside it was renamed Troll Avenue in 2005.
Open at all hours under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. The artists hold the rights to its image, so it is shown here by its street.
Where we read itGas Works Park across Lake Union, July 2015. Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0
The date
2101 North Northlake Way, Seattle
Gas Works Park
Patrick takes Kat paintballing here.
The towers are what is left of the only surviving coal-gasification plant in the United States, which ran from 1906 to 1956. The park opened in 1975.
The old exhauster-compressor building is now a children’s play barn; the park also has a kite hill with a sundial on top.
Open 6am to 10pm. Don’t go in the lake: swimming, wading and boating are banned because of the sediment.
Where we read itVisitors at the Kerry Park railing, November 2016. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Opening credits
211 West Highland Drive, Queen Anne, Seattle
Kerry Park
The view from Kerry Park is in the film’s opening credits.
Albert and Katharine Kerry gave the land to the city in 1927 so that anyone could enjoy the view: downtown, the Space Needle, Elliott Bay and, on clear days, Mount Rainier.
A small public viewpoint with benches along a railing; free.
Where we read it
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Fremont and Lake Union tours
Fremont, Seattle
Live marketplace results for walks, bike rides and boat trips round Fremont and Lake Union, past the Troll and Gas Works Park.
The Padua prom was cut together from two places on Pine Street: the Paramount’s chandeliered lobby and staircase for the arrival and Kat’s exit, and a ballroom on East Pine for the dancing. The prom took three days to shoot.
Where we read it
The lobby and stairs at the Paramount, the dancing at the Century Ballroom.
Capitol Hill, Seattle · 4-week series $108 · 3-week $81 · drop-in $28
The former Century Ballroom, where the prom’s dancing was filmed, runs classes and social dances on the second floor at 915 East Pine Street. A free beginner lesson opens most social dances.
The film keeps Shakespeare’s bones: a father who will not let the younger daughter marry first, a sharp elder sister, and a suitor who comes from Verona. Pick a name from the play.
Prato della Valle, Padua, September 2022. Threecharlie · CC BY-SA 4.0
The setting
Padua, Veneto, Italy
Padua
The Taming of the Shrew is set in Padua: Katherina and Bianca are the daughters of Baptista Minola, a lord there, and Lucentio comes to the city for its university.
The film keeps the name for its school, Padua High.
Shakespeare’s setting, not a filming place. The pin marks the city.
Where we read itThe Roman arena in Verona, 2011. Kevin Poh · CC BY 2.0
Where Petruchio comes from
Verona, Veneto, Italy
Verona
In the play, Petruchio arrives in Padua from Verona to find a wife. The film gives Patrick the surname Verona.
Shakespeare’s setting, not a filming place. The pin marks the city.
Where we read it
And the money goes round: at the end, Patrick gives Kat a Fender Stratocaster bought with what Joey paid him.
The people
Who made it.
Julia Stiles in New York in April 2007, eight years after the film. No free photograph of her from 1998–99 was found. David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0Julia StilesKat Stratford · shown 2007
Heath Ledger at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2006, seven years after the film. No free photograph of him from 1998–99 was found. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0Heath LedgerPatrick Verona · shown 2006
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in March 2009, ten years after the film. No free photograph of him from 1998–99 was found. Original photo by CAryn Loveless · CC BY 3.0Joseph Gordon-LevittCameron James · shown 2009
Gil Junger directed, his first feature, from a script by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, who wanted a strong-willed, feminist heroine. Larisa Oleynik is Bianca, Larry Miller is Walter, Andrew Keegan is Joey, David Krumholtz is Michael and Gabrielle Union is Chastity, with Allison Janney and Daryl Mitchell. Heath Ledger was cast three and a half weeks before filming. Letters to Cleo play in the film, and Save Ferris play the prom.
8 Jun – 6 Aug 1998filming in Tacoma and Seattle
3days to shoot the prom
$13mbudget
$53.7mworldwide
Where we read it
Cast, crew, writers, casting, filming dates, prom shoot, budget, box office and the bands.
11 places on the map: 3 in Tacoma, 6 in Seattle and 2 in Shakespeare’s Italy. The Stratford house is a private home on North Junett Street and is not pinned.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school; see it from North E Street and the streets round it. Do not go in during the school day.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The school’s stadium, open to Commencement Bay at its north end. Narcity lists it as free to visit; keep off the field when the school is using it.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A downtown street front; it is no longer a music shop.
1Stadium High School in evening light, 2014. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0
111 North E Street, Tacoma
Stadium High School
Stadium High School is Padua High. Many of the film’s scenes were shot here, on a bluff above Commencement Bay just north of downtown Tacoma.
A working public high school; see it from North E Street and the streets round it. Do not go in during the school day.
Where we read it
2The Stadium Bowl and Commencement Bay, February 2020. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Beside Stadium High School, North E Street, Tacoma
Stadium Bowl
Patrick serenades Kat from the stands of the Stadium Bowl. The bleachers scene took just three takes.
The school’s stadium, open to Commencement Bay at its north end. Narcity lists it as free to visit; keep off the field when the school is using it.
A downtown Seattle hotel a block from the Seattle Convention Center, within walking distance of Pike Place Market; the theatre with the prom’s staircase is on Pine Street nearby.
Classes in the prom ballroom, and tours of Seattle, Fremont and Tacoma.
Reverie Ballroom
Dance classes in the prom ballroom
Capitol Hill, Seattle · 4-week series $108 · 3-week $81 · drop-in $28
The former Century Ballroom, where the prom’s dancing was filmed, runs classes and social dances on the second floor at 915 East Pine Street. A free beginner lesson opens most social dances.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The whole record
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 14 of 14 Moments
Stadium High School
111 North E Street, Tacoma
Padua High
Stadium High School plays Padua High.
The hotel that became a school
The unfinished railway hotel burns and is rebuilt as Tacoma High School.
The Stratocaster
Patrick gives Kat a Fender Stratocaster bought with Joey’s money.
Stadium Bowl
Beside Stadium High School, North E Street, Tacoma
Three takes
Patrick serenades Kat from the stands; the scene takes three takes.
The Stratford house
North Junett Street, North End, Tacoma
The rule
Walter declares that Bianca may date only when Kat does.
The music shop
1117 Broadway, downtown Tacoma
Outside the music shop
Patrick tries his luck with Kat, and Kat reverses into Joey’s car.
The Buckaroo Tavern
4201 Fremont Avenue North, at North 42nd Street, Fremont, Seattle
The tavern
Cameron and Michael find Patrick in a biker bar.
The Fremont Troll
Troll Avenue North at North 36th Street, under the Aurora Bridge, Fremont, Seattle
Under the bridge
Cameron pumps Bianca for what Kat likes beside the Troll.
Gas Works Park
2101 North Northlake Way, Seattle
The date
Patrick takes Kat paintballing at Gas Works Park.
Kerry Park
211 West Highland Drive, Queen Anne, Seattle
Opening credits
The view from Kerry Park is in the opening credits.
Paramount Theatre
911 Pine Street, at Ninth Avenue, downtown Seattle
The staircase
Kat runs down the Paramount’s staircase after learning about the money.
The ballroom
Second floor, Odd Fellows building, 915 East Pine Street, Capitol Hill, Seattle
Prom
The prom’s dancing is filmed over three days in Seattle, in the Century Ballroom.
Padua
Padua, Veneto, Italy
Baptista’s rule
In Shakespeare’s Padua, Baptista swears Bianca will not marry until Katherina does.
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