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The most basic and somewhat expected directorial choice was the system of names used. For the two main female parts, the director used the same names as in Shakespeare’s book, Kat and Bianca. Now the interesting choice was their last name, Stratford, which was based upon Shakespeare’s birth city Stratford –upon-Avon. For Heath Ledger’s character, Shakespeare used Petruchio but the director went with a more contemporary Patrick Verona where his last name is the name of the city in which Petruchio was born in the play. Another name drop to give clues is heard during an altercation between Kat and a nerd in which he calls her a shrew. While the book takes place in the city of Padua, the director made the focus around a modern day school and appropriately named the place Padua High School.