Isabella Zuill-McKenzie agonised over Shakespeare as a student.

Her classmates usually spoke the bard’s words in such a monotone all meaning was lost. Even when she read the stories herself, she had no clue what was going on.

So when BMDS held an audition for The Taming of the Shrew she hesitated.

“I was sitting around at my job at Rock Island Coffee,” said the 19-year-old. “I was talking it over with my colleagues, saying I don’t know if I should go over there. I found Shakespeare very daunting, and my area of interest is usually musical theatre, which this is not.

“I only decided to do it ten minutes before the audition. During the audition, it was funny because the director, Kelly Johnston, genuinely laughed at something I said when I was reading. I thought, obviously I am doing something right.”

She confessed that she hadn’t intended to audition but Mr Johnston said he was glad she did. He picked her to play Bianca, the lead Katherina’s younger, sweeter sister.

“I am a supporting character,” said Miss Zuill-McKenzie. “But I think it is a good character for me. Someone said, I am the character in the most scenes with the least lines. That works for me.”

Now she might be a Shakespeare convert.

“I found myself in one of the first rehearsals, laughing at this play,” she said. “I thought, this is so weird. I never understood it before, but now I do.

“It is a lot of fun and the cast is really good. Kelly is one of the most personable people I have ever met. He is very good at what he does. He has been doing Shakespeare for a long time and he is very good at explaining what it means.”

The play is set in Padua, Italy, where Bianca is pursued by various suitors. Her father tells them all that her bad-tempered older sister, Katherina, must marry first. The suitors then encourage Petruchio, who has come to Padua to find a wealthy wife, to court Katherina and free Bianca to marry.

“Nobody wants to marry Katherina because she speaks her mind,” said Miss Zuill-McKenzie. “Everyone wants to marry me. People [tell my father] I am just wasting away being kept at home but he needs to get rid of Katherina first because he doesn’t want to be stuck with her.

“But I am not sweet towards the end of the play. I switch roles with Katherina. She is tamed and I show my true nature.”

Miss Zuill-McKenzie, who also works part-time at Sail On, is hoping to study musical theatre in the United Kingdom. She had her first lead role last year in the BMDS Christmas pantomime Treasure Island.

“I was the princess,” she said. “It was a lot of fun. It was nice because it was a comedy and wasn’t so serious. There weren’t that many lines so it was a nice ease into lead roles.”

She has always loved singing and performing.

At five she took part in the Somersfield Academy talent show at City Hall.

“I sang a song from the movie the NeverEnding Story,” she said. “I didn’t know when the song ended and I just kept singing. The guy next to the stage was like ‘Stop, stop’.”

Throughout her childhood she moved around a lot, living in Canada, New York and London.

“When we moved to London when I was 13, I found it wasn’t so special to be able to sing,” said Miss Zuill-McKenzie. “There were lots of children who could sing, so I wasn’t as confident doing so.”

At 14 she tried out for the television show Britain’s Got Talent.

“It was nerve-racking,” she said. “What they don’t really tell you is before you see the judges there are pre-auditions with the producers. We had to wait outside this room in a long hallway. I went in and there was a producer behind a table and a camera.”

She sang the 1950s hit Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, which did not seem to impress the judges much.

“In hindsight it probably wasn’t the song they were looking for,” she said. “I don’t know what they were looking for, to be honest. I think I was a bit too young. I hadn’t had any training and I was very nervous. Maybe I didn’t have the crazy story or the star factor they were looking for.”

Although she was disappointed, it turned out to be a good thing because it encouraged her to get more training. She’s been taking voice lessons for the last two years.

She said moving around as a child was good because it exposed her to quite a lot.

“I got to see the world in a different way than people who live here their whole life,” she said.

But she said the theatre community in Bermuda is awesome with many outlets for amateur thespians.

“For example, Pickled Onion has an open mic night on Tuesdays. There are some amazingly talented people here and resources for people to use.”

She hopes that being in Taming of the Shrew will help make her more confident in her acting skills. “Hopefully, it will lead me to do more Shakespeare plays. It is a lot of fun and I genuinely enjoy it.”

• The show opens next Thursday at 7pm in Victoria Park and continues June 24 and 30 and July 1 and 2. A matinee takes place, Saturday, June 26 at 2pm. Tickets, $30 for evening performances and $20 for the matinee, are available from www.ptix.bm or at BMDS one hour before the show. There will be no seating provided, bring a blanket or small chair.