Courtesy Caltech Library Services
The Bard never saw it coming: his 16th-century comedy of stubborn sisters and scheming suitors, recast with a ’90s soundtrack, screened on a university amphitheater with free popcorn.
Caltech Library Services opens its annual Summer Outdoor Movie Nights on June 24 with “10 Things I Hate About You,” the 1999 teen comedy adapted from Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” The screening — open to the public — begins at 8 p.m. at the Sherman Fairchild Library East Amphitheater on the Pasadena campus. This year’s series carries a deliberate literary thread: “Classical Literature, But Make It Y2K,” pairing four films from the turn of the millennium with the centuries-old texts that inspired them.
The 1999 film, directed by Gil Junger, stars Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. It transplants Shakespeare’s Padua to a Seattle high school, where Bianca Stratford cannot date until her older sister, Katarina, does first. That doesn’t please some of the boys at school, who decide to bribe a senior student, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), to go out with Katarina. The film is rated PG-13.
Three more screenings follow through the summer, each drawing from the same literary wellspring. “Pride and Prejudice,” the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, screens July 8. “A Knight’s Tale,” the 2001 film that draws on Chaucer, follows on July 29. The series closes August 12 with “She’s the Man,” a 2006 comedy adapted from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” All screenings begin at 8:00 p.m. at the same venue.
The series is an annual tradition for Caltech Library Services. Previous summers have carried their own themes: the 2025 series featured an “imagined futures” slate that included “Wall-E” and “The Matrix,” while the 2024 series screened 1980s blockbusters such as “Back to the Future.”
Attendees should bring their own blankets, pillows, and outdoor chair. Free popcorn is provided, according to the event listing. The event listing does not mention an admission cost.
“Outdoor Movie Night: 10 Things I Hate About You” takes place Wednesday, June 24, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Sherman Fairchild Library East Amphitheater on the Caltech campus, 1200 East California Boulevard. The event listing does not mention an admission cost. Attendees should bring their own blankets, pillows, and outdoor chair; free popcorn is provided. For more information, call Caltech Library Services at 626-395-3405 or visit libcal.caltech.edu/calendar/libraryevents.
The chairs, the blankets, the stars overhead — and, somewhere between the punchlines, Shakespeare.
