Much Ado About Nothing

April Chronowski is a student director at Clark University. Below is their director's note form the production: 

 

"Shakespeare's texts have gained a reputation for being dense, confusing, and high-brow. They aren't. As I've told my actors (and as many people who study Shakespeare say); if there's a line in Shakespeare you don't understand, chances are it's a sex joke. Especially in a play like Much Ado About Nothing. 

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This comedic (and occasionally tragic) romp through Messina, Italy explores themes of gender and relationships that are deeply relevant to our current culture through the lens of Shakespeare's iconic prose and verse. As we created the production, I asked the company to focus on three things: genre, gender, and g-accessibility (I couldn't think of another g word.) The result was a cohesive product that gave everyone an opportunity to put their own creative spin on the show, shifted beautifully between comedy and tragedy, and pulled the central themes of the text into a space where the audience could view them through their modern views of society and gender. 

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The entire process of putting this show together has been collaborative. In a world where we as individuals are constantly being pitted against each other, one of the most radical things we can do is build community. As can be seen in Much Ado About Nothing - too much faith in flawed power structures and not enough faith in the word and integrity of your fellow individual only leads to ruin. 

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I encourage you as an audience to engage with this show and its meaning. Theater is meant to be experienced =, comedies are meant to be laughed at. We had an immense amount of fun creating this show. I hope you have just as much fun watching it."