Tag Archive for: Much Ado About Nothing

A man gestures onstage in Much Ado About Nothing

Understanding Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing

Modern audiences don’t have the benefit of footnotes when enjoying a Shakespeare play. When reading the text, footnotes are often necessary to comprehend the nuances of Elizabethan age humor, slang, and history. Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is heralded as one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, containing copious amounts of wordplay and banter. Before attending a […]

A close up of a gyro with fries

Much Ado About Mediterranean Food

Dinner only needs to embrace the clever use of herbs and spices rather than words, unlike a play by William Shakespeare. You can get those by seeing the Bard’s famous play Much Ado About Nothing, a comedic act of love, lies and pride that the DCPA Theatre Company sets in Messina, Sicily. Celebrate this whimsical […]

A woman sits onstage with a guitar in Much Ado About Nothing

First Look: Much Ado About Nothing

A playful comedy layered with all the rich complexity that comes with Shakespeare’s work, Much Ado About Nothing is a snappy, surprisingly timely meditation on gossip, gender roles, and the follies of romance. Take a look at some of the production photos below.

The two masks that define theatre, one crying on the left and one laughing on the right

The Tragicomedy of Shakespeare’s Tragic Comedy: Much Ado About Nothing

While the names Thalia and Melpomene might mean nothing to you, you would certainly recognize their faces. Also known as Sock and Buskin, the iconic representation of theatre features two masks with familiar laughing and crying faces. Thalia is one of the nine Muses in Greek mythology, the patron of Comedy, represented with the laughing […]

Designing for a Villain: Don John in Much Ado About Nothing

If clothes make the man, does it stand to reason that costumes make the villain? That’s the question we posed to DCPA Costume Crafts Director Kevin Copenhaver, who has been tasked with designing 1930s-era costumes for Much Ado About Nothing. Not necessarily, was his answer. “I don’t think costumes make the hero or the villain. […]

A hand-painted vest is laid out on a workstation

A Sicilian-Inspired, Hand Painted Vest in Much Ado About Nothing

Director Chris Coleman will set his version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in the Sicilian port town of Messina. A minor but integral character is Dogberry, the incompetent constable, who unwittingly (and comically) discovers a plot to thwart true love. When Costume Crafts Director Kevin Copenhaver took on the charge to design the show, […]

An intricate painting of the wedding scene in Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing: More than a Renaissance rom-com

There’s something very modern about Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The rapid-fire zings, the flirty aggression — If Beatrice and Benedick met today, they would badmouth and ghost each other on a dating app. Fortunately, the play is respectfully presented in its original form, only stylistically updated to the 1930s in the DCPA Theatre Company’s […]