See Much Ado: last Weekend til Dec. 3 VID! here + Director's notes! too

TKTS oinhttps://bit.ly/2g3fbHlJ Much Ado. The fire in this Shakespeare play is exuberance and our ensemble’s goal is to exude the love of life that motivates these characters. Beatrice and Benedick lead the charge, as their wit is admired and loved by all.  Shakespeare created this unique pair of lovers, irrevocably attracted to each other, yet getting in their own way as they parry with sparkling barbs of wordplay. Theirs is not the pugnacious conflict of Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, but lives in a different Italian universe: sunlit with benevolence. The only shadow is Don John and his malevolent plan, while Dogberry and his crew stand in sharp unlikely counterpoint.  Shakespeare’s imaginative plot twist is for Dogberry (ever armed with bumbling malapropisms) to overcome John’s darkness.

Through this text, Shakespeare’s bright spirit shines across four centuries and still influences our view of romance in the verbal sparring. Check out the legacy of Beatrice and Benedick’s exuberant banter in the witty battle of the sexes between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy through their nine delightful films of the mid 20th Century. 

We are fortunate that Shakespeare and his company were unafraid of anachronism, for example, his Julius Caesar was first costumed in Elizabethan doublet and hose only adding a sash over the shoulder to suggest togas! We carry on that fearless anachronism and have set Shakespeare’s sparkling Much Ado in the beautiful Belle Epoch, and spiced its rhythms with some “Bossa Nova” music and dance. Austin composer, Greg Bolin, has created a new song for Shakespeare’s lyrics of “Sigh, No More Ladies” especially for us.

We hope you will enjoy spending some time in this world, basking in this glorious language, and traveling through this story of sunshine and shadow through to its buoyant conclusion.