Just minutes before the play is to start, the cast of Much Ado About Nothing mills about among the audience, chatting with each other, talking with family and friends. Then, without fanfare, cast members take to the stage and the play begins.  

“Mr. McCamish just threw it out there one of the days — ‘Why don’t we try going out into the audience?’ — and we just went with it,” said senior Adam Pendergrass, who plays Borachio in the Shakespeare production on the Norris Ely Orchard (NEO) stage. “The beginning of the show is just a normal conversation, so it really seemed like a nice segue, a fun way to get into the play.” 

The play, directed by theater teacher David McCamish, opened on Wednesday, November 5, and continues through Saturday, November 8. Thursday’s and Friday’s shows are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s show is a 2 p.m. matinee.  

In his director’s note David writes that “Shakespeare reminds us how fragile truth can be when rumor, innuendo, and vanity take hold. ... Our antagonist, Don John, finds the greatest collateral damage he can gain is through a couple’s love, using misogyny as a weapon.” Don John’s scheme, which David notes “spills no blood,” does leave “deep emotional bruises.” It is used against Hero (senior Natalie Pereira), who is wrongfully accused of infidelity. Claudio (senior Zane Habig) refuses to marry Hero, believing the lie that Don John (junior Kofi Donkor) had concocted. Yet, in the end, truth wins out. Claudio and Hero marry. 

“In our world, where messages travel at the speed of light, Shakespeare’s vision feels hauntingly current,” writes David in the playbill. “Miscommunication, deceit, and impulsive judgment still have the power to undo reputations and relationships in an instant. Yet, through forgiveness, humor, and love, Much Ado About Nothing restores hope in our shared humanity, the possibility that grace can triumph over grievance.” 

An hour before showtime on opening night, the cast was on stage in a circle, doing vocal and physical warmups. Backstage, all items on the “fix list” had been crossed off — feather on Sophie's mask, steam Vivan’s cape, steam Natalie’s second dress, wash Nina and Zane shirts. Wardrobe supervisor Natalie DeMarco had made sure that the costumes were ready and that wardrobe switches would go as smoothly as possible.  

That precision was especially important for actors with multiple roles. For part of the production, senior Sophie Singer wore a dress as Ursula, Hero’s confidant. Then she is unrecognizable as Verges, a bumbling constable who trudges along as the loyal partner to constable Dogberry (junior Blair Sontag). One minute Blair is Margaret, a waiting gentlewoman to Hero, in a dress, and the next she is dressed as Dogberry, who, like Verges, provides comedic relief.    

Stephanie, like these Loomis Chaffee students, was a theater kid who always considered herself “crafty,” so being around the costumes and making sure the hair and makeup is on point fits her. “I like being in the theater world in whatever capacity that is,” she said. 

“Brush? Which brush do I use for blush?” asked one of the actors backstage. Stephanie handed it over.  Another asks about his makeup? “How’s it look?” “Heavier,” Stephanie answered.  

There are heavy moments in the play, but lighter ones, too. As in the opening of the play, there is another twist. Benedick, played by senior Nina Gitlitz, provides a few moments akin to a Cirque du Soleil performance. Benedick does acrobatics using aerial silks hanging above the stage. 

Nina said she first used aerial silks two years ago at a summer theater, and using them in a scene of Much Ado About Nothing “fell into place.” 

“I remember talking to Mr. McCamish, and he said the set is going to be very flowing with silks everywhere,” Nina said. “I said, ‘Mr. McCamish, you have to let me do them. I love silks.’”   

He worked the aerial silks into the show. Nina said she routinely showed up early for rehearsals to work on them. She said the physicality “puts you more in character and you’re better able to connect with the scene and the world that you are in.” In the end, Benedick and Beatrice (senior Joy Smith) also end up marrying in front of the friar (senior Angelina Wang), yet another happy ending.  

Much Ado was one of two Shakespeare plays produced on campus this fall. The other play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, had a regular run of shows October 29–30 in the Black Box Theater. And the sophomore class attended special performances of both plays on Thursday, November 6, during the class day. Every sophomore English class is reading one of the two plays this fall.  

“This collaboration came about late last spring, as the theater department was planning their fall productions and the 10th-grade English teachers were thinking about course texts,’’ said Director of Writing Initiatives and English teacher John Morrell. “The goal is for students to encounter Shakespeare in the context of production and performance, for them to experience the ways that the text is alive and always changing, being reinterpreted in each performance. We want the students to have fun and to celebrate their peers as they come to a deeper understanding of the text together.”