Ah, this play holds so much! Puppy love, broken hearts, virtuosic verbal sparring, bumbling constables, deep fakes, true love, restorative justice, and a toast to the future. Much Ado sparkles with wit and hilarity, and yet there is also a dark underbelly to this play. At its heart lies a betrayal deep, vicious, initiated by a terrible lie.

We might, dare I say, have a passive relationship with the truth right now. Our shared understanding of the truth shapes our spaces and our communities, and what we once took for granted as irrefutable is being tested in ways we couldn’t imagine even a decade ago. As technology, AI, and all its iterations begin to dramatically shape our views and ideas of what is true, we’re going to need to develop muscle and capacity, resisting the urge to surrender our agency so easily to what we see on our social feeds. Our take on this play demands that we enter into that sticky relationship with the truth, wrestle with it, and in so doing connect more deeply with our ‘true’ selves and by extension our family, our communities.

The lie in the play spawns trauma and violence, yet also sets the stage for true love and forgiveness to come forward. Forgiveness, it has been said, is a fervent belief in the future. It has muscularity, passion, and requires all of our creative thinking.  It’s messy, has teeth, and is an ongoing choice. I’m hoping our Much Ado not only celebrates the humor, hilarity, and love that this play sparkles with, but also models an action of forgiveness that lifts up new thinking and breaks the binary of trauma and revenge.

Anina Baker    
Ursula, Borachia

Diyar Banna
Hero

Keiko Shimosato Carreiro*
Innogen, Verges

Stevie DeMott 
Don Joan

Bridgette Loriaux*
Beatrice

Johnny Moreno*
Benedick

Edward Neville*
Don Pedro

Richard Pallaziol
Dogberry

Victor Talmadge*
Leonato

Tai White
Claudio

*Member, Actors Equity Association, the professional association of actors and 
stage managers.

Stage Manager
Anthony Aranda*

Assistant Stage Manager 
Zoe Lozano

Set Designer
Nina Ball

Lighting Designer
Christian Mejia

Sound Designer
Ben Euphrat

Costume Designer
Rebecca Valentino

Properties Artisan
Amy Benjamin

Choreographer
Bridgette Loriaux

Fight Director
Dave Maier

Intimacy Director
Cindy Goldfield

Kaleidoscope Dramaturg
Philippa Kelly

Dramaturg Assistant
Lucy Kaelin

There will be one fifteen-minute intermission.

Much Ado About Nothing begins in the Florida Keys, where Leonato and Innogen live with their daughter, Hero, and her cousin and companion, Beatrice. Leonato receives word that his friend, Don Pedro has returned from war and plans to visit with some of his fellow soldiers. Among the party is Claudio, who quickly falls in love with Hero. Benedick, a bachelor who has sworn off love and marriage, enjoys speaking his mind in witty arguments with Beatrice. 

Leonato holds a masked party to celebrate the end of the war. While at the ball, the engagement of Claudio and Hero is arranged. At the same time, Don Pedro's sister, Don Joan, seeks a way to spoil the general happiness. Don Joan plots with a fellow soldier, Borachia, to deceive Claudio into believing Hero has cheated on him.

Claudio and Don Pedro are duped into thinking that Hero has been unfaithful. Meanwhile, Hero, Claudio, and Don Pedro decide Benedick and Beatrice are ideal partners, despite (or because of) their bickering. They make a plot to arrange for Benedick to overhear them discussing Beatrice's love for him and vice versa. After a series of overheard conversations, Benedick and Beatrice realize they do indeed love one another.

At Hero and Claudio’s intended wedding, Claudio believes Hero cheated on him. He denounces her and leaves her apparently dead from shock. With the help of the priest, Leonato, Beatrice, and Benedick decide to pretend that Hero is actually dead until her name can be cleared. Later, the watchmen—managed by the bumbling Dogberry–overhear Borachia reveal the trick that they played on Claudio and Don Pedro. They arrest her.

Dogberry's incriminating information is, after some difficulty, given to Leonato, Innogen, and Don Pedro. As penance for causing Hero's “death", Claudio agrees to accept Leonato and Innogen’s "niece" in her place. The "niece" turns out to be Hero. The play comes to a joyful conclusion as the lovers are reunited, and Benedick and Beatrice announce that they will share the wedding day.