Much Ado
This weekend, on a small stage in our humble hamlet, a vision will be realized; a vision that – dream-like – was born six months ago, on another stage, when the world was entirely different.
During the dark winter of 1999, as I was chipping away at my undergraduate degree in the frigid chill of Minneapolis, I was warmed by the fire of friendship in an unassuming production of Much Ado About Nothing. I whet my Shakespearean skill with my performance of Conrade, a sometime chum of Don John, the play’s villain. I was two years into a stormy, broody relationship with Joel at the time, who had often taken every opportunity to boast about (and relive) the time he’d played Hamlet in high school, so I thought that auditioning and performing Shakespeare might provide me with some windows into the soul of my sweetheart and would give me an opportunity to be on stage. I got much more than I bargained for when I fell head-over-heals for the amusing wit and gripping story of Much Ado.
As a performer and theatre devotee, I keep a running catalogue of plays in my mind that I’d like to see performed, that I’d like to perform, and that I’d like to direct. Someday, I hope to see Joel and Adelaide perform King Lear and Cordelia. One day, I hope to play Lady Croom in a production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, sing the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, enact the role of Miss Hannigan in Annie, and try my hand at Chekov. And for years, directing a youth production of Much Ado About Nothing, set in a high school, was always percolating on the back burners of my brain.
So, without further ado, I am pleased and proud to present – after six months of rehearsing, planning, blocking, memorizing, and teaching – The Vermillion Community Theatre Understudies in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Come and see us if you’re in the region!