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UMW Theatre Remote Production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing

Live Zoom Production aired on April 16, 2020

Faculty mentor: Professor Helen Housley

Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

Beatrice and Benedick are meant for each other. Trouble is, they don’t see it that way. In one of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most romantic of comedies, mistaken identities, misdirected insults, devious fakery, and bumbling antics prove no match for the effervescent power of love. Will calculated swooning and conniving mischief succeed to find Beatrice and Benedick falling madly for each other, or will it all simply amount to Much Ado About Nothing?

When campus closed on March 12 in order to transition to online learning in light of the rise of COVID-19, UMW Theatre was deep into preparation for the final offering of it’s 2019-20 season, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. When there was a chance that we might return to in person classes on April 6, the faculty decided to put the production on hold and make arrangements for a delayed opening once classes resumed. When UMW announced that classes would remain online for the remainder of the academic year, the faculty and staff decided to present a performance of Much Ado About Nothing online. Gregg Stull, professor of theatre and chair of the department met with the Much Ado company on March 19 to share the plans. Rehearsals resumed on March 23.

The cast presented a live stream performance on April 16 to a crowd of more than 1500 viewers watching from 37 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and five states. Within 24 hours of being posted as an on demand performance on YouTube, more than 2000 people have watched the UMW Theatre production of Much Ado. From the start of the production process until the performance, 107 UMW students contributed to bringing Much Ado About Nothing to life.

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12 Replies to “UMW Theatre Remote Production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing”

  1. Congratulations to all of the performers, Helen and UMW Theatre for a creative and terrific presentation of Much Ado about Nothing. Bravo!

  2. Congratulations on a fantastic performance. “Much Ado…” is probably my favorite Shakespeare comedy, and you guys nailed it under incredibly challenging circumstances. Hats off to a great performance.

  4. 1. Instead of just names and where the actors were located in their homes it would have been great to know the town they were performing from – that would have added to the level of amazement of this performance.
    2. So enjoyable to watch the actors actually trying to physically connect with each other in various ways – that really brought the play to life even under the extremely unusual circumstances of the performance. Congrats to all involved.

  5. congrats to the great performance and ingenuity of the broadcast so that the play could still go on!

  6. Will watch the whole performance later, but I loved the introduction with all the images of a work in progress that we never get to see in a live production. I am so impressed that it came together and am looking forward to enjoying an evening at the theater!

  7. This was definitely one of the highlights of a pretty tough semester. Thanks to all of you, and especially to Helen Housley, for your hard work!

  9. This was an amazing performance and a true ray of sunshine in these very uncertain and dreary times. I forgot all about being online during the performance– you were ALL that good! THANK YOU!

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