Much Ado

We are deep into rehearsals for "Much Ado About Nothing" with the Actors Shakespeare Project, a company I helped to found with a group of other Boston actors.
I have never been in the play before, tho I've seen it quite a number of times. Being in it is a very different experience: it's an impossibly lighthearted play. I don't mean that in a frivolous way, but in a rather profound way: it captures this innate sense of fun and joy and mischief that humans just contain in there core, somewhere. Even the dark aspects seem light (hence, I suppose, the title!)

We are doing the play in Roxbury, on the corner of Harrison and Dudley, at a space called Hiberian Hall, which is a renovated arts center building from the 50s (perhaps earlier). The space has been quite a challenge: the room tends to suck up your voice something AWFUL. The neighborhood is also a little off the beaten track and a bit rough around the edges, so there is concern about getting people to come in to see the show.

We are doing the play in the round, which has been quite a challenge.

Paula Plum and Richard Snee are playing Beatrice and Benedick. I'm playing Don Pedro, the Prince. I thought I would just have a couple of lines, but the guy actually never shuts up. Who knew?
Most of us are double cast, so we morph into different characters: Doug Lockwood plays Don John and Dogberry, which I think is a really interesting combination.

We open next week. I'll try to keep you posted on how it goes. Truthfully, I forgot that I had this blog until recently, when I was writing on another blog, and i "signed in", and up popped this "indentity". Kind of cool.
Johnny