“Much Ado About Nothing” Impresses Salve Audiences

By: Emma St. Laurent
Posted In: Campus News

Anyone who walks into Salve Regina’s Megley Theatre will be surprised with anything but a black box. For the past two months, the Department of Performing Arts has been working hard to pull together the production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” which ran from Nov. 11, 2009 to Nov. 15, 2009.

At the dress rehearsal, the actors and actresses worked out all the kinks and jitters associated with first nights. When walking into the theater, the scene of the play was brought to life with a fountain bubbling in the center of the stage. The real fun began when the lights dimmed and the show began. The play is an original Shakespeare comedy, and the cast did a great job conveying those emotions.

According to Owen Murphy, who played the character Claudio, “Shakespeare is like speaking another language.” “Much Ado About Nothing,” is a comedic love story, which revolves around the ‘love at first sight’ relationship of Claudio and Hero and the love/hate relationship of Beatrice and Benedict.

The main characters were played by Owen Murphy (Claudio), Jacqueline Lawler (Hero), Mary Wright (Beatrice) and Jared Emanuel (Benedict). In an interview, Murphy described his favorite scene as the one where Emanuel smacks him. The audience did not expect this full on smack. Opening night proved to be a success, both from the audience’s reaction and the actors.

“It was surprising since we were shaky until that point and it all pulled together,” Murphy said of the first night’s performance. Friday and Saturday night’s showings both ended up being sell-outs.

The two months of work paid off, and so did the help of their director, Kathleen Katic. The main problem for the cast was getting used to the “theatre in the rounds,” in which the audience was located in every direction. Also, the cast faced a problem when a truck hit Murphy while he was on his skateboard on the day of their first performance. Luckily he got away with minimal injuries and the show ran on smoothly. All in all, the performance of “Much Ado About Nothing” was really something.