Arts & Entertainment
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing to Be Performed at Manhattanville College from March 26th to March 29th.
"Much Ado About Nothing" is a Shakespearean comedy which focuses on the lives of two couples who struggle with love, reputation, and rumor
Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing to Be Performed at Manhattanville
By Valeria Ricciulli Marin ’15
The Manhattanville College Dance and Theatre Department will present Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” on March 26.
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“Much Ado About Nothing’ is an opportunity to see our students at their finest, and to experience Shakespeare in a way that is engaging and entertaining,” the show’s director, Dr. Valerie Clayman Pye, an assistant professor at Manhattanville, stated. “We’ve undergone a serious period of study — we have our basis in scholarship and we allow that to inform what we discover in and through performance, but you’ll find this production very accessible. The audience won’t have difficulty understanding it.”
Set in Messine, Italy, “Much Ado About Nothing” is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, and it focuses on the lives of two couples who struggle with love, reputation, and rumor. The production features 18 student actors and another three students assisting Pye as stage managers.
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Santiago Castro Baiz ’16, who plays Conrade, states, “The most challenging part of being in a Shakespeare play is to take on such an iconic piece of theatre and bring it to life. The words seemed antiquated but the meaning behind them gleams strongly.”
“This show is special in that we, the cast, were all in a class together last semester called, ‘Playing Shakespeare,’ taught by Dr. Pye. It was a class connected to this semester’s performance that was meant to prepare us to perform Shakespeare, and this play in particular,” said Gabrielle Fidis ’16, who plays Friar Francis.
The performances will take place in the Little Theatre in Brownson Hall at Manhattanville College from Thursday, March 26 to Saturday, March 28 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, March 29 at 3 p.m. There will also be a special matinee performance and talk-back session on Friday, March 27 for local high school students.
Tickets are $10 for General Admission and $5 for Manhattanville students and senior citizens. For ticket reservations please call 914-323-7175.
