Shakespeare Society

Much Ado About Nothing

Helped along by a few gallons of wine and the vibrant style of the 40's, BUSS's 14th production, Much Ado About Nothing, marked the end of an era. The play begins with Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon, paying a visit to Leonato, the governor of Messina, following a victorious campaign against his rebellious brother, Don Jon. Accompanying him are two of his officers, Benedick and Claudio. While in Messina, Claudio falls for Leonato's daughter, Hero; Benedick verbally spars with Beatrice, the governer's niece. The budding love between Claudio and Hero prompts Don Pedro to arrange with Leonato for the marriage. Meanwhile, the trickery begins as Don Pedro (with the helo fo Leonato and Claudio) attemps to sport with Benedick and Beatrice in an effort to make the two fall in love. Likewise, Hero  and her waiting women help to set up Beatrice. After the evil Don John, with the help of Borachio and his henchmen, tricks Claudio into doubting Hero's virginity, Leonato, Beatrice, and Benedick claim that the young woman has died of humiliation and grief. Claudio, upon realizing his mistake, is beside himself with sadness. Fortunately for everyone, Borachio is arrested while drunkenly boasting of his part in the plan, and Hero is exonerated. Leonato demands a public apology from Claudio, then tells him that he will allow Claudio to marry one of his nieces in Hero's place--a niece that turns out to be none of ther that Hero herself. Claudio and Hero are reunited, Benedick and Beatrice will wed alongside them, and they receive the news that the bastard Don John has be apprehended for his crime.

Twelfth Night

To modern viewers, January 5th might just seem like another day, a time of cool weather and recuperation from the insanity of the holidays. Yet it is that otherwise uneventful day that Shakespeare chose to treat in his 1601 work Twelfth Night. Originally a Catholic holiday marking the  Feast of the Epiphany—the close of the holiday season which Halloween had begun—the Twelfth Night festival saw reality turned upon its head: women would dress up as men, men would dress up as women, servants would become masters, and revelry would reign king. Twelfth Night—our Twelfth Night—captures the celebration of the holiday in the finest form, weaving together a mess of courtships, deceptions, and trickery, resulting, as all of the Bard’s comedies do, in a slew of marriages.

One Act Festival

A Shakespeare Society first, December '08 saw the beginning of hopefully a long tradition of the Society One-Act Festival. The event, though lacking in appropriate venue, presented the audience with a bevy of Bard works, ranging from the comedic to the historic to the violent to the tragic. Viv Brand's cabaret interpretation of Midsummer's "play-within-a-play" opened the evening, followed by Sean Link, Hannah Ubl, and Kelly Bedard's beauty pageant-themed Julius Caesar. Nicanor Campos performed the disturbing opening monologue from Richard III, after which Karen Walden presented a modernized moment from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. The production took a decidedly darker turn in the second half, with scenes from Macbeth (directed by Tim Collins and Othello (directed by Lisa Walden), but ended with the mushy first kiss from Romeo and Juliet (directed by Arielle Davidsohn).