MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING to Launch TN Shakespeare Co. 18th Performance Season

Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series will return for its ninth season featuring Much Ado About Nothing in eleven different outdoor venues throughout the Shelby County area for free September 27 – October 19. William Shakespeare’s lively comedy of love, deception, and spirited banter also plays indoors on TSC’s Tabor Stage for one half-price-admission performance on September 28.

The Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series, which launches TSC’s 18th season in Memphis, is generously sponsored by Evans Petree PC and the Shakespeare Fund of Theater League of Kansas City. 

Outdoor performances are free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are required: first-come/first-seated. Patrons are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket for seating, and to picnic. The indoor Tabor Stage performance requires reservations by contacting TSC’s Box Office at tnshakespeare.org or (901) 759-0604.

Directed by TSC Associate Artistic Producer Stephanie Shine, this 90-minute production of Shakespeare’s popular romantic comedy features a 10-actor ensemble that includes TSC veteran Lauren Gunn (Dromio in last season’s The Comedy of Errors) as Beatrice and TSC newcomer Charlie Meeks as Benedick. 

Also returning to TSC are Marquis Dijon Archuleta (Don Pedro/Watch), Jeremy Bukauskas (Friar Francis), and founding member Stuart Heyman (Leonato). The ensemble includes TSC newcomers Matthew Alter (Don John/Verges), Ethan Shaw (Claudio/Watch), Taylor Slonaker (Balthasar/Dogberry), Natalie Tangeman (Hero/Sexton), and Sedona Vivirito (Margaret/Conrad). 

The design team includes Jeremy Allen Fisher (scenic and lighting), Allison White (costumes), and Joe Johnson (Music Composer). Cu Cukale is the Production Stage Manager.

The Free Shakespeare Series spans four weeks, opening on September 27 outdoors at Collierville Town Square’s Train Depot. The Series will perform at the Raleigh Library for the first time, and then returns to LaGrange, TN, at a new historic house venue named Reverie. 

Returning venues from last year include Bartlett Performing Arts Center (outdoors), Davies Manor in Bartlett, Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Overton Park Shell, Overton Square’s Chimes Square Amphitheatre, St. George’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, and Wiseacre Brewery’s Broad Avenue location.

In Much Ado About Nothing, quick wit, overheard conversations, and intentional deceptions spark both comedy and momentary cruelty. Noble soldiers Don Pedro, Benedick, and Claudio return home from war to the Messina countryside and are welcomed by the women: young Claudio falling for Hero, while the spirited Beatrice and Benedick pick up immediately with their verbal sparring. Friends scheme to trick the sharp-tongued pair into admitting their hidden affections for one another, while darker plots of slander and false accusation threaten to tear Claudio and Hero apart. What follows is a tangle of wit, rumor, and disguise that ultimately is resolved in a festive union by Shakespeare’s malapropping creation of Constable Dogberry and his questionably-able Watch. 

“This sparkling comedy brings with it chilling reminders of what can happen when unsubstantiated reports are held as truths,” says Shine. “All the characters in Much Ado About Nothing eavesdrop, repeat information, and conjure falsehoods at an amazing rate for a society lacking modern technology. The consequences are just as deadly now as they were then: to reputations, to relationships, and sometimes, to lives. Thankfully, with love and laughter, truths surface in this otherwise happy world. They are embraced, leaving us all with a deep appreciation of just and caring communities.”