Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to present Much Ado About Nothing

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) and Artistic Director Steven Maler are pleased to announce the cast and creative team of Free Shakespeare on the Common in the summer of 2022 - William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. Performances will begin on The Boston Common on Wednesday, July 20 at 8PM and end on Sunday, August 7.

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently performed plays. The plot revolves around two couples - witty Beatrice and Benedick, who publicly proclaim their disdain for each other but fall madly in love; and naive Hero and Claudio, who fall quickly in love only to be thwarted and then reunited (in both cases, with a bit of help from their friends). But it's more than just a comedic romp. The play tackles serious themes too: trust and betrayal, power and privilege, gendered expectations around chastity and violence. This is a comedy entangled with a tragedy, where love and justice nevertheless manage to prevail with vigorous joy - a perfect play for our uncertain times. Our production sets Shakespeare's hilarious tale of wits and wills among the vibrant and re-defining time of the 1990s.

Much Ado About Nothing was first performed in 1612 in London. CSC has performed the play once before, in 2004 on the Boston Common.

The principal cast members are Remo Airaldi as Leonato, Siobhan Juanita Brown as Friar Francis, Sarah Corey as Borachio, Tia James as Benedick, John Kuntz as Antonio, Michael Underhill as Don Pedro, Gunnar Manchester as Don John, Erik Robles as Claudio, Rachael Warren as Beatrice, Rebecca-Anne Whitaker as Hero, and Debra Wise as Dogberry. Zoe Abuyuan, Siobhan Carroll, Nettie Chickering, Sarah Corey, Duncan Gallagher, Jessica Golden, Jaime Jose Hernandez, Jordyn Palmer, Jon Vellante, Xander Viera, and Dylan C. Wack complete the cast. Set design is by Lawrence Moten, lighting design by Eric Southern and Maximo Grano De Oro, costume design by Miranda Guirleo, choreography by Levi Philip Marsman, fight and intimacy direction by Jessica Scout Malone.

Megan Sandberg-Zakian is a theater director, author, and facilitator. Based in Boston, she has directed at Boston-area theaters including most recently Mr. Parent at the Lyric Stage, as well as at the Huntington Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, among many others. Her productions have received both Elliot Norton and IRNE awards. She has directed plays all across the country, including at the New York Theatre Workshop, Cal Shakes, and Capital Repertory Theatre. Megan is co-founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with stories from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Her book, There Must be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty, is available from the 3rd Thing Press. Megan is a graduate of Brown University and holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She has previously served as the Associate Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater, the Providence Black Repertory Company, and the 52nd Street Project in NYC, and as Director-in-Residence at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Theater Award

Performances of Much Ado will take place at the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common and are FREE of charge. Audience members can bring blankets or chairs, or can rent chairs on site for $10, and are permitted to bring modest food items to consume at the show. A limited number of reserved seats are available in our Friends Section with a donation of $100 per seat to our Friends Fund, starting June 15th.