'Much Ado': Shakespeare's classic gets an update and an 80s twist
Imagine a Shakespearean comedy set somewhere in 1980s America.
That's what Kingsway Christian School senior Hannah Brenneman did. She thought about and considered it for nearly two years after seeing “Much Ado About Nothing” with friends at the Hannah Theater in Cleveland.
Brenneman, a fixture on the Kingsway stage since middle school, liked the comedy, but knew it would need a little modernizing to work well with a high school cast. “They're not going to be okay with it,” she said, “unless its modern language.”
She checked around for adaptations, but found none to her liking.
Finally, the answer came.
“This isn't exactly what I want,” she said. “This would be so much easier if I just did it myself.”
And so she did.
It took a while and Brenneman said she shelved the idea at one point. But one morning in church, she had a change of heart, saying to herself: “You know what? I'm going to do this. I can do this myself.”
The final product, in its 1980s incarnation and re-titled “Much Ado,” will be performed at the school on Thursday and Friday, March 26 and 27, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale March 9 at the school office and cost $10 for reserved seating, $7 for general admission and $5 for students, alumni and senior citizens.
Once Brenneman had finished her adaptation, she had a number of people look at it and give comments before taking it to drama director Janie Terwilliger. Terwilliger told her “This is alright,” Brenneman said. “But she wasn't completely sold on it.”
In the meantime, rehearsals were in full swing for the November production of “A Christmas Carol,” when Brenneman showed her adaptation to assistant director Michelle Lewis, Terwilliger's daughter. Lewis told her to take the script back to Terwilliger for another look.
Brenneman was hesitant. “I don't want to bother her,” she said to Lewis. “I don't want to be incessant about it.”
Little did Brenneman know, Terwilliger said, that she'd already decided to use the adaptation for the upcoming show slot. She announced it on the closing night of “A Christmas Carol.”
Brenneman got some help from a college English professor and also studied Shakespeare's language in hopes of finding modern-day equivalents. Some minor characters were eliminated and the plot line altered slightly to be understandable for modern-day audiences. And there was a little toning down, too. “Everything has to be Kingsway friend and family friendly,” Brenneman said.
The idea of setting the action in the 1980s was all student costume designer Liberty Lutes could have dreamed of.
Lutes, also a senior, had grown weary of the heavier costumes she'd worn in English productions like “Pride and Prejudice” and, she said, hoped her final show at Kingsway would not involve the wearing of a petticoat. “I adore the 80s era,” she said. “I know that era well because I like it.” And her mother was a twenty-something home economics teacher during that period, so Lutes had first-hand advice on things like jean jackets and acid-washed jeans.
An email went out to parents who might have a few hidden treasures in their closets, and Lutes set up an account on Pinterest to collect period photos. And, of course, there was a lot of watching John Hughes movies, like “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club.”
The ‘80s vibe created a challenge for sophomore Evan Zuercher, who designed the set. “I played around with a more modern, more sparse design,” he said, but later took the era's penchant for brighter colors and some pastels and ended up with something akin to a dollhouse.
The 25-member cast is currently working on blocking and the production seems almost ahead of schedule, according to Terwilliger. She credits Brenneman, Lutes and Zuercher with their commitment to the show. As for Brenneman's writing and adapting skills, Terwilliger said, “She's done a wonderful job of just paring it down.”
For more information on “Much Ado” or to reserve tickets, call the school office at 330-683-0012.
