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<h2>“Much Ado About Nothing”</h2>
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<div data-offset-key="c5imo-0-0">By William Shakespeare</div>
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<h4>A staged reading in Chagrin Falls Riverside Park</h4>
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<h4>Auditions: June 23 & 24<br>
7 PM at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre (The Neff Building, 38
River Street Chagrin Falls)
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<h4>Director: Anna Wank<br>
Producer: Nancy Rogoff</h4>
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<h4>Performance Dates: July 26 & 27</h4>
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<div data-offset-key="31uec-0-0">In Messina, as Don Pedro, the
Prince of Arragon, and his officers return from a recently
concluded war, a message comes to Leonato that the prince
intends to visit his house for a month. The Duke’s party arrives
with Count Claudio, who had before the war been attracted by
Leonato’s only daughter, Hero. Another of the visitors is
Benedick, a bachelor, who enjoys speaking his mind in witty
argument with Hero’s cousin and companion, the Lady Beatrice.</div>
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<div data-offset-key="fjeu2-0-0">Leonato holds a masked ball to
celebrate the end of the war and the engagement of Claudio to
Hero is arranged while the Duke’s brother, Don John, resenting
the celebrations, seeks a way to spoil the general happiness.
Don John plots with the soldiers, Borachio and Conrade, to
deceive Claudio into believing Hero is false to him. As a result
a trick is carried out with the unwitting assistance of Hero’s
maid, Margaret, who talks from Hero’s bedroom window with
Borachio at night while Claudio and the Duke watch secretly from
a distance, under the delusion that the girl at the window is
Hero.</div>
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<div data-offset-key="j2m5-0-0">Hero and Don Pedro meanwhile are
convinced that Benedick and Beatrice are ideal partners and by
means of overheard conversations the two realise they do indeed
love one another.</div>
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<div data-offset-key="9ljoi-0-0">At the wedding Claudio denounces
Hero and leaves her apparently dead from shock, while her
father, Beatrice and Benedick, amazed at the situation, decide
that with the aid of the priest. Hero’s recovery should be
concealed until her name can be cleared. Help is at hand as the
village constable, Dogberry, and his assistants have arrested
Borachio and Conrade after overhearing them boasting of their
deception of Claudio and the Duke.</div>
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<div data-offset-key="auok9-0-0">The play comes to a joyful
conclusion when Dogberry’s information is, eventually, after
some difficulty, given to Leonato and Don Pedro. Claudio agrees
to accept Leonato’s ‘niece’ whom he has never met, in place of
Hero, whom he believes has been killed by his slander. The
‘niece’ turns out to be Hero, and as the lovers are reunited
Benedick and Beatrice announce that they will share the wedding
day. Don John has been captured while trying to escape and is
left for future trial while the play ends with a merry dance.</div>
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<div data-offset-key="f10hl-0-0"><b>Characters and Descriptions</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Beatrice (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - Leonato’s niece
and Hero’s cousin. Beatrice is “a pleasant-spirited lady” with
a very sharp tongue. She is generous and loving, but, like
Benedick, continually mocks other people with elaborately
tooled jokes and puns. She wages a war of wits against
Benedick and often wins the battles. At the outset of the
play, she appears content never to marry.
</li>
<li>Benedick (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - An aristocratic
soldier who has recently been fighting under Don Pedro, and a
friend of Don Pedro and Claudio. Benedick is very witty,
always making jokes and puns. He carries on a “merry war” of
wits with Beatrice, but at the beginning of the play he swears
he will never fall in love or marry.
</li>
<li>Claudio (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - A young soldier
who has won great acclaim fighting under Don Pedro during the
recent wars. Claudio falls in love with Hero upon his return
to Messina. His unfortunately suspicious nature makes him
quick to believe evil rumors and hasty to despair and take
revenge.
</li>
<li>Hero (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - The beautiful young
daughter of Leonato and the cousin of Beatrice. Hero is
lovely, gentle, and kind. She falls in love with Claudio when
he falls for her, but when Don John slanders her and Claudio
rashly takes revenge, she suffers terribly.
</li>
<li>Don Pedro - An important nobleman from Aragon, sometimes
referred to as “Prince.” Don Pedro is a longtime friend of
Leonato, Hero’s father, and is also close to the soldiers who
have been fighting under him—the younger Benedick and the very
young Claudio. Don Pedro is generous, courteous, intelligent,
and loving to his friends, but he is also quick to believe
evil of others and hasty to take revenge. He is the most
politically and socially powerful character in the play.
</li>
<li>Leonato (30’s-50’s) - A respected, well-to-do, elderly
noble at whose home, in Messina, Italy, the action is set.
Leonato is the father of Hero and the uncle of Beatrice. As
governor of Messina, he is second in social power only to Don
Pedro.
</li>
<li>Don John (30’s-50’s) - The illegitimate brother of Don
Pedro; sometimes called “the Bastard.” Don John is melancholy
and sullen by nature, and he creates a dark scheme to ruin the
happiness of Hero and Claudio. He is the villain of the play;
his evil actions are motivated by his envy of his brother’s
social authority.
</li>
<li>Margaret (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - Hero’s serving
woman, who unwittingly helps Borachio and Don John deceive
Claudio into thinking that Hero is unfaithful. Unlike Ursula,
Hero’s other lady-in-waiting, Margaret is lower class. Though
she is honest, she does have some dealings with the villainous
world of Don John: her lover is the mistrustful and easily
bribed Borachio. Also unlike Ursula, Margaret loves to break
decorum, especially with bawdy jokes and teases.
</li>
<li>Borachio (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - An associate of
Don John. Borachio is the lover of Margaret, Hero’s serving
woman. He conspires with Don John to trick Claudio and Don
Pedro into thinking that Hero is unfaithful to Claudio. His
name means “drunkard” in Italian, which might serve as a
subtle direction to the actor playing him.
</li>
<li>Conrad (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - One of Don John’s
more intimate associates, entirely devoted to Don John.
Several recent productions have staged Conrad as Don John’s
potential male lover, possibly to intensify Don John’s
feelings of being a social outcast and therefore motivate his
desire for revenge.
</li>
<li>Dogberry (30’s-50’s) - The constable in charge of the
Watch, or chief policeman, of Messina. Dogberry is very
sincere and takes his job seriously, but he has a habit of
using exactly the wrong word to convey his meaning. Dogberry
is one of the few “middling sort,” or middle-class characters,
in the play, though his desire to speak formally and
elaborately like the noblemen becomes an occasion for parody.
</li>
<li>Verges (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - The deputy to
Dogberry, chief policeman of Messina.
</li>
<li>Antonio (30’s-50’s) - Leonato’s elderly brother and Hero's
uncle. He is Beatrice’s father.
</li>
<li>Balthasar (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - A waiting man
in Leonato’s household and a musician. Balthasar flirts with
Margaret at the masked party and helps Leonato, Claudio, and
Don Pedro trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice.
Balthasar sings the song, “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more”
about accepting men’s infidelity as natural.
</li>
<li>Ursula (Young Adult, Late Teens- 20’s) - One of Hero’s
waiting women.</li>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p><font size="1" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Serif"
color="#000000"><strong>Chagrin Valley Little Theatre</strong><br>
<a href="http://www.CVLT.org">CVLT.org</a><br>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/chagrintheatre">twitter.com/chagrintheatre</a><br>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/chagrintheatre">facebook.com/chagrintheatre</a></font></p>
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