Much Ado About Nothing: The Challenge of Directing Shakespeare's Romantic Comedy for a Contemporary Audience

This paper offers the written component of Liza Balkans investigation into her thesis project: editing and directing the 2019 production of Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, produced as part of the 37th season for the Canadian Stage Companys Shakespeare in High Park. The inquiry within these pages involves the challenges of directing this merry war of a classical, romantic comedy (written in 1598/99) for the High Park audience of 2019. How do hearts and minds living in an era of #MeToo take on its themes of love, war, patriarchy, wit, shaming, deception, failure, comedy, and gender politics written from the male perspective of the 16th century? The goal of creating a vibrant, relevant production that embraces and includes the modern audience in its storytelling and dramaturgy inspired the rigorous line of inquiry and propelled the vision for this production.