Thank you to everyone who came out to see our Production of Much Ado About Nothing at Sinkland Farms and Smithfield Plantation! We really appreciate you coming out and suporting the arts in our local area. Please keep checking back with us for our upcoming show …
Sinkland Farms and Smithfield Plantation
Dates TBA
Hello everyone out there in cyberspace! Welcome to our website for Open Air Shakespeare NRV. Our company is currently running “Much Ado About Nothing” at Smithfield Plantation, just a stone’s through from Virginia Tech. Below is a video sneak peak of our show created by actor/ dramaturg Paul Rycik:
We hope you can come out to enjoy all the fun! For more info on the show or to purchase tickets, please visit the “Much Ado About Nothing page.” Please also feel free to peruse our other pages or past posts. If you like what you see, please “like” us on Facebook!
If you missed my earlier post, this week I’ve created a little game for you to play at home: you try to match up the songs that express a fictional character’s personality with the events that happen to him/her through the course of play. Monday I posted a playlist for Benedick from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and today I’m going to post one for Beatrice. Your mission is to read the events that happen to Beatrice below, and figure out which songs on the playlist below correspond to these events. If you want to suggest more songs, please leave a comment below and I’ll create an extended playlist for the end of the week! I’ll also post the correct results so you can see how well you did. Enjoy the game and, as Shakespeare said: “Play on!”
Paul Rycik 5/9/12
Introduction:
Have you ever met people who go around everywhere with their MP3 players and their earbuds? The kind of people who walk around playing their own personal soundtrack? Well, what do you think would happen if the characters from Much Ado did this, and you happened to glance at Benedick or Beatrice’s iPod? Well that’s what we’re going to pretend in a little game I like to call “Benedick’s Infinite Variety Playlist.” Below is a list of the major events in the play that happen to Benedick. Your job is to figure out which song Benedick might play along to during important events in the play. Match the events above to the songs on the playlist below. Right now, the songs are on shuffle, so it’s your job to figure which song matches which event, put them in chronological order, and submit your answer in the comments below. Later this week, you can play the same game with Beatrice’s playlist. Have fun and remember, as Shakespeare said: “If music be the food of love, play on!”
-Paul Rycik
Events For Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Match these with the songs from the playlist below)
Here’s our new promotional video for our upcoming show at Smithfield Plantation. For more information, (and to purchase tickets), visit our “Much Ado About Nothing” Page.
Today Open Air Shakespeare would like to share with you some behind-the-scenes insight into how the company found, created, and modified clothing that represents the fashion of the 1920s and incorporated these clothes into the Shakespearean play.
When costuming any production, the first step is to create a unified vision for how the costumes should look. Our director chose to set the play in the 1920s to emphasize the party atmosphere of the play- this was the time of speak-easies, of women’s rights, and many new artistic revolutions in fashion, music, and painting. Setting the play in the 1920s allows the high energy and heady atmosphere of the 1920s to energize Shakespeare’s words and the actors’ performances, as well as giving the play a vibrant visual style.
To begin the process of costuming, the director called the dramaturg to research the period, and he produced a presentation on the fashion and art of the 1920s, which you can access below:
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| Period Research overview (click on picture to access slideshow). |
This research gave us the basic ideas behind the fashions of the 1920s. The next step was to find specific images that relate to the characters in the play. For our production, we had to study the following kinds of female and male fashion:
What we found from our research:
The Silhouette: Most women in the 1920s wore dresses that were rather shapeless with a drop waist. The idea was to rebel against the constricting corsets worn by the previous generation, with free and easy chemisole dresses like the Ancient Greek tunics.
The colors: For our production we chose very vibrant purples, reds, and greens, and a a shiny silver dress for Beatrice.
Details about Makeup and Hair. Below is a few iconic features of 1920s makeup and hair:
i. Arched eyebrows
ii. Pale skins
iii. Full, dark red lips.
iv. Bobbed hair or short hair for women
v. Short, oiled hair for men.
To create this look, we researched tutorials on how to create 1920s hair and makeup, and now you can too!
Getting the costumes
Female
There are a number of nice costume warehouses that sell 1920s costumes, but for our production, what we did was to find some vintage-style drop waist dresses at the local Target, which we jazzed up with some cool accessories such as the hats, the pearls, and rings, and of course, boas.
Male Costumes
Since the men in the play are at war, the dramaturg and costumers decided to
costume the men in authentic military uniforms. First, the dramaturg found images of military uniforms from WWI, which ended in 1920.
From the start, the director wanted the characters’ rank to reflect their status in the play:
To obtain some authentic uniforms, our costumers rented some fabulous costumes from Mary Baldwin College (Formerly Virginia Women’s Millitary Academy). This school has a large collection of military uniforms and is also home to the renowned Shakespeare In Performance Graduate Program.
The costumers chose uniforms that tell a lot about the character’s status
Don Pedro wears a long blue coat with special frayed pads on his shoulders to indicate that he is a high ranking soldier. The ribbons on his chest also indicates his status.
Claudio wears a light tan jacket with one bar across his chest. He is probably a lieutenant or a captain in Don Pedro’s army. All of these men are officers and as such they carry themselves with discipline whenever they are in public.
Don John wears a black jacket adorned with gold stripes, a subtle hint that he fought against his brother in the wars. Paul Rycik who plays Don John wanted the outfit to be needlessly flashy, so it is adorned with three medals on his chest.
As for the lower class characters, most of the costumes were provided by New River Stage:
Julian Johnson as Verges, Sarah Klingbeil as The Watch, and Samantha Eberhardt as Dogberry
Dogberry and the watch wear outfits reminiscent of 1920s railroad workers, while Verges dresses like an early 20th century policeman. Friar Francis is dressed as a standard Catholic priest, with an all black suit and shirt, with the traditional white collar of a minister. All of these costumes are very simple and designed to allow these actors (many of whom play multiple parts), time to change in and out of them quickly.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this preliminary look into the process of creating 1920s costumes. Thanks for reading!
-Paul Rycik
For more info on 1920s costumes, visit this website: http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/
Samantha Eberhardt as Dogberry in "Much Ado About Nothing" -Open Air Shakespeare NRV, 2012
Today I’d like to talk about one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comic characters, the foolish constable Dogberry! I wanted to talk a bit about who Dogberry is, and why his character continues to make people laugh today.
First of all, let me explain the name: A Dogberry is the fruit of the dogwood tree. They were called “Dogberries” in the 1590s because they were considered cheap, or “fit for a dog.” Dogberry’s flea-bitten reputation seems to stem from the nature of his job as a constable; a profession that the majority of people in England didn’t respect.
Dogberry is a constable who works for the local Justice Of the Peace in Messina. Messina. He unwittingly discovers the plot to slander Hero and captures Boraccio and Conrad, making it possible for Claudio to re-unite with Hero, and everyone to live happily ever after.
Much ado About Nothing- Act III Scene iii: Dogberry Gathers Together A Watch (Mary Evans)
If you smell a watch (and that you may easily doe, for commonly they eate onions to keep them in sleeping, which they account a medicine against cold) or if you come within danger of their browne bils, let him that is your candlestick, and holds up your torch from dropping, let Ignis Fatuus, I say, being within the reach of the Constables staffe, aske aloud, “Sir Giles, or Sir Abram, will you turne this way, or downe that streete ?” The watch will winke at you, onely for the love they beare to armes and knighthood: mary, if the Centinell and his court of Guard stand strictly upon his martiall Law and cry “Stand!”, commanding you to give the word, and to shew reason why your Ghost walkes so late, doe it in some Jest (for that will shew you have a desperate wit, and perhaps make him and his halberdiers afraid to lay fowle hands upon you). Or, if you read a mittimus (warrant) in the Constables booke, counterfeit to be a Frenchman, a Dutchman, or any other nation whose country is in peace with your owne ; and you may passe the pikes: for beeing not able to understand you, they cannot by the customes of the Citie take your examination, and so by consequence they have nothing to say to you (Reprinted from Renaissance Editions.com).
Dogberry’s lack of wit is made painfully obvious by his use of malapropisms (using words in the wrong sense). Like George W. Bush, Dogberry not only mispronounces words, (saying “vigitant” when he means “vigilant,”) he also will use exactly the wrong word when communicating an idea. Some have suspected that Dogberry has a large volcabulary of words whose he doesn’t understand, and that he uses these big words in order to sound like he is the smartest person onstage. Perhaps this is his attempt to try and justify his place as the constable of the watch, which the city fathers only gave him through random selection.
Samantha Eberhardt (Dogberry), Tiara Hairston (Connie), Amanda Snediker (Boraccio), and Julian Johnson (Verges)
One particularly funny example of Dogberry’s use of malapropism occurs when Conrad calls Dogberry an ass in Act IV, and Dogberry angily defends himself: “Dost thou not suspect my place, Dost thou not suspect my years?” (Much Ado, IV,ii, 2052). Although Dogberry means “respect,” after listening to his constant malaprops, we the audience respect him less and suspect him much more (of idiocy).
Verges
Julian and Sam at our final dress rehearsal
Verges is Dogberry’s partner, sometimes referred to as a ‘headborough,’ or ‘petty constable.’ His name “Verges” comes from the Middle French “rod or wand of office,” which in term comes from the Latin virga. Its earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning: “male member, penis” (Source: Online Etymology- Dictionary.com). Shakespeare probably knew this dirty meaning of Verges’ name, and might have chuckled a bit as he slapped the foolish constable’s assistant with a name that pokes fun at the source of his manly… authority.
Like Dogberry, Verges is an unpaid officer appointed to keep the peace for a small church community. He is Dogberry’s immediate inferior, which makes him the butt of Dogberry’s jokes:
DOGBERY: Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter: an old man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt as, God help, I would desire they were; but, in faith, honest as the skin between his brows.
VERGES: Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I (III, v, 1592-1596).
Although Dogberry calls Verges old, nothing in the play indicates how old he is. In fact, these remarks are probably just Dogberry’s attempt just to make himself look superior to Verges yet, as the earlier passage indicates, Dogberry might well be as old or even older than Verges.
Verges never complains about Dogberry’s abuse, and agrees with nearly everything he says. The two form a partnership that can best be described as ‘the blind leading the blind,’ in that neither one has any idea how to be an effective officer.
Leonata comes to examine Boraccio, along with Dogberry and Verges.
Seeing this kind of comic relationship onstage is one reason why Dogberry and Verges are such endearing characters. They clearly care about their jobs (perhaps too much), and although they have little training and even less education, they manage to suceede in catching two dangerous criminals and saving the day so that everyone else can repair their broken hearts and get married. Boraccio, the criminal that the two constables catch, pays them the highest compliment when he is brought before the Prince and Count Claudio:
“What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light” (Much Ado, Act V, Scene i)
-Paul Rycik
Open Air Shakespeare NRV 