James Gavino

Prof. Ensey

THR 100-1D

22 OCT 2021

Much Ado Response

Prompt 3

My concept of Much Ado About Nothing is to have the play set during WWII so as to

enhance relevance to a modern audience. As soon as I read that the play was set in Messina,

Italy, I thought it would be interesting to have the soldiers, Claudio, Benedick, Don Pedro, and

Don John, coming home from the African front since Messina is towards the south of Italy. The

only difference would be that in Much Ado, the soldiers win their battle before venturing to

Messina whereas there were not many Italian victories in Africa because Germany was the

main Axis power occupying the continent. I would really like to explore the idea of Hero and

Claudio being ingenues and falling in love through “ignorance is bliss”/rose tinted glasses sort of

style as well. Hero would of course be more innocent than Claudio as she has not seen and

won battles as he has. The phrase in my mind behind the lighting design is “beneath the Tuscan

sun.” And the idea in my mind of set design is a rich, Italian villa estate.

Because the setting of this play is set in WWII and in Italy, and my vision is that the

soldiers are venturing home from Africa, Claudio and Benedick would be wearing desert colored

“Saharani” Italian Army uniforms, possibly accompanied by battle-worn rifles and satchels.

Desert/sand colored Italian Army attire consists of a long sleeve collared shirt, tucked into the

same colored M40 trousers, and leather boots as well as a patrol cap. Don John and Don

Pedro, however, would have officers' uniforms rather than regular infantry because they are

higher ranks than the rest of the soldiers. Their colors would also be “Grigio verde,” as that is

the color of Italian officers’ uniforms during WWII. I would like to have a spanish flag patch or pin

somewhere on Don Pedro’s uniform as a nod to his home of Aragon which was an old kingdom

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in Spain where he and Don John originated from. This would be an extremely nit picky detail

that only true Shakespearean scholars would catch. The attire of Beatrice, Hero, and Leonato is

not extremely special as they would just wear the attire of rich, Italian nobles during WWII.

Leonato would basically be wearing Italian-style suits, maybe tailored because he is the mayor

and needs to have a political appearance. Beatrice and Hero could either wear elegant dresses

to depict their beauty and wealth or just upper class women’s attire of the era and play on the

beauty and elegance. They should have elements of youth as Claudio and Benedick do

because of the theme of young love/betrothal upon return from war.

The lighting for this play would not be dark at all because the south of Italy, especially

Messina, is very bright. Messina also sits on the coast, just west of Reggio Calabria. It is a port

town so drawing on the elements of the blue waters of the ocean and the light color of Italian

architecture would be an interesting take on lighting design for the show. Think Mamma Mia-

esque colors. The only times that there would be muted or darker tones would be in instances of

dark energy such as Don John making a plot with Borachio, Hero fainting at the altar, or during

the beginning of the duel between Claudio and Benedick. During these moments, I would like to

play with blues and reds in the flood lights to denote a sort of dark, Axis power type vibe. The

reds in the duel scene especially would be interesting because it foreshadows blood and death

(even though neither happen).

As far as set design goes, I would love to have a hard set with levels. My production

would be done on a Procession stage as that is the type of stage that I am most familiar with.

The Muselin in the background would really only be used to emphasize colors and splash during

scenes. If it would be in the budget, I would like to reconstruct a two-story Italian villa to depict

the wealth of Leonato as governor. The villa would have a balcony, columns, stairs to the

doorways, Italian style windows, a tiled roof, and maybe vegetation climbing up the sides of the

brick to depict the age of the estate. Basically the house is very Mediterranean/Tuscan style. A

courtyard might be a nice touch as well, similar to the gravel arrival court of the Von Trapps in

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the movie version of The Sound of Music. If the area downstage is open, stone tile might be a

nice touch to the grass (turf) on the ground. Scenery would of course involve turf stage left and

right, or throughout downstage from left to right, accompanied by Mediterranean Cypress trees.

We can even play with the idea of placing lights at the base of trees pointing upward as well as

lights at the base of the villa pointing upward to make interesting lighting choices.

Directing the rehearsals, I would really appreciate if the actors would utilize the

architecture of the space such as leaning on columns, acknowledging the grass, playing with

the height of the balcony to the ground, etc. The world of the play is beautiful so the set should

be held with that decorum as well. I would tell my actors to feel the dry heat of Italy during the

day or smell the fresh, coastal breeze of Messina. Even the duel between Claudio and Benedick

would be cool with guns and bayonets instead of swords. The world has many “as ifs” to play

with like “what would it be like if the sweat from your journey causes your skin to stick to your

uniform? It is as if you are seeing your soldier, Claudio, return home from the African

campaign,” among others. The issue that I see with having a set this dynamic is that because

the set is on a Procession and not a thrust, the actors have to compensate with projection and

blocking so as not to cut off the audience from certain moments.

All in all, I believe that a production of Much Ado About Nothing set in WWII would be

very interesting to see. There are new choices that can be made because of the setting and

props and I would love to see how my actors play off each other with the different elements

presented. My hope is that the actors would be disciplined enough to be off-book quickly, even

though this is a beast of a play to memorize. But I believe that this vision is achievable for an

aspiring director.

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 Works Cited

“Aragon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2021,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aragon.

“Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms - Lighting (Beginners).” Theatrecrafts.com, 5 July

2016, https://www.theatrecrafts.com/pages/home/topics/lighting/glossary-beginners/.

“Uniforms.” WW2 Italian, https://thehistorybunker.co.uk/world-war-2-italian-uniforms.

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