"Much Ado About Nothing" rehearsal photos: (left) characters Don
Pedro and Hero -- The Masque, and (right) Beatrice and Benedick
With much ado, London actors return to UTSA
(Oct. 7, 2002)--The University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Notre Dame present Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16, 18 and 19.
The Oct. 16 and Oct. 19 performances will be at the Arts Building Recital Hall, 1604 Campus, and the Oct. 18 performance at the Buena Vista Street Building Theater, Downtown Campus. Tickets are $15, $7 for students with ID, and are available at the University Center ticket office, 1604 Campus.
The touring ensemble includes five actors from companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the BBC Shakespeare Series performing a full-length version of the play with each actor playing several roles. Previous AFTLS performances at UTSA include “The Tempest,” “Twelfth Night,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and “Macbeth.”
Two one-actor performances, free and open to the public, are part of the
weeklong residency. An adaptation of “Hauptman” by John Logan will
be performed at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in the Business Building University
Room (2.06.04), 1604 Campus. “Women, Woven in My Tapestry of Wonder,”
voices of inspirational women around the world, will be presented at 11 a.m.
Thursday, Oct. 17, University Room.
“Much Ado About Nothing,” written in 1598 or 1599, uses plots common
in romantic fiction of Shakespeare’s time that can be traced to an ancient
Greek fable and Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” among others. Spying
and eavesdropping are central to the plot involving lovers, Beatrice and Benedick,
who tease and flirt with each other under the guise of scorn and disdain.
Friends of both lovers ultimately convince the couple to marry. The story
is an old one, but the characters are Shakespeare’s own.
The residency is part of an educational program developed in 1975 by Homer Swander at the University of California, Santa Barbara. U.S. tours have included actors Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart and Gemma Jones, working with hundreds of students in classes, workshops and informal meetings. Now based in London, England, and at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., AFTLS combines teaching and world-class theatrical expertise, and has also had unexpected benefits for the actors, most notably Stewart, who was “discovered” by a “Star Trek” producer at an AFTLS event.
From its inception, AFTLS has had the idealistic goal of changing the way Shakespeare is taught in the U.S. and developing enthusiasm for Shakespeare in performance. The residency provides the opportunity to discuss the plays and poetry, consider the text as a working script for actors, and observe and discuss the live art of the theater with artists from some of the most important theater companies in the world.
The residency is co-sponsored by UTSA Friends of Shakespeare, founded in 1988 to promote enrichment programs in literature and drama.
For more information, contact Alan Craven, UTSA Department of English, Classics, and Philosophy, at (210) 458-4376.
Actors from the London Stage Web
site with links to related sites
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With much ado, London actors return to UTSA
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002