St. Mary’s College presents “Much Ado About Nothing”

“Much Ado About Nothing,” William Shakespeare’s witty, comic romp, opens on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. and runs through Sunday, Nov.16, in the Bruce Davis Theater, Montgomery Hall, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Ticket prices are $4 for teachers, students, St. Mary’s College staff, senior citizens, and Arts Alliance members; $6, general admission. To make reservations, call the Theater Box Office at 240-895-4243 or email boxoffice@smcm.edu.

Produced by the Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies and directed by faculty member and Washington, D.C.-based actor Michael Ellis-Tolaydo, “Much Ado” performs November 6-8 and 13-15 at 8 p.m. and November 9 and 16 at 2 p.m. An informal talk-back with cast and crew, moderated by Professor Jennifer-Cognard-Black, will take place after the Thursday, Nov.13, performance.

Shakespeare’s wit is apparent in the title of the play, director Ellis-Tolaydo says. “The word ‘nothing’, as in the play’s ‘much ado about nothing,’ was pronounced like the word ‘noting’ in Elizabethan times when the play was written. The comedy turns on the implications of that pun—all of the note-taking, spying, and eavesdropping that keep the fires burning between lovers, or that douses them out, and that keeps the play’s villains scheming at their treacherous best.”

But Shakespeare’s Italian port city of Messina, where the action of the play takes place, is peaceful and quiet, and where no one has much to do, except to scheme and gossip and eavesdrop and to note everyone else’s business. So, maybe “Much Ado About Nothing” is really an amusing tale that amounts to ‘nothing’ of note.

Free parking is available within walking distance to Montgomery Hall in either the Somerset Gym parking lot or in the adjacent visitor’s parking lot. Both parking lots are located on East Fisher Road, off Mattapany Road.

Photo Caption: Washington, D.C.-based actor and director Michael Ellis-Tolaydo takes on William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” performing at the Bruce Davis Theater, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Nov. 6 through Nov.16.