Cornell stages Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’

MOUNT VERNON — The Cornell College English department stages Shakespeare’s colorful “Much Ado About Nothing,” directed by a former member of the American Shakespeare Center, in the Plumb-Fleming Studio Theatre of Armstrong Hall on Nov. 3, 4 and 5.

Performance times are 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the door beginning one hour before each performance for $9 (adults) and $6 (students and seniors).

The Cornell production’s guest director is Joyce Peifer, formerly associate artistic director, traveling troupe manager, actor and education coordinator at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va. She also was co-founder and former artistic director of Upstart Crow Productions in Manassas, Va.

“Much Ado” features the sassy Beatrice and Benedick, laughable Dogberry and mischievous troublemaker Don John, all set to a soundtrack of today. The soldiers come home, only to find out that no truce has been declared in the war of the sexes. This production of “Much Ado” will appeal to all who like to laugh, flirt, plot and pull pranks on unsuspecting friends.

This is Cornell’s biennial Shakespeare play produced by students in the course Shakespeare After Shakespeare: Performance and Cultural Criticism, taught by Katy Stavreva, associate professor of English. Besides staging the production, the students engage in discussions of the aesthetics and politics of performing Shakespeare in English and other world languages.

The Shakespeare production in conjunction with a course was originated in 1978 by Stephen Lacey, a 1965 graduate of Cornell who returned in 1977 as an English instructor. Following his death in 2000, the Stephen Lacey Memorial Shakespeare Fund was established to help support continuation of the production, which celebrates the love of learning, art and laughter of a beloved teacher and colleague.