Archer presented Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” in the Blackbox theatre March 11  and 12. The comedic play includes love, laughter and plenty of scheming. Archer’s production included a 1920s speakeasy theme.

In the play, two soon-to-be-married characters, Hero and Claudio, play matchmaker and attempt to set up a man and a woman who have a strong mutual distaste for each other. In the meantime, villain Don John plots to ruin his daughter’s wedding.

Performing Arts Department Chair Tracy Poverstein directed the play, with the help of Assistant Director Karinne Robbins ’16. Tracey Thompson ’16 took on the role of stage manager.

Poverstein said, “We hadn’t done a Shakespeare play for a while. I remembered that when [Kate] Webster went to school here that she played Beatrice in ‘Much Ado About Nothing.'”

“I think the challenge was getting the actors to overcome that fear that it’s Shakespeare,” she said, “They treat it like a foreign language sometimes.”

Robbins also agreed the language was a challenge during the play.

“The language is really difficult because ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is not something that we study in school. There’s a lot of innuendos in what he writes, so there are a lot of jokes that are hard to understand,” she said.

Poverstein explained that her favorite part of the production was “the twenties flavor, the time period and music.”

“My favorite part was definitely the people. The Archer theatre community is so fun. Everyone [is] always so nice and I get to talk to people I would have never talked to before. We have a lot of cast traditions that we do that really bring us together, and that was the best part. I made some good friends,” Robbins said.