Much Ado About Nothing
performed at Newton North's Little Theatre
with a mixed Newton South and North cast
More pictures at: http://photorad.smugmug.com/Theater/Theatre-Ink/Much-Ado-About-Nothing/
Much Ado About Nothing
directed by Jen Alison Lewis
Acia Gankin--Hero
Andrew Hardigg--Benedick
Charlotte Thornley --Leonata
Connor Pierce--Borachio
Dan Minihan--Antonio
Abby Lass--Balthasar
Emma Feynman --Dogberry
Hannah Nahar --Margaret
Emily Ecker --Conrade
Katja Belsley--Ursula
Liel Dolev --John
Naomi Forman-Katz --Beatrice
Nishant Varma --Pedro
Disa Parker--Friar
Sophie Lyons--Verges
Stav Hinenzon--Claudio
directed by Jen Alison Lewis
Acia Gankin--Hero
Andrew Hardigg--Benedick
Charlotte Thornley --Leonata
Connor Pierce--Borachio
Dan Minihan--Antonio
Abby Lass--Balthasar
Emma Feynman --Dogberry
Hannah Nahar --Margaret
Emily Ecker --Conrade
Katja Belsley--Ursula
Liel Dolev --John
Naomi Forman-Katz --Beatrice
Nishant Varma --Pedro
Disa Parker--Friar
Sophie Lyons--Verges
Stav Hinenzon--Claudio
The Newton Shakespeare Tradition
South Stage and Theatre Ink are proud to claim one of the longest running Shakespeare performance programs for high school students in the United States. South Stage and North's Theatre Ink have been collaborating to produce Shakespeare for 30 years. Few high school theatre programs prioritize Shakespeare every year; fewer still collaborate with a sister school, mixing casts and crews. Newton has been doing both for three decades, as of this year, the 30th annual production.
South Stage initiated the collaboration with Shakespeare & Company and Newton North in the 1982-83 school year. Performing in both schools, working with a combined cast from North and South, Kevin Coleman, Education Director of Shakespeare & Company, launched Romeo and Juliet, the first in an unbroken line of Shakespeare collaborations which have challenged students, delighted audiences, generated friendships, brought North and South together in a common enterprise, and fostered interest in theatre across town. As a result, hundreds of Newton students have rehearsed and performed Shakespeare, worked with professional directors, made friends in both Newton high schools, discovered the power that lies in their voice, and explored the depth, power, and muscularity of Shakespeare's text. Literally thousands have witnessed this remarkable process from the audience.
As dozens of professional directors have shown us since 1983, "Shakespeare is the Olympics for actors." Shakespeare's text demands a combined physical, emotional, intellectual, and vocal commitment beyond that of modern plays or musicals. It is Shakespeare & Company's specific belief that combining disciplined, sustained voice work with Shakespeare does more than bring Shakespeare alive for students; it aims at bringing students alive to the human possibilities within themselves as they confront Shakespeare's text. As Kevin Coleman writes, "Adolescence is most like the Renaissance. We seldom repeat its intensity and extremity, its excitement and its pain. What better material, what better "script" to put into the hands of adolescents than Shakespeare? The accuracy with which he reveals our thoughts and feelings, our human nature, teaches who and what we are, and consequently what we may become. In the truest sense of the word, he educates."
South Stage initiated the collaboration with Shakespeare & Company and Newton North in the 1982-83 school year. Performing in both schools, working with a combined cast from North and South, Kevin Coleman, Education Director of Shakespeare & Company, launched Romeo and Juliet, the first in an unbroken line of Shakespeare collaborations which have challenged students, delighted audiences, generated friendships, brought North and South together in a common enterprise, and fostered interest in theatre across town. As a result, hundreds of Newton students have rehearsed and performed Shakespeare, worked with professional directors, made friends in both Newton high schools, discovered the power that lies in their voice, and explored the depth, power, and muscularity of Shakespeare's text. Literally thousands have witnessed this remarkable process from the audience.
As dozens of professional directors have shown us since 1983, "Shakespeare is the Olympics for actors." Shakespeare's text demands a combined physical, emotional, intellectual, and vocal commitment beyond that of modern plays or musicals. It is Shakespeare & Company's specific belief that combining disciplined, sustained voice work with Shakespeare does more than bring Shakespeare alive for students; it aims at bringing students alive to the human possibilities within themselves as they confront Shakespeare's text. As Kevin Coleman writes, "Adolescence is most like the Renaissance. We seldom repeat its intensity and extremity, its excitement and its pain. What better material, what better "script" to put into the hands of adolescents than Shakespeare? The accuracy with which he reveals our thoughts and feelings, our human nature, teaches who and what we are, and consequently what we may become. In the truest sense of the word, he educates."