‘Much Ado About Nothing’ tests trust and love

Slippery Rock’s Department of Theatre will be showcasing their newest play, “Much Ado About Nothing” Friday Feb. 25 in the University Union MultiPurpose Room.

The play is set in Messina, Italy and written by William Shakespeare. The setting is meant to give audience members a Barcelonian feel while they are watching.

Director of “Much Ado About Nothing” Laura Smiley said the bigger picture of the play is that love conquers all.

Throughout the play there are a variety of situations involving falling in love, being tricked, testing trust and more.

Senior theatre and fine arts major Kaitlin Cliber  said the play is all about how you need to follow your heart and trust, and how sometimes trust is really hard.

Cliber designed the stage for the play and used her understanding of the play to help create the look.

“The whole show is about love, friendship and trust so when I was designing the stage I wanted an organic, warm and curvy feel,” Cliber said. “The entire shape is inspired by the curves of a woman. One of the characters lay on the stage at one point and you can see that the outline of her curves match up with the stage.”

Assistant director of the play Amber Mikec said the play is Shakespeare, but in a different way.

“It’s easily understandable and a lot of people our age are afraid of Shakespeare but this play is incredibly accessible,” Mikec said.

The lines throughout the play have comical wit to them and are meant to make the audience members laugh.

“There is something to take away from this play; it’s a play about everyday life,” Mikec said. “You know I’ve been there before when I had to spy on someone or I have had my friends convince me to do something silly about my crush.”

Senior theater and dance major and co-sound designer of the play Crystal Goettler said the cast looked for many sound effects on YouTube that had a Spanish feel.

“We wanted parts of the play to be comedic and make the audience laugh to give them a sense that they are in the set of the play,” Goettler said. “Audience members will get a good laugh out of this play. It is Shakespeare, but you wouldn’t think that.”

Smiley said the whole play is a collaboration and she is really proud of her students.

“I have a vision but sometimes students have better ideas than me and I think to myself that is absolutely great and let’s use their ideas,” Smiley said.

Junior dance major Darrin Mosley plays the Friar and the Sexton in the play. The Friar is a character that plays the voice of reason throughout the play and gets everything back where it needs to be. The Sexton is a character that is called to record anything that happens in the prison and is fed up with everything the entire scene.

This play is Mosley’s first mainstage acting experience with the theatre department.

“I was extremely nervous because it was my first audition and it was probably my worst audition ever,” Mosley said. “Auditions were very casual. Laura was very reassuring during the process and everyone was really friendly.”

The play runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for the general public. The play is running from Friday Feb. 26 to March 3.