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Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare'We go to Shakespeare to find out about ourselves' Jeanette WintersonBeatrice and Benedick both claim they are determined never to marry. But when their friends trick them into believing that each harbours secret feelings for the other, the pair begin to question whether their witty banter and verbal sparring conceal something deeper. Schemes abound, dangerous misunderstandings proliferate and matches are eventually made in this dazzling, dark-edged comedy of mature love and second chances. Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by R. A. FoakesIntroduction by Janette Dillon
Much Ado About Nothing (Folger Shakespeare Library)
by William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Much Ado About Nothing from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers. One of Shakespeare&’s most frequently performed comedies, Much Ado About Nothing includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their happiness. Beatrice and Benedick are kept apart by pride and mutual antagonism until others decide to play Cupid. The Folger Library is the nation&’s best, most navigable and most respected resource for Shakespeare scholarship and teaching. The authoritative edition of Much Ado About Nothing features the side-by-side format favored by both students and teachers, as well as guides to the play&’s most famous lines and Shakespearean phrases and language. This edition includes: -The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference -Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently linked to the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play&’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare&’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library&’s vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by Gail Kern Paster The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world&’s largest collection of Shakespeare&’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
Much Ado About Nothing (No Fear Shakespeare)
by SparkNotesDon’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.
Much Ado About Nothing (Short, Sharp Shakespeare Stories #29)
by Anna ClaybourneAs merry as the day is long.Mistaken identities, jealous relatives, lovers' quarrels and a happy ending... Discover the entertaining story at the heart of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies.As well as the story, this audiobook contains information about the background to Much Ado About Nothing, its major themes, language, and Shakespeare's life during the time he was writing the play. Gossip, and its role in society in 16th century England, is also examined, to give some context in which the play was written.The Short, Sharp Shakespeare series consists of six books that retell Shakespeare's most famous plays in modern English. Fun sound effects and atmospheric music accompany each narration, making them a great introduction to "the Bard" for children.(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Much Ado About Nothing (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series)
by SparkNotesMuch Ado About Nothing (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by William Shakespeare Making the reading experience fun! Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: *Chapter-by-chapter analysis *Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols *A review quiz and essay topicsLively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers
Much Ado About Nothing (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare F. H. MaresFamous actors have appeared as this play's sparring lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, from David Garrick's time in the eighteenth century to the present. Angela Stock has added a new section to the Introduction where she reviews the romantic and darker, more cynical aspects of the play in the context of late twentieth-century stage, film and critical interpretations. She also tackles the critical fortunes of Hero and Claudio as they reflect the play's concerns with sexuality and misogyny, eavesdropping and deception.
Much Ado About Nothing: A Comedy
by William ShakespeareThe Signet Classics edition of William Shakespeare's grand romantic comedy.Much Ado About Nothing casts the lovers Benedick and Beatrice in a witty war of words while the young Claudio is tricked into believing his love Hero has been unfaithful in this play that combines robust humor with explorations on honor and shame. This revised Signet Classics edition includes unique features such as: • An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater • A special introduction to the play by the editor, David L. Stevenson• A note on the sources from which Shakespeare derived Much Ado About Nothing • Dramatic criticism from Charles Gildon, Lewis Carroll, George Bernard Shaw, and others • A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions • Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable text • And more...
Much Ado About Nothing: A Comedy (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays)
by William ShakespeareMuch Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most imaginative and exuberant comedies, contrasting two pairs of lovers in a witty and suspenseful battle of the sexes. Attracted to each other, the maddeningly skeptical Beatrice and Benedick are dead-locked in a lively war of words until their friends hatch a plot to unite them. The mutually devoted Hero and Claudio, on the other hand, all too quickly fall victim to a malicious plot to part them. Near-fatal complications ensue, but with the help of the hilarious Constable Dogberry and his confederates, the lovers are ultimately united.First presented in 1598, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's last comedies. Its darker undercurrents foreshadow the playwright's growing concern with the frailties of human character that would dominate his late tragedies. But in its clever turns of plot, vivacious displays of wit, jovial conversations, and charming songs, this merry comedy is among Shakespeare's most artistic creations.
Much Ado About Nothing: The 30-Minute Shakespeare
by Nick NewlinPlanning a school or amateur Shakespeare production? The best way to experience the plays is to perform them, but getting started can be a challenge: The complete plays are too long and complex, while scene selections or simplified language are too limited."The 30-Minute Shakespeare" is a new series of abridgements that tell the "story" of each play from start to finish while keeping the beauty of Shakespeare's language intact. Specific stage directions and character suggestions give even inexperienced actors the tools to perform Shakespeare with confidence, understanding, and fun!This cutting of Shakespeare's utterly charming and popular comedy MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING features five key scenes, including Beatrice and Benedick's classic initial word-battle, and the uproarious hide-and-seek deception of the two "lovers." The next scenes are the brutal rejection of Hero at the altar by a deceived Claudio and the timeless manhandling of the English language by the bumbling constable Dogberry. In the fifth and final scene, Shakespeare resolves the play's conflicts and confusions, and love reigns again. This cutting really tells the story, and includes some sidesplitting stage business, particularly the back-and-forth physical and verbal parrying between Benedick and Beatrice.The edition also includes an essay by editor Nick Newlin on how to produce a Shakespeare play with novice actors, and notes about the original production of this abridgement at the Folger Shakespeare Library's annual Student Shakespeare Festival.
Much Ado About Nothing: The RSC Shakespeare (Modern Library Classics)
by William ShakespeareFrom the Royal Shakespeare Company â " a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy of the battle between the sexes THIS EDITION INCLUDES: â ¢ An illuminating introduction to Much Ado About Nothing by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate â ¢ The play - with clear and authoritative explanatory notes on each page â ¢ A helpful scene-by-scene analysis and key facts about the play â ¢ An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre â ¢ A rich exploration of approaches to staging the play featuring photographs of key productions The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This unique edition presents a historical overview of Much Ado About Nothing in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with two leading directors and an actor â " Nicholas Hytner , Marianne Elliott and Harriet Walter â " so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible, a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made â our contemporary' four centuries after his death. Ideal for students, theatre-goers, actors and general readers, the RSC Shakespeare editions offer an accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.
Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare's Mathematical Life and Times
by Rob EastawayOpen a new portal into Shakespeare’s words—and his Renaissance life—with math and numbers as your key. Shakespeare’s era was abuzz with mathematical progress, from the new concept of “zero” to Galileo’s redraft of the heavens. Now, Rob Eastaway uncovers the many surprising ways math shaped Shakespeare’s plays—and his world—touring astronomy, code-breaking, color theory, navigation, music, sports, and more. How reliable was a pocket sundial? Was math illusionist John Dee the real-life Prospero? How long was a Scottish mile, and what could you buy for a groat? Do Jupiter’s moons have a cameo in Cymbeline? How did ordinary people use numbers day to day? And might Shakespeare have tried that game-changing invention—the pencil? Full of delights for devotees of both Tudor history and the Bard, Much Ado About Numbers is proof that the arts and sciences have always danced together.
Much Ado about Nothing (The Folger Shakespeare Library)
by William ShakespeareMuch Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's more popular comedies, with a long history of success on the stage. Much of its appeal lies in its two stories of romantic love with their quite different journeys to comedy's happy ending. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight; their union has the blessing of the older generation (in the persons of Hero's father, Leonato, and Claudio's prince, Don Pedro).
Much Ado about Nothing: A Comedy (First Avenue Classics ™)
by William ShakespeareWhile staying at his friend Leonato's home, Claudio falls in love with Hero, Leonato's beautiful daughter, and they agree to marry. In the meantime, they decide to trick their friends Benedick and Beatrice—who have nothing but insults for each other—into falling in love as well. However, Don John, the illegitimate brother of Leonato's close friend Don Pedro, won't stand for such happiness. He tricks Claudio into thinking Hero has been unfaithful. Claudio's hasty overreaction and Leonato's redemption of Hero wield all the tools of a romantic comedy, making a story that is, indeed, much ado about nothing. This unabridged version of William Shakespeare's delightful play was first published in England in 1600.
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
by Langston Hughes Zora HurstonHoliding an exceptional place in the history of African-American theater, Mule Bone is the energetic and often farcical play co-written by Harlem Renaissance luminaries Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. The play centers on a two-man song-and-dance team and the woman who comes between them. Jealousy between the men erupts with the use of a mule bone as a weapon, and the ensuing hilarity and chaos splits the town into two factions.
Multi-media: Video – Installation – Performance
by Nick KayeMulti-media charts the development of multi-media video, installation and performance in a unique dialogue between theoretical analysis and specially commissioned documentations by some of the world’s foremost artists. Nick Kaye explores the interdisciplinary history and character of experimental practices shaped in exchanges between music, installation, theatre, performance art, conceptual art, sculpture and video. The book sets out key themes and concerns in multi-media practice, addressing time, space, the resurgence of ephemerality, liveness and ‘aura’. These chapters are interspersed with documentary artwork and essays by artists whose work continues to shape the field, including new articles from: Vito Acconci The Builders Association John Jesurun Pipilotti Rist Fiona Templeton. Multi-media also reintroduces a major documentary essay by Paolo Rosa of Studio Azzurro in a new, fully illustrated form. This book combines sophisticated scholarly analysis and fascinating original work to present a refreshing and creative investigation of current multi-media arts practice.
Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre (New Dramaturgies)
by Kasia LechMultilingual Dramaturgies provides a study of dramaturgical practices in contemporary multilingual theatre in Europe. Featuring interviews with international theatremakers, the book gives an insight into diverse approaches towards multilingual theatre and its dramaturgy that reflect cultural, political, and economic landscapes of contemporary Europe, its inhabitants, and its theatres. First-hand accounts are contextualized to reveal a complex set of negotiations involved in the creative and political tasks of staging multilingualism and engaging the audience, as well as in practical issues like funding and developing working models. Using interviews with practitioners from a diverse range of theatrical backgrounds and career levels, and with various models of financial support, Multilingual Dramaturgies also offers an insight into different attitudes towards multilingualism in European theatres. The book illuminates not only the potential for multilingual dramaturgies, but also the practical and creative difficulties involved in making them. By bringing the voices of artists together and providing a critical commentary, the book reveals multilingual dramaturgies as webbed practices of differences that also offer new ways of understanding and performing identity in a European context. Multilingual Dramaturgies sheds light on an exciting theatre practice, argues for its central role in Europe and highlights potential directions for its further development.
Mummers' Plays Revisited (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Peter HarropPeter Harrop offers a reappraisal of mummers’ plays, which have long been regarded as a form of ‘folk’ or ‘traditional’ drama, somehow separate from the mainstream of British theatre. This fresh view of folk and tradition explores how mummers’ plays emerged in an 18th century theatrical environment of popular spouting clubs and private theatricals, yet quickly transformed into ‘traditionary’ drama with echoes of an ancient past. Harrop suggests that by the late 19th century the plays had been appropriated by antiquarians and folklorists, leaving mummer’s plays as a strangely separate and categorised form. This book considers how that happened, and the ways in which these late 19th century ideas were absorbed into the mummers’ plays, providing a new lease of life for them in the 20th and 21st centuries. Ideal for anyone with a specialised interest in this unique form, Mummers’ Plays Revisited spans recent work in theatre history, performance studies and folklore to offer a comprehensive and engaging study.
Murder Go Round
by Fred CarmichaelFull length, comedy / 3m, 5f / Interior / As soon as Pat Kirby arrives for safe keeping at an off season summer cottage with Susan, her Witness Protection Program representative, the laughter and intrigue begin. Pat, the key witness in a murder trial, saw an executive shot for control of his overseas account. As he was wheeled into the operating room, she saw him transmit the numbers needed to access the off shore account, but she can't figure how to find those numbers. Soon the place is swarming with government agents and cohorts of the hit man. Who can Pat trust? Is the resident shopkeeper a substitute? Why does the local interior decorator seem out of place? What about the man who claims to be her husband or the girl claiming to be her daughter? Her protector? The young fellow from which agency? And most of all, the head of the WPP who is experiencing temporary amnesia? Everyone wants the numbers in this hilarious comedy.
Murder In The Cathedral
by T. S. EliotThe action occurs between 2 and 29 December 1170, chronicling the days leading up to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket following his absence of seven years in France. Becket's internal struggle is a central focus of the play.
Murder Is A Game
by Fred CarmichaelComedy mystery / 3m, 5f / Interior / Laughter, suspense, intriguing characters, sparkling dialogue, plot twists and irresistible mystery are all here. A successful, married mystery writing team has dried up so their publisher gives them an anniversary present of a weekend in an old mansion built for a movie set and peoples it with hired characters unknown to each other to act out a murder plot. The couple, Sloan and Toby Bigelow, delight in the game and solve the fake murder but then there is a real murder and further hilarious plot twists. The actors all have delightful opportunities to act as imaginary people and then themselves during this sophisticated, laugh filled mystery evening.
Murder Is Fun!
by Catherine BlankenshipComedy / Catherine Blankenship / 7m, 7f / Captain Brown of the Homicide Squad asks the audience to solve a murder for him in this mystery satire. A composer has died under mysterious circumstances. His son, daughter, fiancee, servant and a lawyer re-enact incidents leading to his demise. Unable to deduce the guilty person, characters in the audience quarrel until the doctor breaks the case with a surprising statement. Originally produced at the Yale Experimental Theatre.
Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual In The American Theater
by Jordan SchildcroutThe "villainous homosexual" has long stalked America's cultural imagination, most explicitly in the figure of the gay murderer, a character in dozens of plays. But as society's understanding of homosexuality has changed, so has the significance of these controversial characters, especially when employed by gay theater artists themselves to explore darker fears and desires. "Murder Most Queer" examines the shifting meanings of murderous gay characters in American theater over a century, showing how these representations wrestle with and ultimately subvert notions of gay villainy. "Murder Most Queer" works to expose the forces that create the homophobic paradigm that imagines sexual and gender nonconformity as dangerous and destructive and to show how theater artists--and for the most part gay theater artists--have rewritten and radically altered the significance of the homicidal homosexual. Jordan Schildcrout argues that these figures, far from being simple reiterations of a homophobic archetype, are complex and challenging characters who enact trenchant fantasies of empowerment, replacing the shame and stigma of the abject with the defiance and freedom of the outlaw, giving voice to rage and resistance. These bold characters also probe the darker anxieties and fears that can affect gay lives and relationships. Instead of sentencing them to the prison of negative representations, this book analyzes the meanings in their acts of murder, confronting the real fears and desires condensed in those dramatic acts.
Murder On The Rerun
by Fred CarmichaelComedy mystery / 2m, 5f / Interior / Takes a different approach to mystery as a ghost tries to find out who murdered her in a witty, sophisticated, yet suspenseful look at the upper crust of Hollywood. The curtain rises to find Jane, Oscar winning screen writer, dead at the bottom of the stairs in a Vermont ski lodge. Her four friends and husband are saying she fell. "I was pushed!" she says as her ghost rises. Aided by Kitty, a rather wanton adviser from "up there," Jane is brought ahead to the present, three years after the murder, where the same group is gathered. They are all famous film makers with an intense hate love relationship; Jane's husband who has married an ambitious ingenue, a heading for middle age leading lady, an arrogant director, and Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist. The five suspects join together to keep the possible murder quiet for reasons of their own but their relationship busts apart with their mutual distrust. Woven through the suspense in humorous, acidic, and revealing comedy is an extraordinary whodunit with a surprise denouement when the murderer is revealed. All the roles are lengthy with well defined characters. For the unusual and audience pleasing combination of comedy, intrigue, and suspense, this is a must!
Murder Room
by Jack SharkeyMystery Comedy / 3m., 3f. / Int. When this zany spoof of British mysteries opened in Sydney, Australia, reviewers spouted phrases like "a great vehicle for three ladies," "a plethora of hilarious situations," and "this is a romp!" "Really a minor gem ... witty and sophisticated." - Newcastle Morning Herald "Murder has never been this funny. A spoof of all crime thrillers ... it is good clean mirth all the way. The quick, smart, extremely well timed dialogue of Jack Sharkey comes through loud and clear [with] never a dull moment." - Times "There are secret chambers, secret panels and trap lids galore. They're all operated by the most ridiculous contrivances and gloriously mucked up.... A high, mad melodrama." - Frank Harris
Murder at Cafe Noir
by David Landau Nikki SternMystery / 4m, 3f / The most popular mystery dinner show in the country, Murder at Cafe Noir has enjoyed weekly productions coast to coast since its premiere in 1989. This forties detective story come to life features Rick Archer, P.I., out to find a curvaceous runaway on the forgotten island of Mustique, a place stuck in a black and white era. The owner of the Cafe Noir has washed ashore, murdered, and Rick's quarry was the last person seen with him. He employs his hard boiled talents to find the killer. Was it the French madame and club manager, the voodoo priestess, the shyster British attorney, the black marketeer or the femme fatale? The audience votes twice on what they want Rick to do next and these decisions change the flow of this comic tribute to the Bogart era.