If I was the director of the play "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, I would place it in the same place as our teacher placed it, in our college, because working with young actors can be really fun, I would let them give me ideas just like our teacher have done with us because it's really important their point of view for me, I want them to have fun and to enjoy what they're doing, I would make it more modern, I would put in there some crazy ideas, like making Beatrice (the role that I had) more foolish and I would make her look like she wants to be smart when, truthfully, she wouldn't be, I would make it a comedy. I would change the Shakespearian language with something that the team could understand, I would let them speak in our days language, I think that this would make it even easier for them to play, I wouldn't want to put them in difficulty.
I would use the "hot seating" technique with every single actor in the play, that's how I can make sure that everyone knows what's their purpose there and what they're supposed to do, who they are and everything about the role, just like they know everything about themselves and then I would use the "raise or lower stakes" technique to make them understand where I want them and how I want them to be in the play. I would be really serious about it and if anyone can't show that it's really in the character's skin I would replace them and, obviously, I would let them know that I am going to do this before giving them the role because I want them to work hard and to be motivated. I think that you have to be true with your team, if they are not able to do the role I would let them know and I would suggest them to find some passion that would suit them or to work even more until they show me that they are in the right place, because I don't think that acting is for everyone.
I would use costumes that would represent the Shakespearian style, some clothes that people used to wear when Shakespeare wrote the play, big dresses for the girls and nice, old costumes for the boys, I would dress the messenger in some green leggings because the person that were in that role, was playing it like a jester, which I really liked, I think that those pants would definitely represent the character. It would be even funnier, in my point of view, to see people dressed like that using the language we use nowadays and even the slang as long as it is appropriate for the play. I would dress the girls in fancy dresses for both weddings and the bride would have the biggest white dress I could find.
I think that the coloured lighting are not good for this play, I may use red for the transition after the first wedding scene because things got really bad, and dark blue when the night is coming, but I think that those two colours are enough. In the rest of the time I would use the yellow lighting for the mornings and white lighting for simple transitions to other scenes. I would also use the circle lighting for moments when the actors are alone on the scene.
I would use different songs, not like the ones that our teacher used, I think that the piece needs more modern music to entertain the young public, to make them want to see more plays and to enjoy the theatre experience, most of the teenagers are really connected with the music that they listen to and I think that this would make a strong connection between them and the actors. I really liked the fact that our teacher used our idea in the play and made "the mannequin challenge" on the stage, we felt released when he accepted our offer because we didn't had to dance on some latino music in that part of the play, where it was the masquerade, not everyone knows how to dance and some people are not confident enough to dance in front of everyone, even if actors should be able to do everything on the stage, I would not be that strict with young people, they can have confidence issues after, if the dance is not going really well and people start laughing at them and I wouldn't want this to affect their future.
I would use the same props as our teacher used and I would add a big mirror for the scene where Hero was preparing herself for the wedding with Margaret and Beatrice. I would also add some gloves in the same scene because Hero was talking about them but she didn't have some and natural flowers for the bride and bridesmaids. On the wedding scene I would add more people, more benches, more wedding decorations.
In my opinion, our performance went really well. It was really different compared to my original expectations, I was expecting it to be boring because it's Shakespeare and, as bad as it sounds, I am not his biggest fan. I expected it to be hard to learn the lines because the language is too old and I didn't understand a word of what I was reading in there. Even if I researched the meaning of every each line and read the play, watched the movie of the play and searched online for opinions and reviews of the play, I still found it hard to understand, until the end I managed to build a subtext and to learn the old English, I was happy with my role after I knew what I was saying. I think that the lighting, sound, costumes and preps were good and I can't contest the way our teacher directed us because every single director has a different point of view of the play.
It was the first time to perform a whole piece on a stage with audience for me, the experience felt amazing, I am content because the performance went good, I developed my learning lines skills and I'm more confident on the stage now. I learnt my lines in the right time, people enjoyed our performance and the teacher gave us a good feedback, he said that we treat the rehearsals with maturity, that the performance was brilliant and that we should work more on articulation and pronunciation, which I totally agree with.
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