Much Ado About Nothing

Hello!
We are in the middle of spring break right now and heading into our last quarter of school! For the beginning of spring break we went to Helsinki, Finland and there will be a post and pictures about that soon.

But the very first day of Spring Break our high school put on the play Much Ado About Nothing! It is a Shakespeare play and ours was set in WWII era.

So here are pictures and an explanation of the general plot.

The play focuses on Don Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick (in order above). They arrive at Leanato's and Claudio falls for his daughter Hero. Benedick and Beatrice, Leanato's niece, have met before and they bicker whenever they are together.
Beatrice on the left and Hero on the right.
Don John has two spies, one on the bench, and is out to get Don Pedro, his brother.
Leanato warning Beatrice that she may want to get married some day while she jokes and teases men in general.

It is decided that Don Pedro will win Hero for Claudio and they are engaged later.

After a masked ball, Benedick goes on a rampage, insulting Beatrice, unaware that she is right behind him.
Don John's spy is told to make Hero seem "loose" to ruin Claudio's happiness and indirectly hurt Don Pedro. (The spy is played by one of our 7th graders who was very good and was pulled in at the last minute and memorized the lines in 10 days!)
The guys decide to set up Beatrice and Benedick and, when they know Benedick is hiding in a grove nearby, loudly make up stories of how love sick she is for him. :-)
The same is done by the girls to Beatrice. Both decide apart from each other that they do in fact love the other.

Benedick confesses to the men that he does have affection for Beatrice.

A side plot opens up with Dogberry, a bumbling and hilarious cop who is to put guards around Leanato's house. Dogberry was hilarious (very much like the police in Pirates of Penzance) and my 6th graders said any time she was on were the times they actually understood what was happening. :-)

Claudio and Don Pedro see the spy with someone else who looks like Hero and are understandably angry.
The guards hear Don John's men talking about how they have framed Hero and been paid by Don John and are arrested and tried. Dogberry begins to tell Leanato about this plot but he says he is busy and leaves.
At the wedding Claudio refuses to marry Hero for cheating on him and leaves. She faints and only wakes up after he is gone.
A plan is made to hide her and announce her death. Then Claudio will feel bad and hopefully come back for her when he discovers she is innocent.

After everyone leaves, Beatrice stays behind and Benedick tries to comfort her. They admit they love each other and she asks him to fight Claudio. He finally agrees to.
So Benedick challenges Claudio to a fight. At the time of the fight, Dogberry brings the spies by and tells of their plot to the whole group.

Claudio repents and asks what he can do to make up for Hero's death. Leanato tells him to marry his brother's daughter and Claudio agrees.

At the wedding it is revealed that Hero is not dead and they are married. Benedick and Beatrice are also married and all is happy! :-)

Benedick and Beatrice!
And this is our wonderful cast and crew (the whole high school and 2 junior high guys)! They did a fantastic job!

They made the play a lot of fun and easy to understand which is saying something indeed!

They even ended with a dance that I will put at the end of this!

So it was a ton of fun and I was very impressed. One of the best high school plays I have seen. :-)