By Erica Noonan
noteworthy
Hundreds of theater lovers gathered on Boston Common on a hot August night to enjoy an updated version of Much Ado About Nothing by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, featuring 1990s-inspired costumes and a progressive take on gender, love, and sexual politics.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company has been performing Shakespeare on the Common for 26 years, but this was the first year that Suffolk’s Theatre Department sponsored the free performance and the company’s Apprentice Program, an intensive Shakespeare-focused summer training program for early-career actors. Seven Suffolk alumni and three current students—including seniors Constance Cifelli and Kendra Elizabeth Waugh and junior Rose Beardmore—took part in the program, which included showcase performances of Shakespeare plays presented at Suffolk’s Modern Theatre.
“This collaboration has been an exciting one,” says Roz Beauchemin, communications manager for Suffolk’s Department of Theatre. “Suffolk works with a lot of professional companies, but this was very special for us. It was a wonderful production right in our neighborhood, and a really nice platform to tell people more about Suffolk.”
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Photographs by Michael J. Clarke
| Fall 2022
Hundreds of theater lovers gathered on Boston Common on a hot August night to enjoy an updated version of Much Ado About Nothing by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, featuring 1990s-inspired costumes and a progressive take on gender, love, and sexual politics.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company has been performing Shakespeare on the Common for 26 years, but this was the first year that Suffolk’s Theatre Department sponsored the free performance and the company’s Apprentice Program, an intensive Shakespeare-focused summer training program for early-career actors. Seven Suffolk alumni and three current students—including seniors Constance Cifelli and Kendra Elizabeth Waugh and junior Rose Beardmore—took part in the program, which included showcase performances of Shakespeare plays presented at Suffolk’s Modern Theatre.
“This collaboration has been an exciting one,” says Roz Beauchemin, communications manager for Suffolk’s Department of Theatre. “Suffolk works with a lot of professional companies, but this was very special for us. It was a wonderful production right in our neighborhood, and a really nice platform to tell people more about Suffolk.”
Large, appreciative crowds turned out for Much Ado About Nothing, including (Bottom photo, at right) College of Arts & Sciences Dean Edie Sparks.