On Wednesday, March 9, the Utah Shakespeare Festival came to Escalante High School to perform a modernized version of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It was a compelling play with romance, broken hearts, death, and calling people an ass.* Yes, an ass. Eight times to be exact.
The cast traveled from Cedar City to help us understand acting, older-style plays, and the messages they had. And calling people an a**.
After the play (and lunch), we did a workshop with three of the actors. We played some improv games that went in many directions. Some of them were improvising stories, where others helped us improvise actions. Like calling people an a**.
The acting was great, and the stunts were fantastic. Overall it was very entertaining and comedic. Ten out of ten, I would totally recommend.
Thank you to Laura McKerracher for organizing this event for us!
– by Ben Peterson (16) Escalante
*Editor’s Note: Ben misspelled this word as “a**”; but we have corrected it to “ass.” Ben is talking about Scene II of Act IV where the exasperated Conrade calls Dogberry an ass. Most of the students in attendance appeared to be familiar with the word.
Feature image caption: The cast Q&A after the show.
Read about another event at Escalante High School in Lit Jam Conference.