Scenery

Scenery in this time period was believed to be very bland, simple, and sometimes non-existant. Much Ado About Nothing needed something more and advanced to comply with what was going on in the story. John Addington Symonds "It is difficult for us to realize the simplicity with which the stage was mounted in the London theatres. Scenery may be said to have been almost wholly absent. Even in Masques performed at Court, on which immense sums of money were lavished, and which employed the ingenuity of men like Inigo Jones [reigns of James I and Charles I], effect was obtained by groupings of figures in dances, by tableaux and processions, gilded chariots, temples, fountains, and the like, far more than by scene-painting. Upon the public stage such expenditure had, of course, to be avoided. Attention was concentrated on the actors, with whose movements, boldly defined against a simple background, nothing interfered. The stage on which they played was narrow, projecting into the yard, surrounded on all sides by spectators.” while Dr. H. H. Furness says, "in a note on Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Variorum), I think there were more scenery and stage accessories in those days than is generally believed.”
   Much Ado About Nothing used multi-leveled stages in order to provide different areas of acting and helped move the stage directions within the show. Giving the actors the opportunity to have different acting spaces without spending money on backdrops and painting was revolutionary and helped the audience understand where everythign was in the play

Eva Turner Clark (1941)
http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/?p=65

Costumes Aren't Nothing

Costumes of this time period were incredibly Elizabethan, but they can be adapted into any different style. The women of this period wore clothing that was cloth to their body, and everything was very tight. Clothes were made to make sure that the womens body showed as much breast as possible and that the waste was as tight as possible. The bumroll was added to the dress to make the wearer have a smaller waist and wider hips. With the clothing, the women had the take small steps because of the restricted clothing. Men's clothings were built and used in a way to give the man a more muscular and firm tone. The doublet resembled a breastplate to make the man feel more masculine and give the audience the impression of him being "more of a man". Just like the women's clothes, the man's clothes were used to give them a straighter and tight posture and keep their shape. One of the great things of Much Ado About Nothing is that it has the ability to transpose into different era's because of the story. A recent performance I saw, they had the costumes in a 1940's time period, right after WW II and it worked very well.

 Google (Elizabethan Men and Womans Fashion)
 http://www.tomecek.com/jay/Fashions.html

                                                                           

Much To Do.....

"Much Ado About Nothing" is one of William Shakespeare's comedies he wrote, but not a normal one. From all the other "comedies" he worte, this one does not deal with a funny situation, but does share some of the same comedic elements. Much Ado's comedy derives from the characters themselves and the highly mannered society in which they all live. The main characters of this play are two couples; Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero. These couples are solar opposites of each other where Benedick and Beatrice are always engaged in a "war of wits and words" swearing their hate for love, marriage, and each other. Claudio and Hero are the sweet, innocent couple who can barely express their love for each other. During the play Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into loving each other while Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the alter. The sexton (priest) then devises a plan to create a "fake" funeral of Hero to find out who was behind the accusation. They later finds out the Don John is behind the evil deed and is then captured, Claudio is forced into marrying Hero identical cousin; who turns out to be Hero, and Benedick and Beatrice are married off as well and the plan ends in a dance.

Googled (Much Ado About Nothing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing
http://www.enotes.com/much-ado-about-nothing