Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy reframed through a wild-west visual world of saloon architecture, rough timber, and repertory-friendly frontier detail.
New Swan Theatre Festival2025
Description
A Western lens opened up Much Ado About Nothing for New Swan Shakespeare Festival. The scenic design needed the social openness of a frontier town and the theatrical precision to support banter, eavesdropping, and public performance.
Saloon architecture, warm wood, and frontier texture gave the stage a recognizable vocabulary without locking it into strict realism. The design used porches, platforms, and thresholds to create places for watching and being watched.
Credits
Written byWilliam Shakespeare
Directed byEli Simon
Scenic DesignBrandon PT Davis
Costume DesignKathryn Poppen
Lighting DesignKaryn D. Lawrence
Sound DesignAerik Harbert