Open Arenas Theater invites you to come experience one of Shakespeare’s comedies, “Much Ado About Nothing,” presented Friday, Saturday and Sunday at First Street Community Center Auditorium. Friday and Saturday’s shows are at 7:30 p.m., while Sunday is a 2 p.m. matinee. The shows are free-will offering, with proceeds benefiting Rick and Trude Elliott and Mount Vernon Lisbon Community Theater.
Director Grant Freeman said that he wanted to do a smaller project with Open Arenas this year, as he is also directing a production of “Macbeth” with Starlighters in Anamosa.
“The students in the program still wanted to do something Shakespeare this year, so I settled n this funny, simple comedy,” Freeman said.
As Freeman looks at his cast of students from Mount Vernon, Lisbon, Cedar Rapids Prairie and Cedar Rapids Kennedy enjoying this summer production, that is the goal.
“These students love the time they have on stage together and are building friendships that take them to dinner with one another or out to go see movies, building friendships outside the stage,” Freeman said. “That’s been my ultimate goal with Open Arenas as a company, is broadening that depth of all of my cast.”
Aside from that relationship building, the goal of Open Arenas theater has been presenting theaters everywhere and anywhere.
Charlie Krob, a student from Mount Vernon, plays Benedick in the production.
“I really like the connections I’m building with other cast members from other schools,” Krob said “We’ve all worked with Grant in previous productions.”
The challenge for the role for Krob is memorizing the lines, especially the Shakesperean dialects.
“As well, there are times it’s hard to connect with my character, as I don’t know what I’m sometimes saying,” Krob said.
Rose Forcier of Cedar Rapids Prairie plays the role of Dogberry.
“I have loved being able to be very animated and goofy as this character,” Forcier said.
The challenge for Forcier is knowing what she is saying at some times as well.
“I have really loved meeting people from other schools and collaborating on this production,” Forcier said.
Allison Silver of Lisbon Schools plays Margaret and Siquo in the production.
Like Krob and Forcier, she is excited to getting to work with students from other schools.
“This has also been very different than some of the other roles I’ve had,” Silver said.
Her biggest challenge is finding the right tone for one of her characters.
“This is a really funny show, with a good balance of wit and slapstick,” Silver said. “There’s no way you walk out of this show with out laughing.”
“It’s a very unique show,” Forcier said.
“It’s a lot of fun show put on by members of many area high schools,” Krob said.