Setting the Stage

There’s much ado about everything going on at the Belmont University Theatre and Dance Department these days. Last weekend, the department opened for business in a sparkling new theater, and it inaugurated its new digs with a (mostly) rewarding production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Nashville’s theater community certainly needed this new space. In fact, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Naked Stages, Actors Bridge Ensemble and Nashville Children’s Theatre all plan to use it. We look forward to their productions.

As for the Shakespeare…

Much Ado is one of the Bard’s most enduring and fanciful tales. Think of it as a 16th century romantic comedy, with two of the play’s main characters, Benedick and Beatrice, engaged throughout in a merry war of words.

The cast was a mix of professionals from Actors Bridge Ensemble and students from Belmont. The production, under the expert direction of Bill Feehely, was notable for its youthful energy and gratifying technical artistry.

Actors Christopher Brown (Benedick) and Pru Clearwater (Beatrice) both gave compelling performances. Brown—poised, handsome, strong-voiced and literate—dominated the proceedings with his confident stage presence. He seemed comfortable, even natural, when reciting Shakespeare’s florid lines, and his delivery of the Bard’s sly soliloquy about women evoked genuine mirth.

Clearwater, who’s mostly known in Nashville as a club singer, proved to be a surprisingly convincing classical actress. Her speeches were uniformly poetic, delivered with an appealing mix of whimsy and coyness. Veteran actor Marc Mazzone (as Leonato, the governor of Messina) also gave a worthy performance.

The acting wasn’t always successful. David Berry, as the grand constable Dogberry, seemed so intent on projecting a colorful character that you almost thought he was playing Long John Silver. Indeed, we missed many of his words since his delivery was so exaggerated.

Jessika Malone appeared as a sort of gender-neutral Don John, the mean-spirited malcontent who plots to thwart the young lovers. But her casting seemed mostly like a gimmick, since her performance lacked the necessary malevolent edge to make us believe in her character.

Among the student performers, Jaclyn R. Johnson gave an appropriately elegant portrayal of the guileless ingenue Hero. Benjamin Reed, as her suitor Claudio, was a little rough around the edges, though his acting was, at its best, impassioned. Other students who made notable contributions were Mallory Gleason and Nicole Pearce.

The production was visually splendid. Designer Paul Gatrell, who also serves as chairman of Belmont’s theater department, constructed a charming set. Richard Davis’ lighting design was also warmly effective. Likewise, Franne Lee, who won Best Costume Tony Awards for 1974’s Candide and 1979’s Sweeney Todd, created costumes that were always colorful and mostly believable (except for her Leonato costume, which looked more like Mexican garb out of The Magnificent Seven than the uniform of a Renaissance Sicilian governor).

Dave Madeira composed the original incidental music. Interestingly, he seemed to favor the sound of vibraphones, which gave the production something of a Spanish flavor.

In all, it was an enjoyable evening, but there were some problems with the Troutt Theater’s acoustics. The hall seemed to lack clarity when performers spoke too quickly, turned to their sides or moved upstage. There was also a distracting echo as their words bounced off the theater’s high ceiling or deep back wall.

But these problems never happened when the performers stood at center stage. That was especially true of Brown, Clearwater and Mazzone, who could make any theater sound good.