This document provides details on the production of Much Ado About Nothing, including costume design, casting, direction, set design, and lighting design. The costume designer proposes using different colors and fabrics to represent the personalities of the main characters, particularly reds for Beatrice and hints of red for Benedick. The proposed cast includes Jennifer Lawrence as Hero, David Tennant as Benedick, Liev Schreiber as Claudio, Emma Watson as Beatrice, and Ian McKellen as Leonato. The director aims to keep the pacing quick and focus on the play's comedy and wit. The set design depicts a garden stage with a cobblestone floor and platforms. Lighting will use various positions of dim yellow lights

1. Production of Much Ado
About Nothing
Costume Design: Tracey Griffith
Director: Adam Celia
Set Design: Preston Lovell
Group 57

2. Costume Design

3. Beatrice
• Beatrice is a fiery,
independent woman. She
has a very strong will and is
not afraid to speak her mind,
as is shown in her witty banter
with Benedick.
• Beatrice also has a less
pronounced side of affection
and vulnerability as is shown
when she falls in love with
Benedick, whom she
originally claimed to hate.
• Beatrice’s costume should
have mixed shades of red. A
stronger red should be used
in the majority of the
costume to represent her
fiery personality, while a few
smaller areas of a more
subdued red, or even white
or pink, will represent the less
pronounced softer side to
her personality. The material
should also be fairly rigid to
represent her somewhat rigid
personality.
--“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”

4. Hero
• Hero is gentle, innocent,
and soft-spoken. This is a
strong contrast to
Beatrice’s personality.
• Ideally, Hero’s gown
should be white, since it is
usually associated with
innocence. Light pastel
colors would also work
well to portray hero’s soft-
spoken and gentle
personality. Her dress
should be more
conservative than
Beatrice’s. Also, the
material could also have
a softer, more flowing look
that Beatrice’s to further
portray the gentleness of
her personality.
--“In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.”

5. Benedick
• Benedick, like Beatrice has a
fiery personality, is always
making witty remarks, and
believes he will never fall in
love or be married.
• Benedick’s character
undergoes a dramatic
change after allowing himself
to love Beatrice, as well as
challenging Claudio to a
deal after he speaks against
Hero’s character, even
though he himself said at the
beginning of the play that all
women were unfaithful.
• Benedick’s costume should
have hints of red to represent
his strong personality as well
as his relationship with
Beatrice. It should be more
vibrant in color than
Claudio’s and have a
contrasting color to represent
his change in character.
--“Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right
to trust none. And the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a
bachelor.”

6. Claudio
• Claudio is a well respected soldier.
He has a more gentle personality
like Hero, but does not have her
innocence. His suspicious nature
leads him to assume the worst of
Hero, and even slander her
character by leaving her at the
alter.
• Claudio is also softer-spoken than
Benedick and has no aversion to
love as he quickly falls in love with
Hero.
• His costume should be light and
colorful, but not totally white since
he does not have Hero’s
innocence. It should also be less
colorful/vibrant than Benedick’s,
since his personality is less fiery.
Although both costumes will be
lighter in color, Claudio’s
relationship to Hero should be
further represented by a matching
fabric or color from Hero’s
costume.
--“He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb
the feats of a lion. He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect
of me to tell you how.”

7. Don John
• While the other costumes
should be light and colorful to
fit in with the genre of
comedy, as the villain Don
John should have the only
dark costume. It should be in
shades of black or gray. Other
colors would work as long they
are very dark, but white or
vibrant colors should not be
used.
• His costume should also be less
extravagant, with a lower class
of fabric, since as a bastard he
does not have the social status
of the rest of the characters in
the play.
--“There is no measure in the occasion that breeds. Therefore the sadness is
without limit.”

8. Cast

9. Hero (Jennifer Lawrence)
• We chose Jennifer Lawrence
for the part of Hero because
of her wide variety of roles that
she has done well in.
• Jennifer Lawrence has
experience playing in
romantic comedies such as in
Silver Linings Playbook. Much
Ado About Nothing is
essentially a romantic
comedy, so she has
experience in that regard.
Also, since she has played a
wide variety of roles, we
believe she could take on the
role of the more gentle hero.

10. Benedick (David Tennant)
• David Tennant has
experience with
Shakespearian plays
with both Romeo and
Juliet and Hamlet.
• He also plays the
doctor in Dr. Who, who
is an extremely witty
character making him
a perfect match for
Benedick.

11. Claudio (Liev Schreiber)
• Claudio is a soldier. We
think Leiv Schreiber's
experience in
Broadway and his
experience as an
action star makes him
a great fit for the role.

12. Beatrice (Emma Watson)
• Beatrice is a character
that is in a war of wits
against Benedick.
• We believe Emma
Watson can play a
perfect witty niece
based off her
performance as
Hermione in the Harry
Potter movies.

13. Don Pedro (Nathan Lane)
• Don Pedro is a
powerful character.
He manipulates
people into getting
what he wants.
• We picked Nathan
Lane due to his
known talent and
due to the fact that
he looks like a
powerful person.

14. Leonato (Ian McKellen)
• Leonato is a wise,
elderly character. He is
a father figure in the
play.
• Ian McKellen is a well
suited actor to play an
elderly character. He
has a charisma to him
that only someone of
his age can pull off.

15. Direction

16. • The genre of the play is a
comedy. It will be light
hearted for the most part
and enjoyable to watch.
• It will highlight the feeling of
needing to be married as a
part of a social stigma and
inheritance.
• Ultimately it will be focused
comedy and will use wit to
keep the pacing of the
play quick and smooth.

17. Set Design• How the stage will look.
• inspirations

18. Stage/scene

19. How it will look
• The stage is meant to resemble an old style garden
with lots of color from the surrounding shrubbery.
The bright colors will help to set the mood as a
comedy. The floor will be painted to look like it is
made of laid cobblestone. In the back there will be
a raised platform for a change in height for the
stage. There is only one entrance and exit found in
stage right.

20. Reasoning
• We chose a garden because we wanted
something small that would still have space for
actors to be able to move around stage. The stage
itself is meant to be functional for both day and
night time setting. While the stage is small, it is
complex with many precise details that bring it
together. The only issue with this particular stage
setup is the single entrance and exit.

21. Lighting
color color
Dim
yellow
Dim
yellow
Dim
yellow

22. How it will look?
• The “x’s” on the slide before represent the focal
area for which the lights will be positioned at during
the play. While there is only one “x” in each spot
there will be two lights pointing a that spot for day
and night scenes. During day scenes the lights will
be a mix of four flood lights for soft, bright, and wide
spread light for all of the stage and an ellipsoidal
spotlight for a sharp edge of light in the center.

23. Reasoning
• Because the stage is not very large it require very
small amounts of light to illuminate it for day scenes
and even less for night scenes. The center spot light
is meant create a focal point in the center of the
stage where actors will spend most of their time.

24. Blueprint
Entra
-nce
Stage front
right left
Shrubs
Ect.