On May 26 and 27, Malden High School’s Play Production, performed Much Ado About Nothing in the MHS courtyard.
The play was first performed in 1612 and written by famous playwright William Shakespeare. With the stage and lights put outside in the courtyard, performers like senior Sarah Bendell explained how ¨it was a bittersweet experience.¨ The production team was inspired to create a play that took place at Camp Messina, a late 70’s-80’s camp. As senior Kamila Regalado explained,¨Hero and Claudio catch each other’s eyes and fall in love.. Don Pedro sets Claudio and Hero together and gets everyone to help him get Beatrice and Benedick together. ¨ Don Pedro, the main character portrayed by Ali Fletcher. Senior Ricardo Melgar portrayed as Don John interpreted the experience as ¨ a surreal feeling.. [Melgar] felt that [he] needed to try and leave a mark on stage for what [he has] learned as an actor.¨ Regalado also shared, “Don John is miserable so he gets Borachio in on a plan to tell Claudio” all about it without Claudio knowing that “Hero slept with another man the night before their wedding.” The day of the wedding, Claudio knows and humiliates Hero calling her names in front of her friends and family. Suddenly “Hero’s family makes everyone else think Hero is dead” and makes Claudio guilty. Towards the end of the play “Benedick thinks Beatrice is in love with her so then Hero comes in and reveals herself” to everyone that she really is alive. “Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love towards each other.”
Although this production dates back almost four hundred years ago, MHS’s play production decided to keep it modern. As Bendell and FitzGerald put it ¨[they] wanted to keep it modern enough that people would really enjoy,be family friendly [and have it be]fun to watch¨ which led them to the conclusion of having a summer camp appropriate.
The performers along with the stage crew worked endlessly in order to carry out the last production of the year. Whether is was old English or playing their parts, as Regalado stated ¨ Shakespeare switches around the structure of real sentences¨. One difficulty the performers like Regalado faced were ¨[as performers you’re] suppose to say one thing but another naturally comes out because that’s how we’re use to talking so you have to work a little harder to remember the lines.¨ At the end of the day, this production opens its performers to new environments and helps them create new experiences.
When it came to the performers and their roles Bendell expressed how ¨ [Beatrice] felt so relatable and it wasn’t hard to get in touch with her at all.¨ Many of them really enjoyed playing their roles because of how similar they were from previous productions. However, performers like Melgar had to switch things up as he explained ¨it was fun being evil and petty. Most of [his] roles in the past are either lovable and flirty. [Melgar] got to switch it up and see a different side of [him] which was fun [for him to] perform.¨
At the end of the play.director Sean Walsh emphasized how ¨almost two-thirds of the class is made up of seniors¨ so many of them will be moving on to college next year. Most of the seniors like Regalado expressed how “[i]n preparing for this last show [they] treasured every moment so much. Everything [they] did [they] would remind [themselves] it was [their] last time[s] doing it.”
Seniors like Regalado, Melgar, and Bendell along with others have a bittersweet feeling as the year comes to an end. Next year as a senior, Fitzgerald hopes “to be a leader in the class who can help others,grow and learn from [her] peers and directors as well. [As a performer she] wants to have another great year of play production and I hope we get a lot of new faces to join and if not at least a lot of new faces at the shows because in the end we’re doing it for the audience and that means so much to me and everyone else to perform a successful show for our audience.”
As their performances came to an end, every senior came to the reality of performing for the last time. Walsh expressed himself, wishing them the best and good luck. Angulo ended his year off by expressing that he “ [is] extremely grateful for the people [he] worked with. When [he] think[s] about the crew and directors, all [he] can think about are good times. They were an amazing support system and they surely have made [him into] a better person. [He] can never fully express how good play pro has been to [him] but one thing [he] can say is, if you’re thinking about joining the class, do it.”
Photos taken by Meghan Yip.
