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CENTER VALLEY, PA- July 7, 2022— William Shakespeare’s joyous and popular comedy Much Ado About Nothing opens at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the professional theatre on the campus of DeSales University. The show previews July 13 and 14, opens July 15, and runs through August 7 in the Schubert Theatre at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts.
With a zest for love and a love of life, Shakespeare’s spirited comedy offers a tale of two courtships. Beatrice and Benedick elevate the art of the quarrel in their duel of glittering wordplay, while Claudio and Hero have their true love put to the test. Dastardly villains are challenged by comical officers, as honor and desire collide to create much ado about laughter and love.
Philadelphia actor and director Matt Pfeiffer returns following directing last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Now in his 23rd season with the Festival, select PSF credits include Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It. Other credits include Arden Theatre, People’s Light, Bristol Riverside, Walnut Street, 1812 Productions, Lantern Theatre, Delaware Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, among others. He is a twelve-time Barrymore nominee and winner for his direction of The Whale and The Invisible Hand both with Theatre Exile. He’s also a recipient of the F. Otto Haas Award.
The cast of Much Ado About Nothing features Akeem Davis and Brett Ashley Robinson, who will play the roles of the battling lovers Benedick and Beatrice, respectively. Both Philadelphia theatre veterans and Barrymore Award winners, they played opposite one another last season in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Davis is a Helen Hayes and F. Otto Haas award winner, while Robinson teaches acting at DeSales University and is a member of HotHouse, Wilma Theater’s resident acting company. The tested lovers Claudio and Hero will be played by recent DeSales University alums Gabe Moses and Taylor Congdon, both whom were last seen in the 2022 Linny Fowler WillPower Tour of Julius Caesar.
The cast also includes Lindsay Smiling as the prince Don Pedro and Eric Hissom as Leonato, Hero’s father and Beatrice’s uncle. Playing Don John, the bastard brother of Don Pedro, is Sean Close, while Mary Tuomanen appears as Ursula. Anthony Lawton takes the stage as Dogberry, the constable who is a master of malapropisms.
Rounding out the cast are Taysha Marie Canales as Margaret, Michael Covel as Balthazar, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Borachio, and Zoe Fox plays Verges. The production also includes PSF Young Company members Sydney Abbott, Kayman Brown, Johnny Drumgoole, Alaina Hurley, and Iyanu Joshuasville.
The creative team includes set design by Paige Hathaway, lighting by Steve TenEyck, costumes by LeVonne Lindsay, and sound by resident designer David M. Greenberg. The musical director is Alex Bechtel who has composed original music and arrangements for the production. Rafi Levavy serves as stage manager, with Amelia Heastings as assistant stage manager. Erin Sheffield is the choreographer.
Breslin Architects are the Production Sponsors for Much Ado About Nothing. The Production Co-Sponsor is Valerie Moritz Smith. Kathleen Kund Nolan & Timothy E. Nolan are the 2022 Season Sponsors. Associate Season Sponsors are Douglas Dykhouse, Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, The Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.
Enhance your experience at the Festival: Meet the actors for an informal talk-back following the performances on Thursday, July 21, July 28, and August 4; or join a PSF teaching artist for prologues before every performance of Much Ado About Nothing—offering insights into the play in an informal setting. Free and held in the theatre 45 minutes prior to curtain; and “Savoring Shakespeare,” a specialty dinner themed to the play with behind-the-scenes insights on Sunday, July 31, 5pm.
Subscription packages and single tickets can be purchased online at pashakespeare.org or by calling the PSF box office at 610.282.WILL [9455].
Summer 2022 Season
Main Stage: A Chorus Line (June 22 to July 10), Fences (July 27 to August 7), Shakespeare for Kids (July 28 to Aug 6).
Schubert Theatre: Little Red (June 22 to Aug 6), Every Brilliant Thing (June 7 to June 19), Much Ado About Nothing (July 13 to Aug 7), The River Bride (a staged reading, July 1 to July 3).
The season is now open and will run to August 7 at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the bucolic campus of DeSales University in Center Valley.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival features acclaimed actors from Broadway, television, and film, and is summer home to over 200 artists from around the country, including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Jefferson, and Barrymore awards.
For tickets, contact PSF at 610.282.WILL[9445] pashakespeare.org.
About Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy, is the only professional Equity theatre of its scope and scale within a 50-mile radius. PSF is one of only a handful of theatres on the continent producing Shakespeare, musicals, classics, and contemporary plays, all of which can normally be seen in rep and in multiple spaces within a few visits in a single summer season. Similarly, PSF was among just a handful of theatres on the continent in recent summers to produce three Shakespeare plays in a single summer season. A patron would have to travel seven to nine hours from PSF to find a comparable range of offerings at a single theatre within a few weeks’ time.
The Festival’s award-winning company of many world-class artists includes Broadway, film, and television veterans, and winners and nominees of the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, Hayes, Lortel, and Barrymore awards. A leading Shakespeare theatre with a national reputation for excellence, PSF has received coverage in The Washington Post, NPR, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and in recent seasons The New York Times has identified PSF as one of the leading summer theatre festivals in the nation. “A world-class theater experience on a par with the top Bard fests,” is how one New York Drama Desk reviewer characterized PSF.
Founded in 1992 and the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PSF’s mission is to enrich, inspire, engage, and entertain the widest possible audience through first-rate productions of classical and contemporary plays, with a core commitment to Shakespeare and other master dramatists, and through an array of education and mentorship programs. A not-for-profit theatre, PSF receives significant support from its host, DeSales University, from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Traditionally, with 150 performances of seven productions, the Festival attracts patrons each summer from 30+ states. In 30 years, PSF has offered 200+ total productions (82 Shakespeare), and entertained 1,000,000+ patrons from 50 states, now averaging 34,000-40,000 in attendance each summer season, plus another 13,000 students each year through its WillPower Tour to schools. PSF is a multi-year recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare in American Communities, and is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). In 2013, leaders of the world’s premier Shakespeare theatres gathered at PSF as the Festival hosted the international STA Conference.
The Festival’s vision is for world-class theatre.
PATRICK MULCAHY (Producing Artistic Director, PSF) (he/him) Since assuming leadership in 2003, Mulcahy has led PSF’s surge in artistic excellence, financial stability, and national recognition. Accomplishments include first and subsequent grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, attracting a multitude of award-winning artists including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barrymore, and Emmy awards, a doubling of annual attendance, a successful campaign to double the Festival’s endowment, and the expansion of the number of Actors’ Equity contracts per season. He led the strategic planning process that led to PSF’s Vision 2030, a commitment to world-class professional theatre, and coverage in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Post. As a professional director, actor, and fight director, credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, television and radio. Mr. Mulcahy has acted with many industry luminaries including Don Cheadle, Angela Bassett, Cynthia Nixon, and Tony Shaloub at the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Roundabout Theatre, Hartford Stage, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and the Walnut Street Theatre. He served as fight director for A Few Good Men on Broadway, and multiple Off-Broadway productions starring Marcia Gay Harden, John Mahoney, Patrick Dempsey, and John Savage. He directed Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga in The Real Thing, and, for PSF, directed The Winter’s Tale, Henry IV, Part 1, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Shakespeare in Love. Also Head of Acting at DeSales, Patrick holds degrees in acting and directing from Syracuse University.
Artist Bios:
TAYSHA MARIE CANALES* (Margaret) is a Philadelphia-based actor and teaching artist. Regional: Fat Ham (2021 filmed World Premiere), Dance Nation, There, Dionysus Was Such A Nice Man, Romeo and Juliet, Passage, Passing Strange, Blood Wedding, When the Rain Stops Falling, An Octoroon, The Hard Problem (Wilma Theater), A Streetcar Named Desire, NO CHILD… (2021 filmed production), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Bête, The Jungle Book, Wayside Stories From Wayside School (Arden Theatre), Shakespeare In Love, All My Sons, A Single Shard (People’s Light). Taysha is the 2018 F. Otto Haas Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist recipient. She is a founding member of the Wilma Theater’s resident acting company, the Hot House. BFA in Acting from Arcadia University. tayshamariecanales.com
SEAN CLOSE* (Don John) makes his PSF debut. Regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander/ Flute at Arden Theatre), This is the Week that Is (News Anchor/ Ensemble at 1812 Productions), TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (TJ at Theatre Horizon), One Man, Two Guvnors (Francis Henshall at Quintessence Theatre), The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir Henry at Delaware Theatre Company), and many others. TV/Film: 21 Bridges, Dispatches From Elsewhere.
TAYLOR CONGDON (Hero) PSF: Portia in the 2022 WillPower Tour Julius Caesar, Hero in the 2021 Virtual Willpower program Much Ado About Nothing; Private Lives, Robin Hood, Antony & Cleopatra. Other regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arden Theatre), Folktales (People’s Light), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bridge Street Theatre), Turning (Centenary Stage), Curious Incident… (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina). Film: The Hail Mary (2022).
MICHAEL COVEL (Balthazar) is an actor, musician, and teaching artist from Montgomery County, PA. PSF: The Troll (The Ice Princess), Innkeeper/Ensemble (The Three Musketeers), First Lord/Musician (As You Like It), and u/s Watson (Hound of the Baskervilles). Other Regional: People’s Light, Walnut Street, Arden Theatre, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Act II Playhouse, Montgomery Theater, Heartwood Regional Theater, and Revival Productions. Training: DeSales University, BA in Theatre.
AKEEM DAVIS* (Benedick) from Miami, FL, is a graduate of The Florida State University. PSF: Henry V (2016), Longaville (Love’s Labor’s Lost, 2016), Duke Orsino (Twelfth Night, 2018), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2021). Regional: Philadelphia Theatre Company, Choir Boy; Arden Theatre, A Doll’s House, Gem of the Ocean, A Streetcar Named Desire; Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Arsonists; Folger Theatre,District Merchants, King John; Theatre Horizon, Lobby Hero, In The Blood; InterAct Theatre, The Dangerous House of Pretty M’bane, Marcus/Emma; Theatre Exile, Buzzer; Simpatico Theatre, The Brothers Size. A Helen Hayes nominated and Barrymore Award winning actor, as well as recipient of the 2015 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist.
MABOUD EBRAHIMZADEH* (Borachio) Regional: McCarter Theatre: Disgraced, and Murder on the Orient Express; Milwaukee Rep: Disgraced; Theatre Exile: The Invisible Hand (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actor); Hartford Stage: Murder on the Orient Express; Round House Theatre: Curious Incident…, Oslo, Small Mouth Sounds, The Book of Will, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo; Arena Stage: The Price; Kennedy Center: Mockingbird; Folger Theatre: HenryIV part 1, King John, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar; Studio Theatre: Water by the Spoonful, Edgar & Annabel; Baltimore Center Stage: The Container; Gulfshore Playhouse: The Liar; Olney Theatre: Oil, The Invisible Hand; Theater J: Nathan the Wise, Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Boged; Forum Theatre: The Pillowman, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Bobrauschenbergamerica, Scorched; Taffety Punk: Henry VI part 1, Henry VI part 2, Henry IV part 3, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Pericles; People’s Light: Shakespeare in Love, A Christmas Carol. Film/TV: Jessica Jones, Imperium, Sally Pacholok, Homebound.
ZOE FOX (Verges) she/her is so happy to be returning to PSF after being part of the Young Company last year. Zoe graduated from DeSales in 2021 with a BA in Musical Theatre. Favorite past roles include: Snout/Wall in Midsummer, Little Red in Into the Woods, Audrey/Musician in As You Like It, and #2 in The Wolves.
ERIC HISSOM* (Leonato) PSF: Twelfth Night, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Troilus and Cressida, Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Around the World in Eighty Days, and many more. Other theatre credits include work at Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Rep, Syracuse Stage, Arena Stage, Arden Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Folger Theatre, and many others. He did the national tour of The Thirty-Nine Steps, and has done a bit of TV and film, including the feature Out of Time. He has an MFA from Florida State’s Asolo Conservatory.
ANTHONY LAWTON* (Dogberry) has acted in Philadelphia for thirty years. Favorite roles: George in Of Mice and Men (Walnut Street), “man” in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1812 Productions), and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet (Arden Theatre). In 2005, Lawton received grants from the Independence Foundation and Philadelphia Theatre Initiative to write and develop The Foocy, which garnered five Barrymore nominations (including Best New Play). In 2017, Lawton’s musical adaptation of The Light Princess, by George MacDonald, won the Barrymore for Best Original Music, for which Lawton shared credit as lyricist. The Philadelphia City Paper named him the city’s “Best One-Man Theatre” for his solo productions of The Devil and Billy Markham, The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters.
GABE MOSES (Claudio) he/him is a multi-faceted theatre maker and a DeSales University alum. Recent credits: HAIR (Cortland Repertory Theatre), The Tempest (Delaware Shakespeare), A Soft Landing (Elevate Theatre Company), and Ragtime, Crazy For You, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Julius Caesar (WillPower Tour, PSF). Gabe recently worked alongside director Steve H. Broadnax III (Broadway’s Thoughts of A Colored Man) as his assistant for Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland at People’s Light. Gabe has previously directed and choreographed his original piece, run 4 ur lyfe, centered around police brutality and being a black man in America.
BRETT ASHLEY ROBINSON* (Beatrice) is a 2021 PEW Fellow, a Barrymore Award winning devisor, theatre- maker and educator based in Philadelphia. As an actor and devisor, she has worked at, The Public, Ars Nova ANT Fest, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Wilma Theater, Lightning Rod Special, Pig Iron Theatre, Arden Theatre, InterAct, The Flea Theater, Theatre Horizon, and Geva Theatre Center. She has taught acting at DeSales University and the University of the Arts, is a company member of Applied Mechanics, and a member of the HotHouse–the Wilma Theater’s resident acting company.
LINDSAY SMILING* (Don Pedro) returns to PSF where he appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, and Twelfth Night. He is a member of the Wilma Theater’s HotHouse Company, an Adjunct Professor at Temple University, and a founding member of the Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia. As an actor/director/educator, he has collaborated with a multitude of theaters across the country including: Baltimore Center Stage, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Delaware Shakespeare, New Light Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Lantern Theater, Arden Theatre, Syracuse Stage, People’s Light, Pittsburgh Public, Two River Theater, Victory Gardens, Dorset Theatre Festival, Human Race Theatre, Walnut Street, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Shakespeare, Mixed Blood Theatre, and Bristol Riverside. He earned his MFA in acting from Temple University.
MARY TUOMANEN* (Ursula) they/she was last seen as Puck in PSF’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent credits: Fairview at Wilma Theater, and directing Rose: You Are Who You Eat for the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process and CulturalDC. As a playwright, they are the winner of the Philadelphia Award for their play Peaceable Kingdom and the 2017 F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist Award. They are an associate artist with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a founding member of Applied Mechanics, and an amateur punk drummer with their band, The Bandits.
Creative Team Bios:
ALEX BECHTEL (Original Music, Arrangements, and Music Direction) is a composer, actor, sound designer, writer, director, and multi-instrumentalist. PSF: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona; all collaborations with Matt Pfeiffer. Barrymore Awards: Outstanding Original Music, Leading Actor in a Musical, and Music Direction. Bechtel is the composer of The Appointment, The West, Philadelphia Nocturne, Cheer Up Dostoevsky, and Penelope. Listen to his music on Spotify and Apple Music, at alexbechtel.com.
PAIGE HATHAWAY (Scenic Designer) is based in the Washington, DC area. She has designed regionally at The Muny in St. Louis, Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, and People’s Light in Malvern, PA, among others. In the Washington, DC area she has designed at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Theater J, Imagination Stage, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and Olney Theatre Center. Her upcoming productions include Mary Poppins at The Muny and Dance Nation at Olney. She received her BFA from the University of Oklahoma and her MFA from the University of Maryland. She is a member of USA 829.
AMELIA HEASTINGS* (Assistant Stage Manager, Much Ado) She/Her is excited to be joining the PSF team this summer working on one of her favorite plays. Some of her past credits include Murder on the Orient Express (Assistant Stage Manager) and Marya Sea Kaminski’s adaptation of The Tempest (Production Assistant) both with Pittsburgh Public Theater, After Independence (Stage Manager) and As You Like It (Assistant Stage Manager) with Pittsburgh’s PICT Classic Theatre, and having worked as Young Artist Supervisor with Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera for their 2019 productions of Peter Pan, Once, and the 2019 and 2021 productions of A Musical Christmas Carol.
RAFI LEVAVY* (Stage Manager)
Rafi comes to PSF directly from the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. He has worked on 14 Off-Broadway productions, including shows at many major institutions. Regional credits include Theatre Exile, Lincoln Center Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Festival, Depot Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Barter Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse and more. Additional experience includes Jim Henson Productions, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions and Actors Studio Drama School. A proud member of Equity, Rafi holds a degree in computer science from Brandeis University.
LEVONNE LINDSAY (Costume Designer) is the Costume Shop Manager and Adjunct Assistant Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Education: BS in Fashion Design from Philadelphia University, MFA in Costume Design from the University of Maryland, College Park. Recent work: Ragtime, Gem of the Ocean, Arden Theatre; Sweat, The Garbologists, Philadelphia Theatre; Kill, Move, Paradise, Wilma Theater. Awards/Honors: Barrymore Award for Outstanding Costume Design (2019), Allen Lee Hughes Fellow at Arena Stage (2001-2003).
MATT PFEIFFER (Director) he/him is a Philly-born actor and director. He has worked with PSF for 22 seasons. Other credits: Arden Theatre, People’s Light, Bristol Riverside, InterAct, Walnut Street, 1812 Productions, Lantern Theatre, Delaware Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, UArts, and Villanova University. Matt is a twelve-time Barrymore nominee and winner, for his direction of The Whale and The Invisible Hand both with Theatre Exile. He’s also a recipient of the F. Otto Haas Award and a proud DeSales University grad.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Playwright) (1564-1616) Our knowledge of William Shakespeare’s life is pieced together with information from limited primary sources: his own works, various legal and church documents, and references to him, his plays, and his genius in third party letters. Here’s what we do know: William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon on or about April 23, 1564. Records from Holy Trinity Church tell us he was baptized there on April 26, 1564. His father was John Shakespeare, a glove-maker, and his mother was Mary Arden, a landowning heiress. William was the third of eight children, three of whom died in childhood. His father was fairly successful and was an alderman and a high-bailiff (mayor) of Stratford. It is assumed that he went to the free grammar school in Stratford, which was considered an excellent school. It seems certain that Shakespeare never went on to university. The next documented event is Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582. They had three children: a daughter, Susanna, and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died at age 11. We lose track of Shakespeare for the next seven years. There are rumors that he was fond of poaching and had to flee Stratford after an incident with one of the gentry there. He began to make a name for himself in London by 1592, possibly earlier, as both an actor and a playwright. Unfortunately, the plague forced the closing of the theaters in 1592. By 1594 the plague had abated, and Shakespeare was acting, writing, and performing the duties of a managing partner for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This was a popular company, enjoyed by the commoners as well as royalty. It was around this time that Shakespeare and company made plans for the Globe Theatre. The Globe was to be across the river from London, and was built around 1599. In total, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays that have survived (or 38 or 39, depending on the point of view of the particular scholar) and numerous sonnets and poems. April 23, 1616, is the day that marks Shakespeare’s death (the same as his birthday) though we are uncertain of that date’s precision. We do know he was buried in Stratford, with services at the Holy Trinity Church on April 25, 1616. In his infamous will, he left his properties to his daughter Susanna, and to his wife his “second best bed.”
ERIN SHEFFIELD (Choreographer) 20th PSF season. PSF credits: Pride and Prejudice (director), Education Director (2006-2011); and she has taught at DeSales and directed for Act 1 productions. Member of Actors’ Equity Association. Favorite roles: Viola, Twelfth Night at PSF; and Anne of Green Gables (Barrymore nomination) People’s Light in Malvern, where she is the General Manager. MFA: Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House. Proud graduate of DeSales University.
STEVE TENEYCK (Lighting Designer) is pleased to return to PSF having designed here for many of the last 16 seasons. Some favorite PSF past productions: West Side Story, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Evita, Ragtime, Julius Cesar and Twelfth Night. Designs have been seen at Dallas Theater Center, Gulfshore Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Big Art Group, Kitchen Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Hangar Theatre, Madison Opera, Syracuse Opera, Anchorage Opera, Minnesota Opera, Florida Grand Opera. Steve is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and teaches design at Ithaca College in New York.
Information provided to TVL by:
Tina Louise Slak
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The Professional Theatre at DeSales University
2755 Station Avenue
Center Valley, PA 18034
p: 610-282-WILL [9455]
www.pashakespeare.org
