This is getting hilarious – for the third time in the last 18 months, I have been cast in a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. But for the first time, it’s in my new hood of Los Angeles, at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre in North Hollywood – literally around the corner from my first LA apartment on Hesby St.
This should be an interesting production – traditional in interpretation, but drastically cut-down in length in order to run about an hour. It will mean a heavy focus on plot and action, and there will be less dancing and punplay digressions. A couple of characters will be cut completely.
Since variety is the spice of life – this time I’m playing Dogberry. At the callbacks, the director asked how I’d feel about the chance to play the role – I seriously don’t know how any actor couldn’t want to jump at this part. Now I’ve just got to start figuring out how to do it well.
I always loved Kenneth Branagh’s film of Much Ado, but I didn’t want to watch it while I was rehearsing for a production of the show, because I didn’t want to be too-influenced by it. Nor did I want it to be too recently after a production, since I’d still be too locked into my own take on things. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever get to watch it again!
When I did Dracula at the Long Beach Playhouse last year, that was technically just over the line into L.A. County, I believe. And I have stepped in on-stage for one performance of a 10-minute play I was directing at Sacred Fools in L.A. when an actor dropped out. But this will effectively be my L.A. “debut”. When it comes to the script, though, I’ll be on familiar turf.