Both sides of the Bard, comedy and tragedy, are revealed at the West Windsor Plainsboro high schools this November with a mini-Shakespeare festival. “Last year the two high schools did a pairing of plays by Tennessee Williams,” says Debbie Goodkin, an English teacher at High School North who is directing North’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing.” “That went very well, so this year we are doing it again, with Shakepeare. We’re doing a comedy at North and a tragedy at South.”
North performs “Much Ado About Nothing” from Thursday, November 11 through Saturday, November 13. South performs “Romeo and Juliet,” on Thursday, November 18, and Saturday, November 20.
The drama program mounts three major productions a year: a fall drama, a spring musical, and senior one-acts at the end of the school year. Typically the rehearsal process for a play takes about six weeks, but the rehearsals for this production will extend to nine weeks. “There are a lot of distractions in the fall,” says Goodkin, including teachers conferences and in-service days, homecoming, various holidays, and seniors going on college visitations.
Of the 28 cast members, only eight were in the Tennessee Williams’ play last year. “Some people are in the play this time because it’s Shakespeare,” says Goodkin. “But there are also many others who chose not to be in the play this year because it’s Shakespeare.”
“Much Ado About Nothing,” written in 1598 during the Elizabethan age in England, is a play filled with high comedy, malicious intrigue, outright trickery, the temptations of eavesdropping, the loyalty of friendship, and the inevitable pull toward love and courtship. The North production will be presented in what Goodkin calls a “quasi-1930’s theme” along with some purposeful anachronisms. “The three students playing the Watch will dress in Elizabethan garb,” she says. “I let them make decisions like this. It adds to their experience of the play.”
Goodkin, now in her 15th year of teaching in the WW-P school district, teaches Advanced Placement English Literature, drama, Shakespeare, and the Art of the Essay. She earned her bachelors degree from Rutgers in Business and Spanish and her graduate degree in teaching from Trenton State College. “I started out in theater by going through the back door,” she says. “I would work in stage crews and be one of those people sneaking along the catwalks.”
Goodkin is very familiar with “Much Ado About Nothing,” having performed in the Princeton Summer Theater production three years ago, teaching it in her classes, and having seen it performed many times by a number of different companies. “I know this play very well,” she says. Students are also well-versed in the play; it is part of the ninth grade curriculum.
According to Goodkin, the language of Shakespeare’s writing does offer some special challenges to young performers. “When we first started rehearsals we went through the play line by line, and the kids asked about the meaning of any line they didn’t understand,” she says. “Then sometimes onstage I could hear them say a line in a way in which it was clear they weren’t too sure about it. We’d go over it. But while the Shakespearean language can be challenging, the lines are funny and you care about the characters. The kids have a good grip on the play.”
As the long weeks of rehearsal dwindle to a few short days before opening night, Goodkin’s cast begins to jell. “Just in the last couple of rehearsals you can see it begin to come together,” she says. “The characters who are supposed to be friends are beginning to feel comfortable with one another. The two couples who are supposed to be in love are starting to feel more comfortable operating in one another’s space.”
The cast of “Much Ado About Nothing” features Alex Ameen as Beatrice; Paul Calotta as Don John; Cassie DeVita as Margaret; Dan Fishman as Dogberry, Amanda Gaspari as the Messenger; Ashita Gopal, Jackie Marks, and Vidhi Luthra as the Watch; Reeva Grover as the Hero; Konrad Johnson as Claudio; Andrew Lavadera as Benedick; Monika Mastellone as Verges; Bill Plotkin as Borachio; Rollin Say as Don Pedro; Peter Weinmann as the Friar; Elizabeth Wendorf as the Sexton; Alvin White as Conrade; Sean Woodward as Leonato.
The cast also includes Erinsu Altan, DJ Ameen, Jill Berman, Allison DeAngelis, Alex Jacobs, Jessica Jeng, Annie Lu, Tara Lyon, JP Quigley, Owen Quigley, Jenny Reda, Ally Sandberg, Tomo Tamura.
Choreographers are Allissa Goldberg and Brianna Steinhilber, and Kunal Sharma wrote the music.
This point, just before performances begin, is one of the most rewarding times for a director, says Goodkin. “I love watching as they make the play their own. It goes from something unfamiliar to something with real life to it.”
— Jack Florek
“Much Ado About Nothing,” High School North, Thursday, November 11, through Saturday, November 13. All performances are at 8 p.m. “Romeo and Juliet,” High School South on Thursday, November 18, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, November 20, at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $7; $10 for both. Call High School North at 609-716-5100 or High School South at 609-716-5050 for more information.
Cast of R&G TK here.
