ACTING SHAKESPEARE: A Roundtable Discussion with Artists from the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 Production of Much Ado About Nothing

Abstract

Bahr: Welcome to the 2016 Actors’ Roundtable session of the Wooden O Symposium. We are grateful to have with us—as we do every year—the director of our featured production. David Ivers directed this year’s Much Ado About Nothing. We’re also very grateful for Leslie Lank, who is playing Hero; Ben Livingston, who plays Benedick; and Kim Martin-Cotton, this production’s Beatrice. One of the advantages of an intimate setting like this is that we have a chance to talk about how the production was put together and about their processes of creating memorable characters and relationships. I’m going to pass the microphone to David, then we’ll open this session for questions from you, the audience. I’d like to start, though, with a question directed to our guests, starting with David.