William Shakespeare‘s Much Ado About Nothing opens tonight, March 9, 2022 at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and runs through April 2, 2022. Tickets range from $22 to $33.
Orlando Shakes no longer requires a negative COVID-19 test result to attend performances or special events. Guests 5 years of age and older are encouraged, but not required, to wear a face mask when inside the building. More info at orlandoshakes.org/safety.
“When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.” Lies and deceit threaten to bring lovers together or tear them apart in Shakespeare’s sharp-tongued romcom.Love’s in the air when Don Pedro’s army, including Claudio and Benedick, returns victorious from war. Claudio must navigate the passions and jealousies of courting when he falls smitten for the beautiful Hero. Meanwhile, their friends devise a scheme to spark a romance between the confirmed bachelor Benedick and his long-time adversary, Beatrice.
The effort to paint and design the poster for the show was an epic journey as well. My first pass at the poster focused only on Beatrice. I had her in a mask and looking mysterious and beautiful. At least that was my intent.I set the scene in the masked ball and had her masked as well. The title treatment seemed a bit weak to start so I knew I needed to beef that up as I worked on future designs.
Since the show is about secrets and deceit, I realized a whisper might be the verb that set the tone for the final image. I decided I should uncover her face so that I could focus on her expression. I was pushed in for an extreme close up and decided to pull back a bit for the next version. Her expression wasn’t as strong as it could be as well, so I decided to rework her. By pulling back away from the couple I could focus on their hand gestures as well and that is when I added her hand to the scene. Once the title was re-worked, I felt that a garden spiraling design over the type helped in the arching effect I wanted for the top of the poster. I got to play with the mirroring feature in my painting program for the first time and it made creating and refining the curling forms a pleasure.
Getting her hand in the poster helped sell the shocked expression. I tried putting her mask back on but again it detracted for seeing her shocked expression. I also reworked the title which was now working much better. Another thing I started to do was think about adding a cracked surface to the painting to make the image appear like an older painting.