Let’s make ‘Much Ado’ as Idaho Shakespeare Festival returns for full season in 2022

In some ways, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival comes full circle when it opens next week. The first show is Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” the very production it was forced to shut down in March 2020.

The production, helmed by Artistic Director Charles Fee, was in technical rehearsals at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater, one of ISF’s two sister companies. The play was slated to open Boise’s 2020 summer season that May, and then travel to the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival for a six-week run.

None of that happened because of the global coronavirus pandemic, which shuttered theaters, concert halls and other performance venues for nearly a year and a half.

“It’s hard to speak to having your entire industry shut down,” said Laura Welsh Berg, an actor in the festival’s company since 2005, who takes on the role of Beatrice to Jeffrey C. Hawkins’ Benedick in “Much Ado.”

“It was incredibly emotional to come back to it,” she said. “When we shut it down it was hurried and everyone was scared. But we really were like, ‘Well, we’ll do it in Boise. Then we didn’t. We’ll do it in Tahoe, and then we didn’t.’ So, two years later and here we are.”

For both actors, the return to ISF last season was emotional — relief mixed with anxiety. Boise audiences saw Hawkins in “Sleuth” as part of an abbreviated season. Welsh Berg traveled to the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival for its one-show season of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.”

This time, back with one of the largest casts the festival has seen in a while, the wheels feel more secure on the tracks. “The return with this show, especially, is more joyful. I got some of the grief out last year,” Welsh Berg said.

Here’s the open: The troops return home from a battle, a civil war between the Prince (Lynn Robert Berg) and his brother Don John (Nick Steen), to Leonato’s estate in the Italian countryside. There is much joy and celebration, and love is in the air. Young Claudio (Domonique L. Champion) falls for Leonato’s daughter, Hero (Kailey Boyle), as Beatrice and Benedick spar for everyone’s entertainment. The match is made, and the stage set for a wedding.

To fill the time, the Prince decides to make another match: between Benedick, who rejects all women, and Beatrice, who would rather hear her dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves her.

All seems well, until trickery and deception cast the lovers’ plans awry and our little community into turmoil, as Benedick and Beatrice team up to defend Hero’s honor. Never fear, all will be righted in the end, and the journey is hilarious, with riotous bumbling country police on the case.

These are plum Shakespearean roles for the actors.

Hawkins and Welsh Berg are longtime company members with a long friendship. Welsh Berg has been a regular company member since debuting in 2005 in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” She’s been featured in some of ISF’s big-gun tragedies, most notably as the title character in “Hamlet” in 2017.

But Beatrice is a “dream role,” she said.

“Her one-liners are fantastic,” she said. “She calls it like she sees it, and she’s very astute in what’s going on around her. I love that in the middle of this comedy, you get a huge, beautiful dramatic scene, which is rare for women in Shakespeare.”

Hawkins opened the ISF Amphitheater in 1998 in the company of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He’s been in and out of the company since then, working mainly in Tahoe, but returned to the Boise company with “Sleuth” in 2021.

“(Benedick) is a pretty perfect role,” Hawkins said. “There are so many fun things you get to do. You get to be silly. You get to be romantic. You get to be dramatic, not just scene by scene but line by line sometimes. You’re just turning on a dime. It’s very human and that’s what makes it fun to watch.”

The play’s the thing

“Much Ado About Nothing,” May 20-June 11

Directed by Fee, this is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Beatrice and Benedick would rather exchange scorching insults than sweet nothings. However, the pugnacious pair are forced to forge a partnership in order to defend the house and honor, and salvage the true love of Hero and Claudio after deceptions destroy the lovers’ wedding day. Will the earnest endeavor to restore a young romance elicit an unexpected change of heart from the erstwhile combatants?

“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” June 17-July 9

This tuneful revue brings the music of one of the Jazz Era’s larger-than-life personalities, prolific songwriter and stride piano master to life in this tuneful, toe-tapping musical. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” features the songs of Thomas “Fats” Waller, including “Honeysuckle Rose,” “This Joint is Jumpin’,” “Your Feet’s Too Big,” “Black and Blue” and, of course, the title song. The revue tells the story of Waller and his times. It’s a true showcase for a cast of five triple-threat performers, under director/choreographer Gerry McIntyre, who is making his ISF debut.

“Romeo and Juliet,” July 15-30

ISF presents one of the most affecting tragedies in Shakespeare’s canon for its 2022 season centerpiece. This “tale of woe” tells the story of young star-crossed lovers and their families, the Montagues and Capulets, whose rancor and hatred of one another make for a tragic end to their children’s romance. This is one of The Bard’s most poetic tales that is most timely. The production, directed by Sara Bruner, examines the impact of community and civil rancor on the next generation.

“Little Shop of Horrors,” Aug. 5-27

You’re likely to get these Howard Ashman and Alan Menken tunes stuck in your head watching the ever-popular musical about a nerd who works in a flower shop and befriends a mad, man-eating plant. Based on one of the last of the B-movies, the musical became a cult off-Broadway hit in the early 1980s before a star-studded film and slick Broadway production. Director Victoria Bussert returns to ISF to create a new production with a cast of triple-threat talent to tackle this fun, campy, ultra-catchy musical.

“The 39 Steps,” Sept. 2-25

Shots are fired as the theater launches into a wacky adaptation of Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller, a hugely self-aware comedy that is peppered with plenty of Hitchcockian references. The basic plot revolves around German spies, stolen plans and a top-secret weapon, but never mind that. This send-up of the genre is filled with theatrical riffs, character plays, nods, winks and puns that chase the doldrums away.

Café Shakespeare

Café Shakespeare will collaborate with City of Good, a nonprofit created by Bittercreek Alehouse owner Dave Krick and other Boise restaurateurs. The cafe will serve a locally focused menu of salads, sandwiches, desserts and more inspired by City of Good’s Fuel Kits — box meals created by partner restaurants, including Certified Kitchen, Roots Zero Waste Market and others.

The menu still is in development, but you will be able to order meals up to seven days in advance.

Café Shakespeare opens at 5 p.m. on show nights.

The Greenshow

The preshow entertainment moves out of the amphitheater this summer and into the park. The Mini-Concert Series, featuring a host of local bands and performing artists, starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays on the new Meadow Stage, located just off the cafe patio. Performers include June Babies and Frim Fram Four.

Season and individual tickets

What: Idaho Shakespeare Festival 2021 season When: July 8-Sept. 26 Where: Idaho Shakespeare Festival Amphitheater, 5657 Warm Springs Ave., Boise. Show times: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Check the calendar for repertory performance dates.

Tickets: Packages and individual tickets are for terraces, chairs and hillside: Packages: $155 for three shows, $175 for four, $195 for five, general; Weekday value pack: $135 for three, $155 for four, $175 for five. Student season packages: $55, $65, $75 with valid ID for any night; $345-$400. Flex packages and box seat packages also are available.

Individual tickets: $36 for previews, $46 weekdays, $56 weekends for chairs and terraces, $26, $32, $40 for hillside, $25 for students. For musicals they are $39, $49, $61 general; $28, $34, $40 for hillside. Family night (First Sunday night in a run) is is $14 for everyone.

Box office: 336-9221 or IdahoShakespeare.org.