By Jake Lawson

First of all, if you were, for whatever reason, unable to attend the fall production, you missed out. Plain and simple.

I wasn’t able to get a ticket to Metamorphoses last year, and I never heard the end of it, so now I get to be the one saying, “I can’t believe you didn’t go! It was so good! Feel bad about yourself!”

There really is no excuse for not getting a ticket; there’s no way you could have ignored those extremely scandalous posters of Grace Martin in a full-body-covering one-piece bathing suit.

This year’s production of Much Ado About Nothing was directed by none other than the lovely Mrs. Jenifer Coté, who was assisted by the lovely assistant director, Alice Doyle, and the equally lovely stage manager, Izzy Nickel.

Dances were choreographed by Henry Kwok, the set was built by anyone who was willing to pitch in, rehearsal happened daily for weeks upon weeks, and finally, for the first time in front of general audiences, on a Thursday evening, all eyes fell upon Chiara Catelli as she spoke the first lines of what would prove to be a pretty dang impressive four-day-running play.

Over the course of those four days, some pretty interesting events transpired. Audience members were sat upon (and not by their blind, confused, squawking great aunts either! Well, unless Rachel Scherrer is your blind, confused, squawking great aunt, which wouldn’t surprise me too much), unscripted tears were shed, crippling injuries were had, Riley Rose kissed Jack Lasseter, and we all saw a little bit too much of Marshall McGraw.

Remember when I told you that you missed out? Yeah.

I asked the cast (and the lovely director) of Much Ado About Nothing to give me a brief idea of pretty much anything from the show, good or bad. Here are some of the results.

“Ever since I was in Much Ado, my family has been calling me an ass a lot.” -Ian Martin

If you saw the show, you know what that means. It’s basically an inside joke. This is just another point where you feel bad for not getting a ticket if you didn’t.

“This show was an amazing way to end my four years here at SA. I got to wear not just one, but six real fur minks and I cried a lot. I loved it.” -Riley Rose Smothers

So emotional, so raw. Fall productions of Shakespeare plays are really emotional here at SA, even if they do involve Rachel climbing on top of you.

“When you’re creating an original adaptation, you never know if it’s going to work, and I pretty much didn’t know it was going to work until opening night, but it’s because these kids are so talented, it all worked out.” -Jenifer Coté

How cute is that? So proud.

“One time, Henry said dancing with our eyes closed would make us better dancers, but then Steven Stack dropped me and everyone laughed. Also, Melissa French was the best one in the show.” -Melissa French

I feel this quote really captures the essence of what it truly means to be in the theatre here at Sonoma Academy. Much Ado About Nothing? More like Much Ado About Everything. Enough said.