Q&A with Director Brad Carroll on Much Ado About Nothing

Director Brad Carroll returned to the Festival this season with his delightfully heartwarming production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Audiences may remember Carroll from his many Festival productions. As music director/conductor he helmed Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, Ragtime, and The Pirates of Penzance; as director he led Sweeney Todd, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Liar, Murder for Two, South Pacific, The Comedy of Errors, Les Misérables, Johnny Guitar, The Spitfire Grill, H.M.S. Pinafore, Camelot, 1776, and Man of La Mancha.

Carroll is the composer of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, which had its world premiere at the Festival. It also played at Theatre Royal, Plymouth (England); Opera Leipzig (Germany); and the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End, where it received a cast recording. Additionally, Carroll is the composer of “A” Train, which won best production at the United Solo Festival in New York City.

In addition to his Festival credits, Carroll has worked at PCPA, Idaho Shakespeare, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Utah Festival Opera, Anchorage Opera, Phoenix Theater, UC-Santa Barbara, and UCLA. He also served as a creative consultant/director for Walt Disney International in Tokyo.

The Festival sat down with Carroll to visit about his experience in directing Much Ado About Nothing.

The Festival: Why were you excited to direct this play?

Carroll: I’ve always liked the play, and I’ve seen the last three productions that the Festival has done and it’s so fun. I love how light it is, and the fireworks between Beatrice and Benedick. When we get to the part where it turns bad, I always forget that that’s coming, and that speaks to how well-crafted the play is.

I don’t do Shakespeare very often. At the Festival I’m known as “the music guy,” and it’s a kind of terrifying thrill to direct Shakespeare with this group of people. Also, it’s one of Shakespeare’s comedies with the most music in it.

The Festival: This is our ninth production of the play, but the first time it will be produced in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Why were you excited to direct in this space and how does it affect the production?

Carroll: I love working in the Randall; practically everything I’ve done at the Festival has been in that theatre. The aesthetic for the outdoor theatres has always been the Elizabethan approach, and all of our Much Ado About Nothing productions have been done similarly. By moving it indoors, the theatre relaxes that aesthetic.

It’s terrifying and exciting that this is the first time it’s been indoors, and I am much more of a traditionalist, and I love that “once upon a time” feeling in Shakespeare plays. In this production, we are working on not setting it in a certain place and year. We’ve found that this has been freeing. It will still have a traditional feeling, and be beautiful to look at.

The Festival: What challenges came with preparing to direct this play?

Carroll: The biggest challenge is keeping it all clear, and trying to cut information that isn’t pertinent to the story or might confuse the audience, but also making sure that all those seeds get planted so that they can be tracked by the audience. For example, there’s a lot of information that gets communicated by the party scene, and so trying to keep the focus of the audience to see the communication between certain characters is challenging because you can’t just put the camera on them like in a movie.

The Festival: In design meetings, you noted that you drew inspiration from artist Maurice Prendergast. What other inspiration did you draw from?

Carroll: The inspiration isn’t so much literal as it is just a feeling. Prendergast’s work is fun and freeing. In his paintings, he’ll paint a scene in Venice in the background, but the people in the foreground are the focus, and for me this play is about real people. It doesn’t rely on the supernatural or other Shakespearean tricks; it’s just people at face value.

For our set, I wanted to give the actors an area for the play to happen rather than a lifelike Italian villa onstage. My mind wants it to be more imaginative, and invite the audience to use their imaginations.

The Festival: As playgoers, what should we watch for in this play that would help us more fully enjoy or understand the play? Are there any special “Easter eggs” you have implemented in the show?

Carroll: This play is so riddled with its own Easter eggs because it’s a play about misunderstanding; so tracking those is its own job for the audience. When I was first reading it, I kept having to turn back to see how the information got misconstrued, and so I think Shakespeare has given us all the “Easter eggs” we need.

The Festival: What do you hope audience members will take away from this play?

Carroll: I hope they feel great. To me, this play is a comedy that borders on tragedy, and at the end it’s a play about forgiveness and second chances. It’s an important theme in our world today. In order to truly forgive someone for something, you have to give up a piece of yourself, and not everyone is capable of doing that. I want the audience to see how big the characters’ hearts become after the tragedy of the play, [when they] forgive and move on.

The Festival: How long have you been directing plays? How long have you worked with the Festival? What draws you to be a director?

Carroll: I’ve been directing for over 40 years, and I’ve been with the Festival since 2002. I’ve been a music director, I’ve been an actor, but what I like about directing is the global viewpoint the director has of the play. It forces me to expand my thinking beyond my own world. I feel like I’ve traveled the world just by doing research on plays.

To purchase tickets to Much Ado About Nothing, visit bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX. The play runs until October 5.