COLUMBUS, Ohio — Endeavor Theatre company is setting out to redefine the way stories are told on stage with a brand-new retelling of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."
"Truly one of the things that I really want Endeavor to be is a safe space for artists and a space where people can feel comfortable coming, taking risks, making mistakes while still producing high-quality, professional work," explained Corey Ragan, artistic director and one of the co-founders of Endeavor Theatre. "Our core values - our three things that we focus on - are intentionality, collaboration and experimentation. So, as a director, a really big focus of my work is nontraditional casting and centering historically-excluded voices, historically-marginalized voices."
Endeavor strives, in part, to make space for these voices through intentional choices in casting.
"A great example is the fact that we wanted this to be a queer production of 'Much Ado About Nothing,'" said Dana Bauman, president of Endeavor Theatre. "We really intentionally performers who are outside of the gender binary to play roles traditionally played by men."
Bauman is also taking on the traditionally male role of 'Benedick.' She pointed out that the love story between the characters of Benedick and Beatrice as traditionally portrayed as between a man and a woman, but will be depicted with intention as an expression of "queer love" in Endeavor's take.
"Depicting that and really letting audiences sit with the joy of queer love as opposed to, kind of, sadness that's often depicted in stories related to marginalized communities," said Bauman. "As a queer woman, it means a lot to me to get to play this character and to depict a queer love story and I'm really excited for audiences to get to see it."
Ragan pointed out that another character who is traditionally portrayed as a man and representative of misogyny, Leonato, is being played by nonbinary actor Ollie Worden.
"We're playing that character as, sort of, a lesbian bar owner," explained Ragan. "The idea kind of at the core of our staging of the show is Leonato created this environment for her friends and chosen family to feel safe in and that was a really big thing for us because, unfortunately, the world is the way it is and a lot of queer people don't have a lot of comfortable, safe spaces."
"We're challenging the notion of what Shakespeare can be," Ragan continued. "We're challenging the notion of what theater can be."
Endeavor Theatre's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" runs April 19-28 at Boxland Media in Worthington. For showtimes and ticket information, visit their website: https://endeavor-theatre.com/