Photo Flash: First Look at Great Lakes Theater's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Opening Tonight

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, continues the second half its 2012-13 season with William Shakespeare comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. The production will be performed in the company's revolutionary and audience-friendly home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, tonight, March 29 through April 14, 2013. Sharon Ott directs. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a sublime battle of wits and wills. Beatrice and Benedick would rather exchange scorching insults than sweet nothings. However, the pugnacious pair is forced to forge a partnership in order to defend 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 for the effort's unlikely collaborators as well?

A leading figure in the American theater for over 30 years, director Sharon Ott will make her Great Lakes Theater debut with Much Ado About Nothing. Over the course of her decorated career, she served as Artistic Director for two major regional theaters - the Berkeley Repertory Theater (for 13 years) and the Seattle Repertory Theater (for 8 years) - winning many awards for her work as a director and producer, including three Bay Area Theater Awards (The Tooth Of Crime, Heartbreak House and You, Nero), several Hollywood Dramalogue awards (Ballad Of Yachiyo, The Lady From the Sea, Twelfth Night and others), the Elliot Norton Award (Boston, MA, for The Woman Warrior), the Paine Knickerbocker Lifetime Achievement Award (San Francisco, for Artistic Direction of Berkeley Rep) and an Obie Award (shared with members of Theatre X, Milwaukee, for A Fierce Longing, production design). During her last season as Artistic Director at Berkeley Rep, the company received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. She currently lives in Savannah, Georgia, where she is a professor and serves as the Artistic Director of the Performing Arts Department at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

The Opening Night (also Press Night) performance of Much Ado About Nothingis scheduled for Saturday, March 30th. A preview performance is scheduled for the preceding Friday night evening (March 29th). Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees. A sign-interpreted and audio-described matinee performance will be offered on Sunday, April 7th.

Single performance tickets range in price from $15-$70 (Student tickets are $13) and are available by calling (216) 241-6000, by ordering online or by visiting The PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office. Groups of ten or more receive discounts of up to 40% by calling (216) 241-5490 x302.

Great Lakes Theater, the first resident company of PlayhouseSquare, has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience since 1962. GLT programming positively impacts 100,000 adults and students annually.

Photo Credit: Roger Mastroianni

Cast of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Cassandra Bissell (as Beatrice) and J. Todd Adams (as Benedick)

Company of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

The bachelor Benedick (actor, third from left, J. Todd Adams) is "busted" by his conspiring cronies Leonato (actor, first from left, David McCann), Claudio (actor, second from left, Neil Brookshire) and Don Pedro (actor, right, David Anthony Smith).

Maggie Kettering (left, as Margaret), Cassandra Bissell (center, as Beatrice) and Betsy Mugavero (as Hero)

Neil Brookshire (left, as Claudio) suspiciously eyes his bride-to-be, actor Betsy Mugavero (as Hero) as an unsuspecting adjudicator, actor Eric Damon Smith (center, as Friar Francis) watches on.

DougFred Miller (center, as Dogberry) mentors a member of his motley band of watchmen (right, actor, Austin Blunk) as his sidekick, actor M.A. Taylor (left, as Verges) watches on.

Cassandra Bissell (as Beatrice) and J. Todd Adams (as Benedick)

Betsy Mugavero (as Hero) and David Anthony Smith (as Don Pedro)

Juan Rivera Lebron (as Don John)

Laurie Birmingham (as Antonia) and David McCann (as Leonato)

Laurie Birmingham (left, as Antonia) and David McCann (center, as Leonato) console their spurned daughter, actor Betsy Mugavero (as Hero).

Juan Rivera Lebron (left, as Don John) and Neil Brookshire (right, as Claudio)

Neil Brookshire (left, as Claudio), Eric Damon Smith (center, as Balthasar) and David McCann (right, as Leonato) revel as J. Todd Adams (up, as Bendick) eavesdrops.

Neil Brookshire (left, as Claudio) and David Anthony Smith (right, as Don Pedro)