Set in the mid 19th century, this production of Much Ado About Nothing, retains the comedy and love story of Shakespeare’s original text. The production, while deeply entertaining, looks at American history, through the microcosm of California history that was dramatically altered by the discovery of gold and the trans-continental railroad. This period of California history, in tandem with SDSU’s practice of multicultural and nonbinary casting, provides unique insights to American power structures which were often grounded in prejudicial exclusion of people based on their race, gender, and social-economic class. These points of view conspired together to form barriers for many who sought “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
