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2026 Season
There's no such thing as a "new" Shakespeare play... or is there?
Experience Shakespeare's beloved comedy Much Ado About Nothing in a way we promise you've never seen before, in this original Merely Players mashup of Much Ado and Othello. Much Ado famously teeters right on the edge of disaster before pulling everyone back from the brink to celebrate a (mostly) happy ending of reconciliation and rekindled love. By contrast, Much Ado About a Handkerchief lets the jealous obsessions of the play travel to their natural conclusion: destruction and untimely death.
It's not QUITE a new play. But it's Shakespeare's very old words used in a very new way. So we ask you: what if Much Ado was a tragedy? Well, here's how you find out.
RATED: PG-13 for misogyny, suggestive humor, staged violence with blades including death and suicide, and stage blood; may not be suitable for children under 10 years old.
SHOWTIMES
Guest Starring
Jeff Miller
Jeff Miller (he/him) is happy to be playing yet another Father-of-the-Year in a Merely Players production, having previously portrayed The Old Man (A Merely Merrie Christmas Story) and Henry IV (Henry IV: The Follies of Falstaff), along with Longaville, a bachelor (Love’s Labour’s Lost). Other recent credits include Juror No. 7 (12 Angry Jurors), Andrew Undershaft (Major Barbara), Richard Burbage (Shakespeare in Love) and King Alonso (The Tempest). Professionally, he writes for technology companies and manages their media strategy.
Chris REichbach
Chris Reichbach (he/him) is fairly new to this whole “being surrounded by talented people” thing, and this is his first time with Merely Players after he committed some very light blackmail to get in. His only other recent role was Dr. Noel Domain in Rossum’s Universal Robots, which left some mental scars that will never heal. When not actively pretending to be someone else, he likes to passively do so in the form of video games, TTRPGs, anime, and other forms of unspeakable nerdery.
Corley Stanford
Corley Stanford (Hero) is a California transplant who moved to Corvallis in 2017 and just never left! After a decade-long absence from the stage, she returned to play Charlotte Corday in the acclaimed play, The Revolutionists, produced by the Majestic Theatre in 2023 and directed by Leigh Matthews Bock. Since then, Corley has been grateful to take part in multiple lab and main stage productions hosted by the Majestic, and hopes to do so for many years to come. This is her first time performing with The Merely Players and she is honored to be guest-starring alongside such a talented & charismatic troupe of thespians.
