This section builds on Much Ado About Nothing: Researching a Production History and Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (1996).

1. Choose a Topic

You look at some clips of recorded productions of Much Ado on YouTube, including the Branagh film version and the David Tennant, and the video clips of the UCB performance in the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London.

2. Read, Then See

You read the play (in the Oxford Shakespeare Series edition?), then watch the entire Branagh film version, which you borrow from your school library.

3. Focus Your Interest

After watching the Branagh film, you decide to focus  - on the relationship between the two characters Beatrice and Benedick?

4. Research

You look up the recorded history (in your Oxford Shakespeare Series edition?), read the overview of Much Ado and the essay on the audience and Much Ado, and browse the visual account of the play’s production history in Much Ado About Nothing: Researching a Production History.

5. Organize Your Information

Since the Beatrice/Benedick relationship is so frequently praised and illustrated, you decide to try to plot its evolution by choosing to compare the opening scene with the church scene in Act IV, to elucidate the fascination of the progression in their feelings, and how this is expressed to attract audiences.