Much Ado About Nothing, the Shakespeare comedy that starred Karen Ziemba at Hartford Stage earlier this season, will begin performances at Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Nov. 5, for a run through January 5, 2003.

Ziemba will head the cast as Beatrice in this co-production with the Hartford Stage. She will be joined in Washington by many of the stars of the CT production. The D.C. cast comprises Dan Snook as Benedick; Michael Santo as Leonato, governor of Messina; Kathleen Early as Hero, Leonato's daughter; Peter Rini as Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon; Barrett Foa as Claudio, a young lord of Florence; Glenn Fleshler as Don John, Don Pedro's bastard brother; Ralph Cosham as Antonio, Leonato’s brother; and Richard Ziman as Dogberry, master constable.

Directed by Mark Lamos and choreographed by Seán Curran, the remainder of the creative team includes Riccardo Hernandez (scenic designer), Catherine Zuber (costume designer), Mimi Jordan Sherin (lighting designer), John Gromada (sound designer), Charles Conwell (fight coordinator) and Elizabeth Smith (vocal consultant).

Karen Ziemba won a Tony Award portraying the Wife in Susan Stroman's Contact, which recently ended its run at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. She has also starred on Broadway in Chicago, Steel Pier, Crazy for You and 42nd Street, and her Off Broadway work includes a Drama Desk Award-winning performance in And the World Goes 'Round as well as roles in I Do! I Do!, 110 in the Shade and The Most Happy Fella.

Tickets for Much Ado About Nothing are priced $16-$66 and are available by calling the theatre's box office at (202) 547-1122. The Shakespeare Theatre is located at 450 7th Street NW in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.shakespearetheatre.org. — By Robert Simonson
and Andrew Gans