In the first folio edition of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” there is a character who enters as the governor’s wife. However, she never speaks, never exits, is never mentioned by name and is likely a typo. 

This is her story.

“Imogen Says Nothing” tells the story of a bear named Imogen who has escaped from a renaissance-era bear-baiting arena in London. When she has to return to the city, she disguises herself as a woman in order to infiltrate British nobility so that she can get her hometown of Quare, formerly North Burcombe, back on the map in the way her people want. 

In doing so, Imogen inadvertently finds herself with Shakespeare’s acting troupe and winds up on stage during the premiere of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Director Ryan Kaplan, a senior at Windham High School, is the founding artistic director of Rise Theatre Group. Kaplan said he has kept the idea of doing this show in his “back pocket for a long time.” The show’s unconventional nature and enticing, yet niche, storyline has made it hard for Kaplan to stay away.

“My goal with all of the shows that we do is to bring to the forefront writers and stories that are not getting produced, which is a really important thing to me,” Kaplan said. 

 Kaplan’s dedication to showcasing underrepresented voices drove him to finally choose “Imogen Says Nothing” for his last project. 

“I thought it was really funny and just an ambitious, bold plot,” Kaplan said. “I thought, ‘What better time than my last chance directing during my senior year to have us put it up?’” 

When directing, Kaplan practices “theme-based storytelling,” a process that starts with determining the main theme or central message of a play.  That theme then becomes the foundation of the show, with every decision made in relation to the production circling back to the theme. 

“For this show, the theme we decided upon is ‘erasure and censorship can have adverse effects on our perception of history,’” Kaplan said. 

Kaplan incorporates that theme into the rehearsals by talking with the cast on where their character fits into the overall theme. Is their character someone who is being erased, someone doing the erasing or someone who’s perceiving history incorrectly because of erasure.

“[The theme] will also come out in aspects of design, things like the set being designed to reflect the importance of writing things down and the historical record,” Kaplan said. “It will be actually lots of words from famous texts and also copies of Shakespeare’s plays used in the design of the set to emphasize the importance of things that are in ink.” 

Eighth grader Connor Burns plays John Heminges, one of the actors in Shakespeare’s troupe. Right before the players’ first performance of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Heminges becomes so intoxicated he can barely walk, let alone hold himself up. 

The troupe decides to have Imogen, who should be working the box office, go onstage with John as his character’s wife in order to hold him up. However, women aren’t allowed on stage and many of the players don’t support this. The show deals with some “heavier topics,” like the erasure of women and minority groups from history’s narrative.

“The show really shows how much of an impact writing one small thing can have on others’ lives and the importance of considering what to put down permanently,” Burns said. 

Freshman Ava Leahy is the assistant stage manager. One of her many jobs  is to catch all the mistakes the actors have made with their lines, in order to tell the story as accurately as possible. 

“That helps to get all of the actors’ lines memorized, and make sure that we’re doing the script by how it’s written,” Leahy said.

The stage managers are key in making sure that script is followed, as well as making sure that the show runs smoothly and everything is done correctly and efficiently. 

“Essentially our job is to know everything,” Leahy said. “Along with that, we’re doing costumes, scheduling, putting together the design, all so [everyone] can get a better understanding of what the show is.” 

Pinkerton senior Kennedy Furnner plays Imogen, the titular character, who she describes as “definitely not a typical ingénue.” 

“She has a lot of layers that really fold back throughout the show and get revealed,” Furnner said. “But the biggest word I would use to describe Imogen is strong. You can definitely tell that she has been through some things throughout the show, but she really uses them to fuel her actions and everything she does.”

Furnner has had to “change a lot of the things [she] thought [she] knew about acting,” in order to accurately portray Imogen. 

“It’s definitely been a very different process,” Furnner said. “She’s a rough-around-the-edges character, so I really try to pitch my voice kind of down and make it a little bit lower because she’s matured and aged through these different challenges. And additionally, just the way she would respond to certain situations, I would not say is natural to me.”

Furnner said that this play “will not be like any show you’ve seen before,” with every aspect of design being very unique. 

“It’s very out of the box and new,” Furnner said. “And I think it’s just a show that people need to see nowadays.”

Imogen is often “overlooked and not listened to” throughout the majority of the play, though, according to Furnner, Imogen’s message is “very important.”

“I think sometimes we listen to the loudest voice in the room, but it’s not always the most important voice,” Furnner said. “[Other voices] need to be heard. And I think that’s something we can apply to our world as well, just making sure that everyone is respected and heard.”