Midsummer Shakespeare and the Glass Horse’s Shakespeare in New Bedford will bring “Much Ado About Nothing” to both Marion and Mattapoisett at the beginning of August. 

Set in a modern day yacht club, Shakespeare’s beloved comedy has been updated with some gender-swapped roles — Friar Francis becomes Mother Frances, Leonato is Leonata — and some of the finer plot points have been brought up to date.

When she started working on the play at Tabor Academy, Director Maura Van Voris thought about how to bring the story about nobility on an island off the coast of Italy into a context familiar to audiences. 

“It has to be a group of people that would take an entire month off during the summer, just casually,” said Van Voris. “Of course, growing up in the area, I was thinking yacht clubs, those huge summer houses, that kind of idea.”

The setting works especially well because many of the performance venues are just steps from the water:  Tabor Academy, Shipyard Park in Mattapoisett, and the Onset Bandshell The script is also full of nautical references and jokes.

The set is a seaside garden, with a dock extending towards the audience who will be in the water (at least in the character’s eyes). 

“It’s really a unique experience to see Shakespeare out in the open air,” said Jess Wilson of Midsummer Shakespeare, who plays Beatrice.

“When we put a show on, I don’t want it to be the same as any other show that’s been done of it,” said Taylor K. Corbett, a co-producer from the Glass Horse Project.

Van Voris said that the show has been shaped extensively by the cast.

“You know when you get a group of people together and it’s just laughter and light — you feel that when you come in, and everyone’s really dedicated,” Van Voris said. “I love that as a director, to watch what they create.”

A number of the cast members are also from the tri-town. The play’s Antonia is from Marion, and one of the technical directors is from Mattapoisett. 

“The plot, the characters, the people are as real now as they were 400 years ago,” said Wilson, who noted that many beloved movies are based on Shakespeare’s plays: The Lion King is Hamlet, West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet, and She’s the Man is Twelfth Night. 

Another of the show’s co-producers, Korey Pimental of the Glass Horse Project, still wants to make Shakespeare accessible to everyone, regardless of their education or background in the theater, is important to him. 

“I like that we’re keeping Shakespeare progressive, because I don’t have patience for Shakespeare the way that people think about it. There’s a reason why we still perform Shakespeare. There’s a reason why we still study him, and it’s not just for all the sex jokes,” said Pimental. “I like that we’re taking this man, this people’s playwright, who was really writing for the commoner back then. There shouldn’t be a divide between the commoner then and the normal person now.”

Corbett said that the play is largely about communication (and miscommunication), and includes many themes that are still relevant to people today: the subject of a woman’s “purity,” gossip, an unmarried woman who, to her community’s dismay, says she doesn’t want to get married.

“A lot of it focuses on communication and how we communicate with people, and that’s always a relevant thing,” said Corbett. “It’s nice to know that works that were written then, and even before then, like the ancient Greeks — they were writing about these human problems that we always have to deal with, no matter what the time-frame is. That’s beautiful to me.”

Pimental and Corbett said that they have an “obsession with quality” and have worked hard to make sure the play will be an incredible experience for the audience.

“I think that this entire project has been fuelled by the desire to come together and just bring Shakespeare back to the world,” said Pimental.

“It’s not just the desire — it’s the need,” chimed in Corbett.

“Much Ado About Nothing” will be performed on Sunday, Aug. 4th at 1 p.m. at Shipyard Park and in the Fireman Performing Arts Center at Tabor Academy at 5 p.m. on Aug. 9. For a list of other performances across the South Coast, go to www.facebook.com/theglasshorseproject. Performances are free, but donations will be accepted.