Much Ado – medals

Stratford Festival – 1998

The comedic police constables Dogberry and Verges are awarded medals at the end of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

I made two of these on short notice, but I admit I did not sew the beautiful ribbons together. My colleague Polly did. Actor Stephen Ouimette played Dogberry and Brian Tree played Verges.

In order to make the two medals, I went to the Stratford toy shop and bought beads in the shape of letters. I cut two disks of thin aluminum and i drilled holes in each of the letters and around one of the disks and “riveted” the letters in place using earring findings. They read “Messina Justicia”.

I drilled holes and using thread wire attached a toy sheriff’s star onto the disk upside down (a theatre trick is to use a familiar shape upside down so the audience can’t see it properly and figure out what it is, but it reads as a type of the real thing).

I also wired a curtain ring around the outside of the star. I then made holes around the edges and cut a piece of chain and wired it around the outside.

To conceal the wire ends on the back and to give the whole thing a luxurious weight, I glued a piece of felt on the back and then added the other flat aluminum disk.

This production also played at New York’s City Center.

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