The Merchant of Venice Project

Directed by Anneke Reich

November 19-20, 2021

The Charlestown Working Theater

CAST (in alphabetical order)

Antigone Brandel-Iuliano – Lorenzo / Duke / Salanio

Lara Gordon – Shylock / Nerissa

Ariel Phillips – Bassanio 

Ramón Rivera Fireside – Antonio / Launcelot Gobbo

Naomi Stephenson – Portia / Jessica

Additional unnamed roles played by members of the ensemble.

CREATIVE TEAM

Director – Anneke Reich

Assistant Director – Rachel Greene

Production Manager / Scenic and Lighting Design – Steve Vieira

Costume and Sound Design – Anneke Reich

Projection Design – Antigone Brandel-Iuliano

Teaching Artist – Lindsay Williams

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Welcome to The Merchant of Venice. We are thrilled to have you with us this evening.

Tonight’s workshop production materialized as the cast and creative team thoughtfully navigated discussions around the marginalization of Jewish people, women, and LGBTQ+ folks; around being “othered” in shared spaces; and around the resulting impact on one’s sense of self, agency, and personhood. The scenes that our ensemble selected to perform examine the play’s characters in moments of intense stress and, for some, deep injustice. How do characters react in impossible situations, and especially in situations tied to their inescapable identities? How do WE react today?  

From the start, our group examined The Merchant of Venice through the lens of Jessica more than any other character, informing our experience of and creative choices for the piece you will see. In Shakespeare’s original text, we hear very little of Jessica’s voice. We sought to discover and mine what is named in the silences, to imagine what her experiences might be when she is truly alone, and between the moments that she speaks to us. We questioned what motivates her to abandon her father, what it might feel like for her to be “saved” by Lorenzo, and if she genuinely desires to convert to Christianity. We delved into her motivations, and asked what it means to exert agency in a world in which your choices are so limited.

Our young actors have, from the first day, approached this process with immense care, asking hard questions and not necessarily expecting easy answers. I honor the fact that while this process took many unexpected twists, their commitment to the piece and their trust in each other never faltered.

Now, I invite you to sit with us in the questions, and not to settle for simple answers. Interrogate what is behind a person’s choices, both within this theatre and beyond. And if you are disturbed by what you find, let that be your spark and inspiration. Something needs to change.

-Anneke Reich

THANKS

Many thanks to our youth program supporters: Bloomberg Philanthropies via Edvestors; The Blue Piano Fund; The Commonwealth Corporation; Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund; The Hancock Family; Liberty Mutual Foundation; The Massachusetts Cultural Council; The National Endowment for the Arts [ArtWorks]; The Parker Clare Fund; The Parker Family Foundation; The Ramsey McCluskey Family Foundation; and many individual donors.

Very special thanks to: Families of all youth participants; Penny Schwartz.