The Merchant of Venice

Notes from the Director

A director always looks at a play both in its own context and in the context in which it will play so that the production can reflect the author's wishes while effectively communicating to current audiences. With modern plays, that's easy to do. But what do we do when the world has changed so much that an audience can't help but see something very different from what the author intended? In Shakespeare's time, prejudice was considered not a social problem but a source of comedy, and his Merchant of Venice was intended as a warning to Elizabethans against the growing practice of usury in England. In America in 2001, the opposite is true- we all, every one of us, lives on credit and pays interest without questioning it, whereas prejudice is widely touted as one of the most destructive forces in our society. The wacky, evil Jew-stereotype no longer provides us with guilt-free giggles to offset the serious message, which is that the greatest good is not to lend at interest but "to give and hazard all you have for love." But though watching Shakespeare's play is a more heavily layered event for us modern folk, the heart of his message remains true. Usury, the only job allowed to Jews in Shakespeare's England, and paradoxically, one excuse for the gentiles' hatred of the Jews, IS a huge problem in modern America. We may save friendships by borrowing from faceless corporations instead of our nearest and dearest, but every year, thousands of people go into debt and lose everything they have to those same faceless entities. Meanwhile, our "enlightened" and "politically correct" society pays a great amount of lip service to equal rights for all, but synagogues are still defaced, people of color are still grossly overrepresented in prisons and underrepresented in positions of power, lesbians and gays do not have a legal right to marry the person they love, and women make only 72 cents for every dollar made by men in equivalent positions. Not very funny, huh? Luckily, in our society, as in Shakespeare's, there is room for laughter and great cause for hope; people can learn, and true love and honest dealing can change hearts and minds. Now, as ever:

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest,
It blesseth him that give, and him that takes…

When we learn to see beyond skin colors, "lifestyle choices", and other perceived differences between us to see everything we have in common, when we develop the empathy that opens the way for mercy, we create a better world for everyone.

Bios

• Frankie Travis (Bassanio)
  • has graced the Cinnabar stage recently as Maxine in Tongue of a Bird and as the platinum blond in Gershwin's Facinating Rhythm. Some of her favorite roles here in the North Bay have been Kafka in Actors Theatre's All in the Timing, Cleo in Most Happy Fella and Sr. Leo in Nunsense.
• Corisa Baley Aaronson (Shylock)
  • Corisa's father introduced Shakespeare's stories and language to her at age nine. It was love at first sound! Corisa has performed as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream, Olivia in Twelfth Night and scenes from Othello, Winter's Tale and Macbeth. Corisa's favorite modern roles are all ten women in Jeffery, and Grace in Dance With Me. She studies voice with Shakespeare and Company, physical acting with A.C.T.'s Letitia Bartlett, dance with Ann Woodhead and acting with Lennie Deqan. Corisa dedicates this performance to Sid, the "sid qua non".
• Chloe Bronzan (Jessica)
  • New to the Bay Area, Chloe has recently been seen in Shocktoberfest 2000 at the Exit Theatre, as Celia in As You Like It, at the Mill Valley Centennial Festival and in various productions at the College of Marin. Her favorite roles include Pooty in Reckless, Shelby in Steel Magnolias and Abigail in The Crucible. Chloe lives in San Anselmo with her standard poodle, "Tartuffe".
• Lee Kiszonas (Gratiano
  • This is Lee's maiden voyage with Woman's Will. She is usually land bound as the artistic director of the Chameleon Theatre Company and has most recently been seen as Mags in Cannibals Alone; Hoyer in Walking the Dead and the Governess in The Turn of the Screw. Thank you, Erin, for expanding my horizons!
• J. Tiffany Holland (Prince of Morocco)
  • Tiffany is super psyched to be working with Woman's Will for the first time. She has been in the Bay Area for three years appearing in numerous productions including Violet at Theatre Works and Walking the Dead with the Chameleon Theatre Company. When not acting, she teaches at Young Performer's Theatre in San Francisco. She enjoys hip hop dance class and tequila.
• Meara O'Reilly (Nerissa)
  • graduated from Marin Academy High School last year, and has been studying and performing around the Bay Area. She has acted in several independent films, most recently I Knew a Girl Named Hollywood directed by Glenn Farez, and performed with the Cutting Ball Theatre Company last summer in The End of the World as We Know It: a double bill of Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, and Heiner Muller's Hamlet Machine. Favorite roles include Solveig in Peer Gynt, Ilse in Spring Awakening, Olivia in Twelfth Night. Merchant of Venice marks her first Woman's Will production and she hopes you enjoy the show.
• Mary McGloin (Solanio)
  • is pleased to be working on her second production with Woman's Will having played Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1998. Mary grew up here in Petaluma and is excited to be performing again for her hometown crowd. Mary has acted for the past fifteen years throughout California and a bit in Illinois. In the Bay Area, some of the theatres Mary has performed with include TheatreWorks, Shakespeare at Stinson, Actor's Theatre at Sonoma County, City Lights and Teatro Vision.
• Emberley Strong (Antonio)
  • A native of New England, Emberley's theatre career spans the past fifteen years. Having resided in the Bay Area for the past seven years, she has appeared with CenterREP of Walnut Creek, Bindlestiff Theatre, Exit Theatre, The Actors' Collective, Playwrights Center of S.F., Red Rocket Theater, and Common Cultural Practice, among others. Favorite previous roles include Lizzie Borden (the infamous ax murderess) and the mute Kattrin in Mother Courage. She is also a puppeteer and voiceover artist. Having only just moved back after a year in Hollywood pursuing a film career, Emberley is thrilled to be back in "the best place on earth", treading the boards in her first appearance with Woman's Will. This performance is dedicated to the late Edna "Dot" Cushing and the great Nancy Duffett.
• Beth Kellermann (The Duke)
  • Beth is pleased to making her debut with Woman's Will, having most recently been seen as a "living" marble statue of Hera with Stage Hereafter, and Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream at Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival. She received her MFA in Acting/ Directing from CSULB, and has performed with companies that include the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Shakespeare Orange County, and the Laguna Playhouse. Favorite roles include Gertrude in Hamlet, Elmire in Tartuffe, Elizabeth in The Circle, and Meg in Dylan for which she received a Drama-Logue award.
• Jubilith Moore (Portia)
  • Jubilith is honored to have an opportunity to play the girl who wears the pants in the play! She was most recently seen in the Woman's Will production of hamlet (the melancholy dame) in which she portrayed the Ghost (oddly enough, she wore a skirt!!!). She hopes you find a talisman in today's performance.
• Erin Merritt (Director)
  • Is the founding Artistic Director of Woman's Will, where she acts, directs and teaches. In the 2000 season, she played the lecherous Lucio in Measure for Measure and adapted and directed the bold, expressionistic hamlet (the melancholy dame). For Woman's Will, Ms. Merritt has also directed Two Gentlemen of Verona and performed the title role in Coriolanus. Other directing highlights include Brecht's A Man's a Man and Heiner Muller's Quartet. Ms. Merritt has studied taught and performed with the Berkeley/ California Shakespeare Festival, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, The Carmel Shakespeare Festival, and Massachusetts' Shakespeare and Company among others. As an actor, she has been seen in the Bay Area with such companies as Shotgun Players, Center Rep, Pacific Repertory Theatre, and Unconditional Theatre. Regional theatre credits include the Woman in Scotland Road, Li'l Bit in How I Learned to Drive, and the title role in Sylvia. Her treatise on Brecht, Logical Brecht: what he did, why he did it, how we do it has been used as a textwork at her alma mater, Reed College, for the past ten years.

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