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SYMPOSIUM ON ISSUES OF STAGING SHAKESPEARE'S MERCHANT OF VENICE
June 23, 2004 - Amherst, MA
In collaboration with the Center for Renaissance Studies of Massachusetts, the Hampshire Shakespeare Company presents
an afternoon symposium entitled Before and After the Holocaust: Issues in Staging Shakespeare's Shylock. The free
event is scheduled for Sunday, July 11, from 2 to 4 PM at the Center at 650 East Pleasant Street, Amherst. Led by Center
director Dr. Arthur Kinney, a panel of scholars will discuss problems posed by contemporary sensibilities when presenting
plays written in and for different times.
Panel participants will include Dr. Harley Erdman, chair of the Theater Department at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst and author of Staging the Jew: The Performance of an American Ethnicity, 1860-1920. Also on the panel will be
Rabbi David Bauer of the Jewish Community of Amherst who recently led a workshop examining Christopher Marlowe's
The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice as two works in which Jewish figures were central
to the plays.
Shakespeare scholar Anthony Burton served as dramaturg for the Hampshire Shakespeare Company's current production of
The Merchant of Venice and will also participate. Dr. Virginia Scott and Lauryn Sasso of the UMass Theater Department
have also been invited.
For more information about this and the HSC's current production of The Merchant of Venice,
running June 23 - July 11, 2004, call 413-548-8118, or visit the organization's web site at
www.hampshireshakespeare.org.
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