'Merchant of Venice' opens in Congress Park
Favored by good weather and stellar reviews, Saratoga Shakespeare Company's production of The Merchant of Venice -- which plays through July 23 in Congress Park -- is off to a great start.
Lary Opitz as Shylock
"Director William A. Finlay has assembled a top notch cast to play the leads in those stories, and veteran actor Lary Opitz offers a Shylock for the ages," writes Michael Eck in The Times Union. "...(P)ark patrons are lucky to have such art in their midst."
With Skidmore faculty, students, and faculty playing instrumental roles, the company has transformed the Alfred Z. Solomon Stage in Congress Park into Shakespeare's Venice. Performances will take place each nightthrough Saturday, July 16 and July 19-23 at 6 p.m. In addition, there will be 3 p.m. matinees on Sunday July 17 and 24. All performances are free and open to the public.
In addition to Opitz, who is professor and chair of Skidmore's Theater Department, the production includes Skidmore alumni Giancarlo Osaben '11 and Kim Brown '10 and current theater students Christine Pardos '14, Paul-Emile Cendron '13, David Brummer '14, and Alexander Orthwein '13.
The production dramaturge is Jay Rogoff, president of the Saratoga Shakespeare Company and lecturer in Skidmore's English Department. He led a discussion of the play at the Saratoga Springs Public Library the night before the play opened.
''Merchant' is a prickly play which reignites controversy almost every time it?s done because of its thorny portrayal of relations between Christians and Jews," writes Eck.
"The famous Shylock ... is not the merchant in question," he continues. "That is Antonio, and his bargain with the usurer, in which Shylock asks for a pound of flesh as bond, rather than money, drives much of the play. The agreement is reached as insurance for a love story, and the twin strands of romance and money twine throughout 'Merchant.'"
Saratoga Shakespeare is Saratoga County's only professional theater company, and the only company in the Capital Region dedicated to the production of classic theater. Since its inaugural production of Twelfth Night in 2000, thousands of theater lovers have seen the company's free performances of nine different plays.
This production is funded in part by the Saratoga Program for Arts Funding, a re-grant program of the New York State Council of the Arts, administered by Saratoga Arts.
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