MERCHANT OF VENICE

Theater Breaking Through Barriers' take on Shakespeare's classic THE MERCHANT OF VENICE will be performed in one hour and forty minutes with no intermission, with seven actors, including five with disabilities. A comedy about 4 contracts and 4 outcasts, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE follows a Christian merchant and his relationship with a Jewish moneylender. The contracts deal with flesh, rings, caskets, and livery; and the play asks how you respond to a broken deal: with justice or mercy.

Artistic Director Ike Schambelan states, "'Merchant' is usually seen as a play dealing with anti-Semitism. We think it's about otherness in general since in addition to a Jew, it has a Muslim, a Hispanic, and a blind man — the blind scene is almost always cut." All four of the "others" will be played by one actor, Nicholas Viselli, showing the parallels of prejudice based on race, religion, and disability in a multicultural society that's an international trading center. Be it Venice in 1600 or NYC now, it's a place where cultures clash and conflicts ensue.

The ensemble of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE includes TBTB company members and newcomers, Mary Theresa Archbold, Melanie Boland, Stephen Drabicki, David Harrell, Gregg Mozgala, Pamela Sabaugh, and Nicholas Viselli.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers, formerly Theater by the Blind, is a critically acclaimed company integrating able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities. Founded in 1979, by Artistic Director Ike Schambelan, the company's mission is to change the image of people with disabilities from one of dependence to independence, to fight stereotypes and misperceptions associated with disability, and to show how vibrant, fluid and exuberant the work of artists with disabilities can be.