By Amber Erickson, Krasl Art Center

Shining a light on the outcast, the excluded, and the other, the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (NDSF) Touring Company partners for the third year with the Krasl Art Center to present an exciting new production of Shakespeare’s classic slapstick comedy The Merchant of Venice on Friday, July 27 at 7pm.

Director Jemma Alix Levy helms this year’s Touring Company production. Levy is the Founding Artistic Director of Muse of Fire Theatre Company, which just finished its seventh season in Evanston, IL, where she spends her summers. She has directed multiple Shakespeare productions for Muse of Fire and other companies, including Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Henry V, as well for other schools and theatres including The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (American Shakespeare Center), and Macbeth (Quill Theatre). She is currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA.

Join the NDSF Touring Company in its signature ensemble style under the open sky, and explore the plight of the mistreated “other” in a time when Shakespeare’s comic and dramatic dilemmas are as relevant as ever. Director Levy’s new staging of The Merchant of Venice engages audiences through both hilarious comedy and a villain who elicits great sympathy.

Visit shakespeare.nd.edu to learn more about the Touring Company and other exciting NDSF programs.

NEW LOCATION THIS YEAR! The Krasl Art Center will be holding this year’s Shakespeare performance in the Benton Harbor Arts District at the corner of 5th Street and Territorial Road (at the shipping container) due to Sculpting Community construction taking place on the KAC’s grounds. To learn more about Sculpting Community, visit https://krasl.org/art/sculpture-map/sculpting-community/ or to make a donation, visit https://public.krasl.org/web/donate.

This performance is FREE and open to the public; bring the whole family, pack your own chairs, and experience The Merchant of Venice like never before.

Soft drinks and water for sale during the event, cash only.