Concho Shakespeare makes their final preparations for their production of “The Merchant of Venice”, which debuts Sunday, Oct. 5, at the Black Box Theatre, 82 Gillis St.
The earliest productions of “The Merchant of Venice” date to 1605.
The play is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, although that word used to mean something different. Today, we would consider it a traditional drama. To Shakespeare, it would have been one of his more upbeat plays, as every character lives to see the end of the story.
The process began with auditions, which you can read about here. We got to visit with Trina Delgado as she sorted out the costuming. Then comes the costume parade, and tech week.
Elizabeth Mayer, assistant director, is watching as the actors fidget with their costumes, and final adjustments are made, changes to jewelry, hats, scarves, while the cast and crew dart back and forth to grab different flourishes.
“Everybody comes out in order of how they appear in the show, you line them up, see how they look together,” says Mayer. “This is so the actor knows what they’re getting into, it’s not like ‘somebody needs shoes’ or ‘somebodies outfit doesn’t work out’, so this is how we finalize the final costuming.”
“Considering we have no budget, no real home, this is a new program; considering all that it’s going really smooth,” says assistant director Micah Floyd. “We’ve got a great product! Now we’re just fine tuning, seeing where to trim the show to make it more palatable.”
The show will run right around two hours with an intermission.
