Shakespeare on the Concho: The Art of Audition  

All That Glisters is Not Gold …

That’s not true for the cast and crew of Shakespeare on the Concho, with each one bringing their own aura to the production.  

After the renowned Be Theatre shut down in 2024, alumni are continuing their tradition with this year’s production of “The Merchant Of Venice” this October.

Savannah and Micah Floyd run the show, with assistant director Elizabeth Mayer. All three have been acting in local troupes from youth. 

Nine actors arrive, one at a time, filling out their audition sheets quietly while the directors shuffle scripts and lay out their plan at their table.

Savannah stands and addresses the actors: 

“The Merchant of Venice‘ is a show that, over the course of the last few months, I have fallen in love with and came to appreciate how complex it is. 

“It’s [a play] that a lot of classes and companies shy away from because it is controversial. We aim, with this production, to approach it three-dimensionally, with the context and the knowledge that we have as actors in 2025.”

Some of the actors here tonight are seasoned vets, for others this is their first step into the world of Shakespeare. 

Savannah reassures them: “Before I took it on as an actor, it seemed so daunting — we’re here to make it as accessible as possible.”

She then sets the actors up, and they get scripts, and make their way out of the theatre for a brief rehearsal. 

Their voices echo throughout the halls, working out pronunciation and timing.

Suggestions are offered by experienced actors, and new interpretations come from the greenhorns. 

Four-Hundred-Twenty-Nine Years Later 

“I’m a firm believer that these shows should be set in the original period; I prefer to keep things in the original context.” Savannah explains.

“That being said, Renaissance Italian garb isn’t exactly inexpensive.

“We plan on styling it in a way that harkens to that period. Perhaps, a caged hoop skirt instead of a normal skirt, a ruffled collar here and there.”

According to scholars, most of what we know about the staging of Shakespeare’s plays comes to us second-hand: props were likely minimal, and costuming would vary depending on the production’s budget.  

In the Bard’s day, actors likely would have been dressed in the same clothes they wore every day — simple tunics and breeches done up depending on the role. 

It wasn’t until the revivals of the 18th and 19th Centuries that companies focused on the classic Elizabethan fashions that we associate with Shakespeare today, which some have critiqued as revisionist. 

In productions during Shakespeare’s lifetime, and for a good while after, all the roles were played by men.

During the auditions, only the performance is paid attention to, not the gender of the performer. 

Two Hours Traffic 

The play runs over 20,000 words: five acts and 20 scenes. For this version, all dialogue will be as written. 

“We usually break down the script a little, this version has fewer cuts when you compare it to others like Othello. It’s not all that long. A few scenes and lines here and there cut for clarity,” Savannah says. 

In Shakespeare’s day, there we’re regulations about how long a play could go on and were likely performed at breakneck speed. 

She continues: “It’s all about keeping the necessary beats of the scene, what’s being achieved and what the character wants out of it, and just cutting a bit of the fluff.”

This changed with the 19th Century revival as well, with the plays growing longer as the sets and costuming grew more complex, giving enough time for everything to be set up. 

Charlie Blake takes on some of the difficult task of trimming the fat: “It’s sometimes easier than others. Hamlet was difficult.” 

“Probably the hardest would be Othello?” asks Savannah.

“Yes, I was in a production of Othello in Odessa, I was Rodrigo, that was the first time I got stabbed to death on stage” he replies. 

“And then you got stabbed in the next one too,” says Mayer. 

Savannah laughs: “Charlie, it sounds like you’re typecast.” 

Some actors have a better “death” face than others. 

Every Frame A Painting

“An important part in directing is stage pictures,” Savannah explains, “imagining that there is a photographer in the audience. At any given moment it should make a compelling picture, or a painting. 

“I take my queues from fine art and composition. One idea I’ve had was a large paper ledger, coming down from the ceiling and forming an archway.”

Savannah names Ilya Repin, a 19^th century Russian painter, as her favorite. His work focuses on distilling motion, a master of the catching the eye. 

“I like to find simplistic ways to make striking compositions. An archway could be shorthand for an alleyway or the entrance to a home.”

From their experience working with Be Theatre, they learned how to make the best of what they had: 

“Peter and the Star Catcher was the first show that Be Theatre did in this space. It’s not a super well-known show, but if you’re a theatre lover it has everything. 

“It’s about a group of kids in an attic and trying to put on a show and using whatever they have. Theatre in that raw form, without a huge budget, but the power of the performances carries it. That’s my jam.”

The Greatest Test of an Actor 

The greatest quality for a stage actor is presence, explains Micah:

“The ability to walk on stage and you immediately know what their deal is. There are some great actors in town who really know how to act with their body. 

“They come out head high, chest out: this is a confident person. Or playing someone who is small and meek, likewise, embodying the performance.” 

Savannah adds: “With Shakespeare, people can get bogged down by the language. So being able to have that physical presence, and that emphasis on details helps the audience understand what’s being said.”

Shakespeare’s style is defined with quick witty repartee, followed by sometimes extremely lengthy speechs and soliloquy. The methods for memorization vary. 

“It’s different for everyone,” says Savannah, “for some they might have a buddy system, and they go and bounce off of each other. Some actors I’ve met and after the first week of rehearsal they know everything and say ‘well, I’m off the book!’ 

“Because it’s huge blocks of texts, it helps me as an actor to attribute certain physical motions to the lines. 

“I know that if I’m saying this particular line, I associate that with a certain movement. So, it’s brain and muscle memory.”

Shylock: Villain or Victim? 

Throughout the years, John Wilkes Booth, John Gielgud, and Al Pacino are just a few of the notable actors who have portrayed the moneylender.

“The hardest role in the show is definitely the Shylock” says Micah.  

Savannah emphasizes, “Shylock is the most infamous role, even if you’re not familiar with the Merchant of Venice, you’re familiar with him in one way or another. He has many famous quotes, the expression ‘a pound of flesh’ of course comes from him.” 

She first became acquainted with the play through the Mel Brooks’ film “To Be Or Not To Be,” about a Polish couple during the German occupation. 

“During an escape scene,” she explains “they use the lines as a distraction, we hear ‘Hath not a Jew eyes, hath not a Jew hands?”

Echoing around the theatre, Shylock despairs:  

“I hate him for he is a Christian…I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. He hates our sacred nation, and he rails on me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift. Cursed be my tribe if I forgive him!”

The cries of a 16th Century Venetian Jew: bitter anger, born from persecution over the centuries. And — even in one of Europe’s most liberal cities of the age — forced into ghettos, made to wear a red hat of shame to mark him, unable to own property.

Their only market was money lending, a trade that the Venetians of the time still begrudged, spitting upon him. 

Theatre historian John Gross, author of “Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy,” wrote in 1993 for The New York Times, about how the show was staged for Nazi propaganda during the war:

“When the director Paul Rose staged the play in Berlin in 1942, he nonetheless felt it necessary to whip up additional animosity. 

“In the trial scene the message reasserted itself, ‘like an accusation against the race.’ Rose had scattered a number of extras in the audience, to shout and curse when Shylock appeared: ‘The voice of the people chimed in from the gallery, their angry cries and shrill whistles echoed from the stalls.’

The drama of “The Merchant of Venice” has been interpreted many ways, though the tragedy of Shylock shines through as the actors takes turns reading. 

“That’s the beautiful thing about Shakespeare is that it can be shaped by the actor,” says Savannah. 

“Certain performances of Shylock have been a two dimensional, cartoonish, mustache twirling villain. Others really lean into the compassion of a Jewish character of this time.”  

As we hear later in the show, some of Shylock’s most bitter lines:

“If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” 

The production will debut on October 5 at the Black Box Theatre.