Corona Cold Reads: The Merchant of Venice

These are crazy times and we’ve all taken on a bunch of new projects as we socially isolate in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

We’re donating where we can, we’re cleaning the pantry, we’re organizing the 2300+ title dvd library. We’re still working on the Nominee Interview Series even though the live event for our yearly Critics’ Pick Awards had to be cancelled (we’ve still got winners to announce and, eventually, trophies to give out). We started the Corona Movie Club to help curb our boredom and constant need to talk about movies with other human beings. I’m even watching network procedurals and actually writing about them.

But what we all really need is comfort. We need our favourite things and our favourite people and right now those are hard to come by so we have to do everything we can to bring them together whenever possible. For me, there’s nothing quite so comforting and joyful as Shakespeare. Luckily, I know a lot of people who also love Shakespeare- a few old friends from my alma mater’s Shakespeare Society and a few of my favourite Toronto theatre artists, all of whom just so happen to be talented and generous and responsibly socially isolated enough to want to join a nearly 3-hour 19-person Zoom call for the purposes of livestreaming Shakespeare on YouTube.

Check out The Merchant of Venice in audio form below (or on iTunes) then tune into our YouTube page on Saturday and Tuesday nights at 7pm EST to catch our live readings.

A huge thank you to the cast of Merchant:

Shylock- Michael Ross Albert
Portia- Cass Van Wyck
Antonio- Hilary Wirachowsky
Salarino- Melissa Wright
Salanio- Mark Kreder
Bassanio- Timothy Ng
Lorenzo- Laura Anne Harris
Gratiano- Shalyn McFaul
Nerissa- Laura Darby
Servant/Singer/Balthazar/Stephano- Laura Hubbard
Prince of Morocco- Mo Kamaly
Launcelot- Christopher Prentice
Old Gobbo- Torey Urquhart
Leonardo- Stephanie Schnabel
Clerk- Sam Chappell
Jessica- Rebbekah Vega-Romero
Prince of Arragon- Lauren Horejda
Tubal/Salerio- Miriam B
Duke- Anne van Leeuwen