Pace Presents F. Murray Abraham as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice

Academy Award-winner (Amadeus) F. Murray Abraham stars as Shylock in Theatre for a New Audience's widely acclaimed 2007 production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Darko Tresnjak. The production sold out Off -Broadway and at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival, Stratford-upon-Avon. It returns to the stage this year for Theatre for a New Audience's first national tour, a four-city engagement beginning in New York City at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts.

The Merchant of Venice begins previews at Pace University's Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce Street, February 27. Opening night is Friday, March 4 at 8pm. This limited New York run continues through March 13.

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times, wrote that F. Murray Abraham's performance was "haunting...in a performance as daring as it is powerful" John Heilpern, New York Observer, said, "F. Murray Abraham's Shylock touches greatness in every aspect of this immensely challenging role." Writing for the New York Review of Books, Stephen Greenblatt said, Abraham's Shylock, "a tormented, passionate father in a decadent Venice indifferent to his anguish is one of the great performances of our time (which)have included Laurence Olivier's neurotic, buttoned-up Victorian businessman...Anthony Sher's intellectual avenger and Henry Goodman's unbearably poignant Weimar outsider".

Sharing the stage with Mr. Abraham in principal roles are Kate MacCluggage as Portia (39 Steps, Off-Broadway); Lucas Hall as Bassanio (Alls Well and Othello, Theatre for a New Audience) , Melissa Miller as Jessica (I Never Sang for My Father with Keir Dullea) , Vince Nappo as Lorenzo (2007 Merchant of Venice) , Tom Nelis as Antonio (2007 Merchant of Venice) , and Christen Simon as Nerissa (2007 Merchant of Venice). Completing the company in major supporting roles are Andrew Dahl as Balthazar, Grant Goodman as Solanio, Christopher Randolph as Aaragon, the Duke and Tubal), Matthew Schneck as Solerio, Ted Schneider as Gratiano, Raphael Nash Thompson as Morocco and. Jacob Ming-Trent as Launcelot Gobbo. Tony Award-winner John Lee Beatty is designing the sets, David Weiner, the lights, Linda Cho, the costumes, Jane Shaw, the sound, and Matthew Myhrum, the video.

Darko Tresnjak received raves for his staging. When it played at the RSC, Michael Billington, The Guardian, gave the production four stars and said "in its visible modernity, Tresnjak presents a money-driven world where wealth can never resolve inbuilt racial and religious tensions." The London Financial Times called is "A ballsy and brilliant production." The New York Times said, "a fully integrated vision by director Darko Tresnjak of a modern-day Venice as chilly, sleek and calculating as any wall street house."

The Merchant of Venice continues Theatre for a New Audience's national tour when Mr. Abraham leads the company to the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago for performances March 16 through 27, the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston March 29 through April 10, and the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica April 14 through 24.

F. Murray Abraham has acted in over 80 films and 90 plays and won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1984 film Amadeus, for which he also received a Golden Globe and a Los Angeles Film Critics Award. His other film credits include Star Trek: Insurrection, Children of the Revolution, Mighty Aphrodite, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Scarface and The Name of the Rose. Mr. Abraham made his stage debut in a 1966 Los Angeles production of Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. The next year, he made his Off-Broadway debut in The Fantasticks with Jerry Orbach and Nancy Allen. His Broadway debut was in The Man in the Glass Booth in 1968, which he followed with The Ritz, Triumph of Love, Angels in America, A Christmas Carol, etc.

Darko Tresnjak directed Theatre for a New Audience's acclaimed productions of All's Well That Ends Well in 2006, The Merchant of Venice in 2007 and Antony and Cleopatra in 2008. Mr. Tresnjak next project is for Canada's prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival. His production of Titus Andronicus will begin rehearsals in April. He was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe's Shakespeare Festival, 2004 to 2009, where his Shakespeare credits include Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus. Other Shakespeare credits include The Winter's Tale at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Two Noble Kinsmen at The Public Theater and the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Twelfth Night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has also directed productions at Huntington Theatre Company (four seasons), Williamstown Theatre Festival (eight seasons), Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Vineyard Theatre Company, Blue Light Theater Company, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Florida Grand Opera, Sarasota Opera, and Virginia Opera. Awards: San Diego Theatre Critics Awards for outstanding direction of Cyrano de Bergerac, The Winter's Tale and Pericles and Alan Schneider Award for Directing.

Theatre for a New Audience
Founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience's mission is to help develop and vitalize the performance and study of Shakespeare and classical drama. The Theatre vigorously engages with Shakespeare and plays from the world repertoire. It has played on Broadway, toured nationally and internationally. In 2001, Theatre for a New Audience became the first American theatre invited to bring a production of Shakespeare to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Stratford-upon-Avon. Cymbeline directed by Bartlett Sher, premiered at the RSC and in 2007, Theatre for a New Audience was invited to return with this production of The Merchant of Venice.

The Merchant of Venice in New York
Ticket prices for The Merchant of Venice at The Shimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University range from $40 to $75. $45 tickets available for groups of 10 or more and $30 tickets available for student groups of 10 or more. Students under 25 (proof with ID) may purchase $10 New Deal tickets in advance or $5 Student Rush tickets (proof with ID), which are available at the box office on performance day an hour before show time.

Performances are on February 27 through March 13: Sunday, February 27th and Saturday, March 5th at 7:00pm, Tuesday - Saturday at 8:00pm, Wednesday (March 9th only) and Saturdays at 2:00pm, Sunday (March 13th only) at 3:00pm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.pace.edu/shakespeare/merchant-of-venice/ or call toll-free (866) 811-4111.

The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University is located at 3 Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The box office and theater entrance are located on Spruce Street, near the corner of Gold.

 

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