St. Louis Premiere Of NJT's DISTRICT MERCHANTS Begins Next Month

The New Jewish Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice - Aaron Posner's District Merchants, an Uneasy Comedy. The production will be directed by St. Louis Theatre Circle Award winner, Jacqueline Thompson, and runs January 24 - February 10, 2019.

In District Merchants, love, litigation, deep passions and predatory lending are taken to a new level. The play wades fearlessly into the complexities of life in America. It is set among Black and Jewish populations in an imagined time and place, simultaneously Shakespearean and post- Civil War Washington, D.C. In Posner's reimagining, the play becomes less about the quality of mercy and more about how flexible a supposedly egalitarian society can be to the varied tribes struggling to find partners in America. Aaron Posner expertly blends humor, emotional truths and topics that make people think. He is able to create characters who are deeply flawed, like we are. In his "uneasy" comedy, he wants us to look at a snapshot in time, the Reconstruction Era, but what he has written is relevant to audiences today.

The cast includes Gary Wayne Barker (Shylock), Rob White (Benjamin Bassanio), Karl Hawkins (Lancelot), J. Samuel Davis (Antoine), Courtney Bailey Parker (Portia), Rae Davis (Nessa), and Alicen Moser (Jessica). The design and creative team include David Blake, scenic design; Felia Davenport, costume design; Sean Savoie, lighting design; and Zoe Sullivan, sound design.

District Merchants runs January 24 - February 10 at the J's Wool Studio Theatre (2 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146). Tickets for this ironic evening are $42-45, and are available through the NJT Box Office (314-442-3283) or at newjewishtheatre.org