Shakespeare is more than just theatre and stage director Melissa Glover knows it.
She could simply set up a play for her cast of kids to memorize and perform, but she could also add an extra layer of life and so she has. This year, her Shooting Stars Theatre summer camp for youth will apply themselves to Merchant of Venice but Glover has adapted the script under the title Merchant of Berlin.
The setting has been modernized to 1930s Germany to tell the story of mob mentality, majorities oppressing minorities, and kangaroo courts with agendas that don't include justice. The walls of society gradually close in on one of Shakespeare's great scapegoat characters, Shylock, who stands in for all those who face repercussions for reasons of prejudice.
Glover said part of the reason she chose to reshape Merchant of Venice into more recent times "is the fact that this is still going on.
"With Donald Trump becoming president and the rise of extremist groups even in Canada, we can see there is a lot of hatred in the world, so setting it at the time the Nazis are starting to take power, the kids get a sense of the universal insights of Shakespeare and also consider how these forces might also be in play right now in their own time."
Glover has been leading a summer theatre camp for youth for the past five years, and under previous acting coach Debbie McGladdery the cycle goes back even farther.
There were typically about 12 kids who signed up for the three-week course but for the past couple of years the numbers have held at about 20.
There are also many repeat students. Aspiring actors like Melissa Clemson and Meg Peters have used Shooting Stars as one of their stepping stones to bigger successes (Clemson earned an observer spot in the speech arts component of this year's Performing Arts BC provincial championships while Peters won the provincial silver medal in her age bracket) and they are back this year.
Elizabeth Klassen had the lead in last year's production of Taming Of The Shrew and this year Glover called on her to act as assistant director.
"She has stepped up into a leadership role and has been a tremendous asset to me," said Glover.
"To see her grow, and see so many of them grow as people and as actors, is amazingly gratifying. The older ones have done an excellent job of bringing the younger ones along, and that makes a stronger group but it is also part of the growth process in theatre."
The age range Glover is working with this year is 9-18. Together they put together a full performance of a full Shakespeare play in only three weeks.
"I knew this group could handle the drama of this play," said Glover.
"I'd been wanting to do it, and this year the cast was right for it. It just so happens that it matches up with what's going on in the world today, but I feel very strongly about these themes for a young cast. It's about standing up for people who are bullied, who've lost their voice, who can't fight back themselves, and all this heaviness is brought out as a comedy. It's a very funny play. Good plays do both. Look at Girl In The Goldfish Bowl that Theatre North West did last season. That had a lot of laughs but, for me, was brimming with real life and authenticity. I want entertainment from theatre but I also want my thoughts to be stirred. I want it to stick with me, make me think new thoughts, lead me to consider new ideas."
Audiences for Merchant Of Venice constantly have that experience. Society has coloured Shylock as a villain but anyone who knows the play understands that inside the complexities of that character and the times in which it's set, Shylock is controversial and flawed but not evil. The evidence of the case against Shylock may paint one picture, but the audience sees the facts and the way the evidence gets stacked, so that resonates through time. It pinballs off of Nazi Germany straight into the Trumpian era.
The cast and crew of Shooting Stars Theatre present The Merchant Of Berlin on Thursday at 7 p.m. then Friday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Theatre North West.
Admission is by donation and all ages are welcome.
