Venice & Cambridge. Coming Summer 2028.
The Shylock Question
A summer of Shakespeare, Jewish history, and theater in Venice and Cambridge
Do you enjoy tackling big ideas?
Do you want to spend the summer abroad?
Are you looking for a program that respects Jewish observance?
Be an Abarbanel Scholar this Summer
Summer 2028 (Exact dates TBD)
WHEN
Venice, Italy and Cambridge, England
WHERE
WHO
Rising 10th through 12th graders
Spend three weeks in Venice and Cambridge exploring one of Shakespeare’s most provocative plays, The Merchant of Venice, and the historical, religious, and philosophical questions it raises.
Beginning in Venice, the city where Shakespeare set his play, we'll explore Renaissance commerce, Jewish life, and Christian-Jewish relations. In Cambridge, we’ll read Shakespeare alongside texts that illuminate the play's central questions: What is justice? What distinguishes mercy from law? What makes someone an outsider?
Morning seminars will be complemented by afternoon acting and staging workshops led by a professional theater director. Students will experiment with different ways of performing key scenes, discovering how choices of gesture, tone, and staging shape the meaning of Shakespeare’s words. Visits to historic sites, museums, and theaters will enrich our exploration of the play and its world.
Like all Abarbanel programs, The Shylock Question is designed for intellectually ambitious high school students who enjoy serious conversation and independent exploration. Kosher meals and Shabbat programming will accommodate Jewish observance.
Shakespeare Is Meant to Be Performed.
What happens when we take a play from the page to the stage? In The Shylock Question, students will discover how performance changes interpretation. Working with a professional theater director, they’ll experiment with the choices that actors and directors confront: How should Shylock speak? What does an audience see that a reader might miss?
