{"id":207159,"date":"2017-09-25T19:59:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/?p=207159"},"modified":"2018-10-18T12:20:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T16:20:03","slug":"justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-talks-shakespeare-at-roundtable-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2017\/09\/25\/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-talks-shakespeare-at-roundtable-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Talks Shakespeare at Roundtable Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a roundtable discussion of\u00a0The Merchant of Venice<\/em>\u00a0at Montclair State on September 23, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg proved she is well versed in Shakespeare, along with constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Ginsburg, whose grandson appears in the\u00a0Peak Performances production<\/a>\u00a0of the controversial Shakespeare play at the Kasser Theater through October 1, joined scholars David Scott Kastan of Yale University and James Shapiro of Columbia University in a conversation prior to the performance at the University\u2019s Kasser Theater.<\/p>\n

In addition to having studied Shakespeare in school, Ginsburg has performed various roles with the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C., which, she said, invites the Supreme Court of the United States justices to play \u201cbit parts for lawyer\u2019s night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Henry VI, I was \u2018Dick the Butcher\u2019 who has the famous line, \u2018First thing we do, let\u2019s kill all the lawyers,\u2019 and I then have to explain that was not meant as a putdown of lawyers. It takes place during The Jack Cade Rebellion. Jack Cade is an anarchist. And you need the law to save the society from chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about her earliest exposure to Shakespeare, Ginsburg responded that her first experience with Shakespeare was, coincidentally,\u00a0The Merchant of Venice<\/em>, but it was not on stage, because it had been banned from public schools in New York. \u201cSo, then I decided to read the play,\u201d said Ginsburg, who grew up in Brooklyn. \u201cAnd, of course, Shylock\u2019s famous speech, \u2018Hath not a Jew eyes\u2019 and Portia\u2019s speech \u2018the quality of mercy is not strained.\u2019 It also came to me that these are two wonderful speeches but neither character is likable. There isn\u2019t an emergent hero or heroine. They\u2019re all flawed people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Peak Performances production, directed by Karin Coonrod and performed by the Compagnia de Colombari, addresses the notion of \u201cotherness\u201d by having the Jewish moneylender Shylock performed by five actors of different races, ethnicities and even gender. Coonrod first staged this production in 2016 in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, its original setting. According to the program, Coonrod says, \u201cNow we are in the New World after a shattering and divisive election that challenges our aspirations. The play calls us to witness the stranger in our midst and feel the extremities of rage inside our shared humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasten, Shapiro and Ginsburg discussed specific scenes and nuances of Shakespeare and whether\u00a0Merchant<\/em>\u00a0is anti-Semitic because of its negative portrayal of Shylock. Ginsburg pointed out that the female lead, Portia, who disguises herself as a lawyer-judge to pronounce judgment against Shylock, is conniving and hypocritical.<\/p>\n

\u201cShylock is the alien. But in a way, she should have understood that status,\u201d Ginsburg said. \u201cPortia is a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a lawyer-judge at a time when she could not be a lawyer or a judge, so in a sense she is an outsider, too. That\u2019s why it\u2019s remarkable that she could do this to Shylock.\u201d<\/p>\n

In introducing Saturday\u2019s roundtable, Montclair State English Professor Naomi Liebler, lauded Peak Performances\u2019 unique and updated production as a thought-provoking piece for the current political climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all the ways that really matter, this perfect combination, this perfect brainstorm, is not at all surprising with its collection of \u2018others\u2019 in a place suspicious of and yet dependent on them for survival,\u201d said Liebler. \u201cMerchant<\/em>\u00a0is the right play for us\u2026not only because it vibrates with national and global issues but also because it speaks to this university\u2019s own embrace of diversity. It\u2019s a stroke of good luck we should have all of this right here, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

All week, the University community was abuzz about Ginsburg\u2019s visit to campus, and the roundtable was attended by faculty, staff, students and invited guests, including New Jersey Senator Lorretta Weinberg, State Supreme Court Justice Stuart Rabner and Ginsburg\u2019s grandson, Paul Spera, a Paris-based actor who plays the role of Lorenzo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a person of important and substantial achievement visits the University, it offers an opportunity to provide our students with a model of what one can make of a life,\u201d said Montclair State President Susan A. Cole.<\/p>\n

Ginsburg\u2019s visit \u201cmakes real\u2026a person who is the second woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, an accomplished American jurist, an advocate for women’s rights and an example of the uses of education, all wrapped up within the context of a grandmother proud of her grandson and defying the prejudices we have about age in our society,\u201d said Cole.<\/p>\n

Two 2017 graduates were given the opportunity to ask questions of the panel. Gustavo Vasquez and Allison Gormley asked questions about assimilation and conversion \u2013 and resistance to them \u2013 that impressed the panel, and they got to pose for a picture with Ginsburg afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was humbling to get the opportunity to ask her a question,\u201d said Gustavo Vasquez, who majored in English and teaching. \u201cIt was a surreal experience, really. I feel like, \u2018Did that just happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Gormley, who just starting teaching 8th grade English, \u201cthere are no words to describe the experience. Justice Ginsburg is a powerful female that I look up to. It was a little overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roundtable was held in the Presentation Hall of the new\u00a0School of Communication and Media building<\/a>, which officially opens on Tuesday, September 26.<\/p>\n

The play will also provide a backdrop for\u00a0another conversation<\/a>\u00a0on campus, this time between its director Karin Coonrod and Professor Teresa Fiore, Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, and Alessandro Cassin of the Primo Levi Center in New York on issues of immigration and religion in the contemporary world at the Kasser Theater on the evening of September 26.<\/p>\n

Watch a video of the roundtable discussion<\/a>.<\/p>\n