Shylock

A Wanderlust Theatre Company Production
by Mark Leiren-Young
featuring M. Brady McKellar

Shows: Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 2 p.m.
Adults/Seniors $10, Students/Children $5, No Reservations
This is a benefit performance, with Professor McKellar donating all revenue to VTG.
(These shows are not part of the VTG membership season.)

Program

Shylock is an award-winning one-man play about a Jewish actor who finds himself condemned by his own community for his portrayal of Shakespeare's notorious Jew. This piece has provided much fuel for the fiery debates surrounding censorship, historical revisionism, political correctness, and the thorny discussion of whether certain plays are suitable for contemporary productions, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice amongst them.
This performance is part of a series of performances in the region.

“Mark Leiren-Young's play is very strong and an important contribution to the vexed and vexing question of the alleged anti-Semitism of The Merchant of Venice.”
—Patrick Stewart, Actor
“An effective piece of writing. So much so that cleaning staff had to literally push-broom patrons from the lobby after the show ended. The response was that lively.”
— Michael Turner, The National Post

About the Actor:
Brady McKellar is currently on faculty in the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Previously, Brady served as a theatre professor at Dillard University, as an instructor at Tulane University, as well as concurrently serving as a Teaching Artist with the Young Audience/Arts for Learning program. He has been a guest artist throughout the southeast, such as at Roanoke Island's The Lost Colony, an invited panelist with Creative Time's Democracy in America, and as a recurrent lecturer at the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Brady is a regular respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival as well as an adjudicator for the SETC's annual Young Scholar Award. Brady is a member of the Puppeteers of America, UNIMA-USA, the National Registry of Living Historians, and has studied with former Muppeteer Michael Earl. Brady was recently featured as a performer at the 2008 and 2009 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festivals. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Performance and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Technology from USM. A native of Vicksburg, Brady was very involved in VTG, as is all of his family. Some of Brady's favorite VTG roles include “Jesus” in Jesus Christ Superstar, “Puck” in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and “Edward Rutledge” in 1776, and he looks forward to this opportunity to give back to his first theatre community.

About the Playwright:
Mark Leiren-Young is a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, playwright and occasional performer in the comedy duo Local Anxiety. Mark is the recipient of the 2009 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his best-selling comic memoir Never Shoot a Stampede Queen, has written for a multitude of television series, and has won awards for his work in film (The Green Chain and The Green Film), satirical comedy, and journalism. Mark has penned several plays, including If You Really Love Me...., and the provocative Articles of Faith. He has written for such publications as Time Magazine, Maclean's, and The Utne Reader, and is a regular contributor to The Georgia Straight and The Tyee. Mark received Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in theatre and creative writing from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

click on photo to view more photos