Brush Up Your Shakespeare: Tosa West Takes on Merchant of Venice

"Everyone should do Shakespeare," said Tim Catlett, theater director at Wauwatosa West High School.

Yes, but should everyone do it in their first year as director?

"It is ambitious," Catlett said, "but I thought it worthwhile to come in and give the kids something to chew on.

"We set our sights high and chose a difficult comedy – a comedy that's not funny."

Catlett came to West this year from a position in Shorewood as assistant technical director and chose as his second offering The Merchant of Venice, which opens Thursday at the West High Auditorium. The play may be classed with William Shakespeare's comedies, but it is his darkest and is filled with characters of deep complexities. In many ways, it can be considered one of his most modern – and controversial.

It tells the story of two men whose worlds spiral into chaos after one, Shylock, lends money to the other, Antonio. When Antonio defaults on the loan to help a friend with romantic ambitions, Shylock demands gory payment on his contract: “a pound of flesh.”

Among the lead characters is Portia, who loves and is loved by Antonio. Portia ultimately must confront Shylock to save her beloved in a scene famous for her defense of foregiveness: "The quality of mercy is not strain'd,/It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:/
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

As it happens, the two actors who contend fiercely in this gripping moral struggle are best friends offstage.

"My jump to Shylock was a rather long one," said senior Taylor Peterson-Burke. "Because, thankfully, I can say he's not very much like me.

"Learning to manipulate others – I don't want to say it was exciting – but I knew that what was supposed to be going on in my character's mind is not what is going on in the audience's mind."

There's also the contradiction of a girl playing a man.

"Off that note," Peterson-Burke said, "everything that we know as girls is out the window – or we use that and do the opposite."

Portia is played by Hannah Barbeau, also a senior, who said she took some theater classes when she was very young and began auditioning for plays in middle school but "felt the passion in my sophomore year. Since then it's been my main activity, my magnet," she said.

"Even then, I was not a Shakespeare fan," Barbeau said. "But I took a class last summer at the Milwaukee Rep (Repertory Theater), and we worked on a Shakespeare show. After that class, and now this – now I've found an awe of Shakespeare."

Despite the introductory class, landing such a large role this spring was daunting.

"Just today," she said Tuesday, two nights before opening, "I was thinking about when we started. At my first rehearsal, I didn't even know what 'Merchant' was about, and to think how I've grown into a character who is so unlike myself – it's a great learning experience."

And that's really the whole point.

"I've told these kids," director Catlett said, "if a meteor hit this auditorium tomorrow, this show is still an unqualified success based on what we've learned.

"These kids have done so much work on characterization, and it shows."

Although in only his first year as West's director, Catlett is no stranger to the theater.

"I've been doing theater since I was a kid," he said, "and doing film, TV, rock music shows and Broadway tours" before getting a degree in education and spending 10 years as a high school theater teacher before arriving at West.

"I started out as an actor, but I found that living is in tech. I love acting, but I've built my career in tech."

That shows in the stunning set that Catlett designed, including a "raked" stage, sloped toward the audience as it was in Shakespeare's day.

With many parts double-cast, there are 46 West students in the cast and about as many more working the various crews – stage, lighting, sound, costumes and makeup.

"I'm finally doing what I most love to do," Catlett said. "Being with these kids and imparting my knowledge into their energy – it's fantastic to be doing this."

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What: William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Wauwatosa West High School, 11400 W. Center St.

Tickets: General admission, $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens,  available at the door one-half hour before show time.