Season 4, Episode 3
Dr. Jennifer Wells, former Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University, takes us through the social, economic, and political landscape of Elizabethan England as Aaron Henne, the writer and director of our latest work, The Merchant of Venice (Annotated), or In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad, and artistic director of theatre dybbuk, illuminates that history's impact on our interpretation of Shakespeare's Merchant.
This episode is presented in collaboration with the George Washington University Department of History.
This is the third and final episode in our series connected to concepts that intersect with The Merchant of Venice (Annotated), or In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad. That production combines text from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Elizabethan history and news from 2020 to the present. In doing so, it seeks to illuminate how, during times of upheaval, some people may place blame for their anxieties on an “other.”
Read the transcription for "The Merchant of Venice: Annotated."
THE TEAM
Hosted by Aaron Henne
Scholarship provided by Jennifer Wells, JD/PhD
Edited by Gregory Scharpen
Story editing for the podcast by Julie A. Lockhart with Aaron Henne
Featuring the voices of Joe Jordan, Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, Julie A. Lockhart, Diana Tanaka, and Inger Tudor
Theme music composed by Michael Skloff and produced by Sam K.S.
Transcription by Dylan Southard
"The Merchant of Venice: Annotated" Learning Resources
Learn more about:
The Merchant of Venice as published by the Folger Shakespeare Library
Anglo-Spanish conflict
Referenced in the episode:
Related episodes on The Dybbukast:
Watch with captions on YouTube:
ABOUT OUR EPISODE PARTNER
With an unparalleled location in the nation's capital, award-winning faculty and access to some of the most important research repositories in the world, the Department of History at George Washington University explores the past in ways that inform and give meaning to the present.