Merchant of Venice, I3v

For this page, I chose to reinterpret it in an extremely modern and colleoquiel way, while also shifting the intended audience to school-aged children. I wanted to pull on my experience teaching Shakespeare and think about how I would explain this passage to my nine year-old-students. When I introduce a new play to my students,  I always begin with telling them the narrative plot beats of the story along with rudimentary chalk drawings to help them visualize the action. These interpretations tend to santize and streamline aspects of the text, while also incorporating lines of dialogue from the play. I tried to recreate this experience through digital "chalk" drawings on my tablet, while explaining the passage to a camera. I think this interpretation helps to bring Shakespeare to young people, by focusing on the universal elements of the story and allowing them to feel the emotions of each character.

My Final "Chalk" Drawing

Antonio is depicted with a fancy hat and Portia's ring, as well as hearts, indicating his crush on Bassanio. Bassanio has no clothes, on account of being poor, but he does have Portia's ring.

Gratiano (whom I mistakenly call "Sal" in the video) and Nerissa are also depicted with rings. Portia is next to Nerissa. She wears a fedora and a lasso, because of the similarities between the game to win her hand and the challenge in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. She also has a tie, to represent her crossdressing as a pseudo-lawyer in the previous act.

Jessica (right) and Lorenzo are in the corner, purely because they are also in the scene, but they have little importance.

And the Explaination for My Students

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