Monday, April 7, 2014
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Lawyers, Retired Jurist to Ponder Shakespearean Trial Scene
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A retired U.S. district judge will join with lawyers, a theologian, and an Oscar-winning actor to present and discuss a classic trial scene, with MCLE credit available, in a program celebrating the author’s 450th birthday, sponsored by the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, the center’s artistic director said Friday.
Bringing together a “world class actor” and “world class legal experts” fits the center’s theme of “great art doing great things,” Ben Donenberg told the MetNews.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss will present the ‘pound of flesh’ trial scene from William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” on April 23 at 7 p.m. at Patriotic Hall, located at 2615 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90007. The event is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and American Legion Post 8.
The post-reading discussion will feature retired U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who was a federal prosecutor before entering politics; Federal Public Defender Sean Kennedy, and Dr. Josh Holo, dean of Hebrew Union College. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Susan Tiefenbrun of Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
The panel discussion will focus on the role of mercy in contemporary legal practice, and the event has been approved for one hour of MCLE credit, Donenberg said.
The center said tickets and sponsorship information are available by calling Kellogg Brengel at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles at 213-481-2273 or online at www.TrialofShylock.org.
This will not be the center’s first collaboration with the legal community. Three years ago it presented “The Trial of Hamlet,” with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy presiding, prominent local attorneys presenting the case for and against the Prince of Denmark on the issue of sanity, and forensic psychiatrists as expert witnesses.
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