letter to deputy warden:

Hi ---------,

Sorry for the late reply. As I mentioned last week, the scenes I sent to you back in February were scenes the students were to go over in the first week of class. We are currently reading through Merchant of Venice, which I was told to send to Martin Freed for approval before my partner and I began teaching it. The following link is a online copy of No Fear Shakespeare, which translates the play into modern language. http://nfs.sparknotes.com/merchant/

We are having the students rewrite the play into their own words. I have attached the script of what they have written so far. There are three main female roles, which if you would prefer my partner and I could act out instead of the students; our biggest concern is that at least one of the roles is very large and important to the play, which we don't want to deprive the students of. Granted, we will not force the role on the students if they do not want to act it.

This play is one of Shakespeare's comedies, and actually contains no violence at all, which is why we chose it. While it mentions a deal where if the character doesn't pay back a loan, the other gets to take a pound of his flesh, this is never acted upon - the characters are able to find a loophole in the deal and prevent this from happening.

If you have any other concerns, or would like to discuss the play further, please feel free to call me at ----------. I will be in class today until around 4:15pm, but would be happy to talk with you at any point after that.

Sincerely,

Amy