It has been six years since I last interviewed Actress and Grammy Nominee Alexandra Silber. At that time she was starring in Camelot in Washington, DC.

I am so excited to catch up with Alexandra as she gets ready to star in Igor Golyak’s new modern production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as Portia.

In this NEW interview, Alexandra once again answered my call, but this time she shares:

• How she’s changed since our last interview
• Why audiences should come see this new version of The Merchant of Venice
• One quality of “Portia’s" she is glad that she herself doesn’t possess
• What flavor cheesecake she would eat while solving her problems

Connect with Alexandra: Website, Instagram

The Merchant of Venice plays at Classic Stage Company from November 22, 2024-December 22,2024. Click Here for tickets!

In this re-telling, The Merchant of Venice takes place in a nightclub environment akin to a late-night comedy show, bringing Shakespeare’s “festival” setting for the play into our modern world. Superheroes and their archenemies battle it out to protect good in the face of evil. Will love, justice and order prevail? Who defines love, justice and order? The audience and cast wrestle with these questions and their dead-serious consequences.

Alexandra Silber
Photo Credit: Murphy Made Photography

1. I can't believe it's been six years since our last interview together! At that time, you were starring in Camelot in Washington, DC. How would you say you have changed the most since that time? It’s almost unutterable how much has personally changed and how much the world has too. 

I have had a major organ removed and reconstructed. It saved my life. I fell in love and got married. I turned 40. There was a worldwide Pandemic.

And the world is even more inside out and upside down.

2. This fall you are starring in an updated William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice adapted & Directed by Igor Golyak at Classic Stage Company. What made you want to sign on for this re-telling of The Merchant of Venice? Igor Golyak has a unique point of view on both the world at large, and on theatrical direction itself. It’s a privilege to be in the room with him at what feels like the beginning of the wider world acknowledging his visionary take on society and humanity. I also feel tremendously, uniquely “seen” and valued by him as a collaborator and creative partner—which is (some might find this surprising) not really the norm in the role of “actor.”

So the first part of this answer is: when Igor calls, I answer. Next is the dream-like opportunity to portray one of Shakespeare’s great leading roles in New York City—a dream I have had since childhood. To be a Jewish actor (born into a Catholic-Jewish largely secular family) in this particular moment in world history, telling a story that involves Jew hated, feels like another sensitive, challenging and important task. 

It’s a thrill to ask hard questions in the room, to know we might never find answers, and to be a vessel for complex dualities onstage and off.

3. Why do you feel audiences should come see this modern version? We live in a world of knee jerk reactions, polarized camps and a culture that feels obedient to loudly chanting the “right” ideas for fear of estrangement from our communities, rather than arriving at points of view on our own — of much more nuanced.

I think the Merchant of Venice is a play that people have a knee jerk reaction about — assuming it cannot be done (and thus cannot be viewed) without a moral indictment of those both creating the production AND viewing it.

I welcome modern audiences to walk in ready to be confronted with very hard questions and thoughts and ideas— but leave room within themselves for growth and awe and surprise. Igor/our take on this piece is bold and yes, confrontational— but not in the ways you might assume. I welcome you to join us and be surprised. Have your expectations and your assumptions explode. I won’t say more than that because of spoilers!

4. In the show, you are playing Portia. What do you relate to most about her? Her loneliness and isolation. I’d like to think we share a fierce intellect and large capacity for love. 

5. What is one quality of hers you are glad you yourself don't possess? Even though your previous question asked about complimentary shared (pardon the expression) *qualities* it would be arrogant of me to assume that I — or anyone— don’t share all of Portia’s less favorable qualities as well. We contain multitudes.

And I’ll admit that while I do not love, and endeavor daily to overcome, them, I possess such negative personal attributes such as:

• Self-obsession
• Self righteousness
• Snobbery
• Manipulation
• Conscious and unconscious bias + “isms”
• Selective memory
• Elitism and classism
• The list goes on

Don’t you…posses those too? On some level, don’t we all? Knowing something is bad or wrong doesn’t eradicate it from our psyche — it gives us an opportunity to overcome it and behave differently despite ourselves. To offer ourselves and others grace and dare I say it? “Mercy."

Alexandra Silber
Photo Credit: Michael Kushner

6. In this re-telling, Superheroes and their archenemies battle it out to protect good in the face of evil. Considering the tumultuous times we are living in, how do you protect the good of the world with so much evil lurking at every corner? I strive to do what I can in the ways that feel natural and accessible to me. I have always been on the quieter, slower and more thoughtful side of political, philosophical and ethical thought—preferring long and deep conversations to protests or more traditional advocacy. That is where I think I thrive, and where my gift for humanizing the “other,” for empathy, asking deep questions, the power of story and storytelling, can be a light in the face of darkness.

I don’t always succeed. Many days I flail and fail. Some days I hang out at my rock bottom. But I endeavor.

7. In our 2011 interview, you had mentioned that one day you hope to work with Director Matthew Warchus, act or sing opposite Audra McDonald, and be in the presence of John Adams. Have any of these come to fruition? None. But I have new dreams now :)

8. What is the best advice you've given, but not taken for yourself? “Don’t wash wool.”

9. What is something that you and your best friend like to do together? Send texts and voicemails that begin the middle of an ever-on-going conversation.

10. When you watch an episode of The Golden Girls, the ladies would always solve their problems over cheesecake. If we were to sit down to Cheesecake:

•  What problem of your own would you want to solve? Ohhhh nothing huge just, "What in the heck shall I do with the time that has been returned to me post surgery, and that I blessedly have left on this earth? Possibly before the planet collapses?"
• What kind of cheesecake would we solve this problem over? Blueberry

11. What didn't we get to talk about in this interview that you'd like my audience to know about you? I’m an introvert.

Alexandra Silber
Photo Credit: Michael Kushner

More on Alexandra Silber:

Alexandra is a 2014 Grammy nominee for her portrayal of Maria in the first-ever full symphonic recording of West Side Story, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas with the San Francisco Symphony.



Broadway and New York credits include 
Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof, Master Class (with Tyne Daly), Sara Jane in the world-premiere of Arlington (Outer Critics Circle nomination), and The Young Wife in Hello Again (Drama League Award nomination), Our Class, Einstein's Dreams, The Lucky Star, and the title role in Nell Gwynn for The Acting Company. 



London and West End credits include
 Halina in the Original London Cast of Paula Vogel's Indecent, Lilli Vanessi/Kate in Kiss Me, Kate for the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, Julie Jordan in Carousel (Great Britain’s TMA Award for Best Performance in a Musical), Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, and Laura Fairlie in The Woman in White. 



Regional Theatre credits include 
the world-premiere casts of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Soprano (The Alley Theatre) and Murder on the Orient Express (McCarter Theatre Center). Also Marian in The Music Man, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Guenevere in Camelot (Shakespeare Theatre of DC), Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare), Julie Jordan in Carousel (Reprise Theatre, Ovation-nomination), Master Class (The Kennedy Center), and Jenny Cavilerri in the North American Premiere of Love Story. 



Concerts include: 
Amalia Balash in She Loves Me (The Orchestra of St. Luke's at Caramoor), Song Of Norway (Collegiate Chorale and American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall), 2015 BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall with The John Wilson Orchestra, David Del Tredici's World Premiere of Dum Dee Tweedle (Detroit Symphony Orchestra), and I Am Harvey Milk (Disney Hall, Los Angeles).



Film and Television:
 The 57th Grammy Awards, Kiss Me, Kate; Elementary, The Mysteries of Laura, 1408, and has also appeared as a Guest Star on all three branches of the Law & Order series (SVU, Criminal Intent and the original).



BOOKS: Alexandra’s debut novel After Anatevka and memoir White Hot Grief Parade are both published by Pegasus Books and also available on Audible.com.



Training: 
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Interlochen Center for the Arts.