She will be playing the role of the judge this summer in a production of The Merchant of Venice, marking the 500th anniversary of the Jewish ghetto in Venice. There will be nine months of events, including a concert at the Teatro La Fenice opera house and a production of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” with a special event with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a guest star presiding over Shylock’s trial. Ginsburg said the Civil War is “like no other conflict in our history,” and “Our War” stands out because it focuses on the lives of ordinary Americans. So I really don’t see any reason not to celebrate the anniversary, especially if something good can come out of it,” said Alisa Campos, a 36-year-old native of Venice’s Jewish community who now lives in Israel. And she is waiting for him to come home,” Ginsburg said in an interview. "I had Dick the butcher’s part, with the famous line, ‘First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’ And then I asked if I could ad-lib an addition, I checked this out in advance, and the addition was, ‘and next the reporters,’" she said, chuckling.
– Art often imitates life, and that will ring true for none other than Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this summer as she throws off her court garb and dons stage attire for her role in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Vox reports. The 83-year-old justice's cameo appearance in the July performance will take place in its namesake Italian city, which is marking the 500th anniversary of Venice's Jewish ghetto, ABC News reports. Ginsburg will play a judge holding court over the trial of the loan shark Shylock. Ginsburg is no first-time performer: In 2014, Politico noted she's found her way onto DC stages before, including playing Dick the Butcher in Henry VI, in which she spoke the line: "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," with her own ad-libbed "…and next the reporters" tacked onto the end. (More on the Venice ghetto's anniversary in the Washington Post.)