UC Shakespeare Trial 2021: Et tu, Brute?


 New Swan Shakespeare Center     Mar 9 2021 | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Zoom Webinar


UC Shakespeare Trial

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At the heart of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is the decision of Brutus to join the conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar. This man had been his friend and mentor, but his bold actions threatened to turn the Roman republic into a government ruled by a dictator, contrary to Rome’s constitutional history. What do you think Brutus should have done?

In the UC SHAKESPEARE TRIAL 2021:

• Brutus is on trial for treason and murder.
• Bernadette Meyler ’06 (Stanford Law) will mount the defense.
• Erwin Chemerinsky (Berkeley Law) will prosecute.
• The Honorable Andrew Guilford will preside.
• You, the audience, are the jury in this interactive theater event. Was the act performed by Brutus and his fellow senators murder, or was it justifiable homicide? Should Brutus be acquitted, or should he be found guilty for his deed?

Your hosts are Eli Simon and Julia Lupton, co-directors of the New Swan Shakespeare Center.    

The evening will begin with scenes from the play, performed by actors from New Swan Shakespeare Festival, directed by Beth Lopes.

TEASER TRAILER

Check out our 2019 Shakespeare Trial, “Shylock’s Appeal”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJM5CNK9kvQ

Check out our 2018 Shakespeare Trial, “Hamlet, Homicide?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJKQHQBg1Ss

Meet Bernadette Meyler in this engaging interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oADyNBqgSE&t=357s

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law. From 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law.

Bernadette Meyler (UCI Ph. D. ’06) is the Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law at Stanford University. She is a scholar of British and American constitutional law of law and the humanities, including Shakespeare. She is also a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow in Constitutional Studies. 

The Honorable Andrew Guilford, Ret. sat by designation on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and is one of only two Central District Judges to have been invited to sit at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As a federal judge, Guilford heard over a hundred trials on matters including patent, trademark, copyright, and criminal matters.

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Co-sponsored by UCI Law, Berkeley Law, and Stanford Law School with the UCI New Swan Shakespeare Center and Illuminations.