THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2005) (2005 OVATION Award Nomination, Lisa Wolpe “BEST ACTRESS”) Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, after eleven years of stand-out productions, has nothing left to prove. The gender question has no bearing on the quality of the work in this terrific production… Lisa Wolpe, who founded the company, and is producer, director, and a superb actor, has played a diversity of Shakespeare’s male roles, all with a dedication to excellence and a palpable celebration of language. Her Richard III was memorable, as was her Hamlet, and her current Shylock may be the most outstanding of any viewed in a multitude of productions, here and in England.