Royal Shakespeare Company directors John Barton and Sir Peter Hall travel to America to conduct workshops with the all-star cast of the Broadway production of The merchant of Venice. Subjects covered include: creating a world with words, the clues are in the text, playing the story, Shakespeare's advice to the actor, changing gears from prose to verse, the questions reveal the character, handling emotion, setting the word against the word, and connecting with the audience. Also includes the actors' talking about their experiences working with John Barton.