PlayShakespeare.com Reviewers
Christopher Adams
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Editor in Chief
- Shanghai, China
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- Profile: christopher-adams
Christopher Adams holds a BA in English and an MA in modern Chinese literature. After two years of enjoying London's vibrant theatre scene, he is now working on a research grant in Shanghai. He has a particular interest in printing, critical editing, and book history, and he is the editor of two plays in the forthcoming Complete Works of John Ford (Vol. II). In his free time he enjoys living life in the leafy former French concession and dodging on-coming traffic.
Matthew Barbot
Matthew Barbot attends Pennsylvania's Franklin & Marshall College, though he is lifelong resident of Brooklyn, New York. He is a Theater and English double major, and his list of roles includes a number of Shakespeare productions: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom), As You Like It (Charles, Corin), Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet), and Macbeth (Malcolm). In addition to PlayShakespeare.com, Matthew reviews Off-Broadway theater for the blog, The New Theater Corps. Diana Carter
Diana L. Carter is a journalist whose 31 years of newspaper experience include writing about business, local news, editing, reviewing restaurants and covering Native American issues. She lives in Rochester, NY, USA with her husband and three children and holds degrees in both English literature and journalism. Her time in college several decades ago was enlivened by an Oxford-Cambridge traveling production of All’s Well That Ends Well and since then she has enjoyed live productions of Shakespeare’s works on both sides of the Atlantic: Stratford-upon-Avon; Stratford, Ontario; London’s Regents Park; Lenox, Massachusetts; Buffalo and Rochester, New York; and Sandwich, New Hampshire. When she’s not working or driving her kids around, she can be found haunting local farmers markets looking for locally grown foods, or in fabrics shops searching for inspiration for her next sewing or quilting project. Melissa Crismon
Melissa received her B.A. in Visual and Performing Arts with an emphasis in harp. At a young age she began studying the Salzedo method with Lisa Coffey. She plays a Troubadour, pedal, Paraguayan and Harpsicle. She uses her Harpsicle to teach music to Kindergarteners. One of her favorite pieces to play is Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Besides music her other passion is modern dance. She studied under Miss Ronnie Greenblatt, a student of Martha Graham. Work she is proud to acknowledge is titled as, an English and Voice tutor, a harpist and more recently as a Theatre Critic covering local San Diego theatre. She has written a play, many reviews and too many cover letters. Melissa enjoys being a freelance writer and will one day write a book. Caitlin DeMerlis
Caitlin is a graduate of the George Washington University where she received her BA in Dramatic Literature, with a minor in theatre and concentrated study in both Philosophy and creative writing. At GW, Caitlin was very active in both music and theatre, and wishes to continue to pursue those passions in DC. As an aspiring playwright, Caitlin is looking forward to exploring the District's theatre scene in any way she can, and additionally, hopes to discover new writing endeavors along the way. Barry Eitel
Barry Eitel has a BA in theatre and philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. He currently works around the Bay Area as an actor, director, and writer. He has had several plays produced around the country and is a published author and poet. Cynthia Greenwood
Cynthia Greenwood is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays, released in 2008 by Penguin/Alpha Books. While writing the book, she interviewed directors and actors from the U.S., Canada, and China to capture their expert views on staging and performing Shakespeare. Her arts reports and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Playbill, San Francisco Chronicle, Andante, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She served as the Houston Press classical arts reviewer from 1998-2002. For nine years, she taught Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets in her British literature course at Wharton County Junior College. She earned a BA in linguistics and Spanish from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin and an MA in English from UT San Antonio. Matthew Henerson
Matthew Henerson is an actor born and based in Los Angeles. He has worked regionally at the Ahmanson, American Citizens Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, A Noise Within, Antaeus, Classical Theatre Lab, Coeurage Theatre Company, Deaf West, East West Players, Furious Theatre Company, the Independent Shakespeare Company, International City Theatre, Kingsmen Shakespeare, La Jolla Playhouse, Main Street Theatre Company, Northern Stage, Pacific Repertory, San Diego Repertory, San Jose Repertory, San Jose Stage Company, Sierra Repertory, Sledgehammer, South Coast Repertory, the Warehouse Theatre, and Women in Time, as well as at Shakespeare festivals in Arizona, Colorado, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Utah. In over 40 productions of Shakespeare, he has played Macbeth, Leontes, Shylock, Caliban, Sir Toby Belch, Bollingbroke, Touchstone, Horatio, Lear’s Fool, Dromio of Ephesus, Chorus in Henry V, Albany, Camillo, Grumio, Capulet, Casca, the Porter, and Alcibiades in Timon of Athens. Film and Television work includes appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Hung, Torn Apart (Lifetime,) America 101, Disney’s A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, and Ticking Clock (Sony.) He holds a B.A. in English from Yale and an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego. Michael Kostroff
Michael Kostroff is a stage and television actor, best known for his five-season portrayal of the unscrupulous gang attorney Maury Levy on HBO’s highly acclaimed The Wire. His stage work has included, most prominently, the first national tour of The Producers (understudying the lead role of Max Bialystock), and the touring company of Les Misérables (as the comically evil innkeeper, Thénardier). He’s the author of the popular book, Letters from Backstage, a funny, behind-the-scenes chronicle of life on the road with those two shows. Michael is a journalist and advice columnist for the actors’ newspaper, Backstage, and teaches his “Audition Psych. 101” workshop about once a month in LA. Jennifer Kramer
Jennifer Kramer graduated from the College of William and Mary with a BA in English and minor equivalents in Linguistics and Psychology. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and loves to travel, particularly if her itinerary just happens to coincide with performances of Shakespeare. In her free time, Jen enjoys subjecting unsuspecting pop culture to rigorous critical analysis (as well as unsuspecting classical literature to rigorous pop cultural analysis). Re-telling medieval Arthurian literature has always been her passion, but she recently began working on a transformative feminist re-editing of Hamlet, focusing on Ophelia’s struggles with her personal life and the supernatural forces overwhelming Denmark. Jonathon Macfarlane
Currently residing in Toronto, J. A. Macfarlane holds a Master’s in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, and is presently co-editing Antony and Cleopatra for the University of Victoria’s Internet Shakespeare Editions. He is also well-versed in a wide field of other interests, being something of an autodidactic polymath. Beyond studying early English drama and reading an inordinate number of books on an almost as inordinate range of topics, he enjoys writing, composing, opera, and delving into deviant personalities and the darker realms of literature and art.
Archie Maddocks
Archie has just graduated from The University of East Anglia where he studied American and English Literature. As part of his course, he was able to take a study-year abroad, which he subsequently spent in San Francisco; lapping up the culture of the Bay Area in the process. He has a passion for film and theatre and has been active in both fields for most of his life. He also loves writing . At the moment, he is involved in writing for theatre and is aiming to become an actor, director and playwright. Archie believes that Shakespeare is incredibly relevant to young people in the world, and he wants to help make them more aware of the joy that is Shakespeare. Michael Meigs
After serving as a United States diplomat in capital cities in Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, Michael Meigs relocated to yet another capital: Austin, Texas. He has worked as a freelance theatre and arts journalist since 2008. He graduated from Vanderbilt University magna cum laude in Spanish literature with a minor in drama and earned a Master’s degree in International Theatre Studies (French, Spanish, German and applied theatre, with a thesis on theatrical adaptations of Don Quijote) from the University of Kansas. In the decades since then he has acquired additional Master’s degrees in International Business, Economics, and National Security Studies, as well as a reading knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, and Swedish. Exploring the “live theatre” world of Austin, better known nationally as a “live music capital,” Michael serves as a reviewer and as an intermediary for news of theatre groups of all types in the greater Austin area. He is a member of the Austin Circle of Theatres and a board member of the Austin Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Craig Melson
Craig works in PR and graduated from King’s College London in 2007. He has a passion for theatre and has worked on various stage and screen Shakespeare productions in London. His primary interest is seeing how productions adapt the text and settings and bringing Shakespeare to a wider audience. Craig is also a keen writer and reviewer, having contributed to several publications and websites since university. Craig’s other interests include bad horror films, sports, literature, politics and Jack Bauer. Julian López-Morillas
Julian López-Morillas is a professional theatre actor, director and teacher who has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1973. He has performed for all the major Bay Area theatres including ACT, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, San Jose Rep, Magic Theatre, Aurora, San Jose Stage and many others, as well as the Denver Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, McCarter and Chicago's Court Theatre. He directed for many years with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival (now California Shakespeare Theatre), and also for the Marin Theatre Company, Berkeley Jewish Theatre, San Jose Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the American Players Theatre in Wisconsin. He has taught acting, directing, theatre history and Shakespeare for the University of California at Berkeley, San Jose State, Mills, Foothill and Solano Colleges. Nairi Najarian
Nairi Najarian is a Los Angeles native with a penchant for the world of wordcraft. She is a graduate of UCLA where she received a BA in English, only to come away with a troubling case of Anglophilia and an awful British accent she picked up from a daschund owning professor during an Edwardian Lit course one summer. A former intern and freelancer for national teen magazines BOP and Tiger Beat, Nairi’s most recent internship was with luxury-lifestyle glossy Angeleno, where she covered everything from nightlife, fashion, arts & entertainment in the Los Angeles area. Keeping up with culture and trends in a star-studded city isn't pretty, but Shakespeare is this girl’s favorite accessory. He's always in style. Ron Severdia
While studying at American Conservatory Theater, Ron played the title role in the ExitTheatre's controversial reverse-cast production of Othello. Starting as a magician when he was nine, he wrote and performed in The Great Escape, a play about the life of Harry Houdini. Travelling all over Europe, he has performed in Shakespeare festivals and television. He recently won a BATCC Award for his solo adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Vikki Vile
Vikki is a recent University of London graduate with extensive experience reviewing West End theatre and television. She has recently taken up the position of London Content Manager at FringeReview.com and is delighted to be the West Country correspondent for PlayShakespeare. Vikki also reviews for Dancing Times and Society of London Theatre amongst others. Primarily she is a dance critic with fifteen years of dance expertise as well as a passion for all things current affairs and social media. Her other interests revolve around fashion magazines and her ever growing shoe collection. Roseanne Wells
Roseanne started working with Shakespeare in fifth grade when she performed as Puck in an adapted A Midsummer Night's Dream. She attended California Shakespeare Festival's Summer Program and American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory before moving to New York. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts, she is a writer, dancer, and amateur Shakespeare scholar in New York City. She looks forward to pursuing a Master's degree in Literature, attempting to find connections between Falstaff, Touchstone, and the Fool from King Lear. |
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