PlayShakespeare.com Reviewers

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 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 is earning his BA in theatre and philosophy from Loyola University Chicago.  Originally hailing from Toledo, OH, he now resides on the far north side of Chicago. Still moored in the safe harbor of educational theatre, he enjoys playwriting/acting/designing/directing at Loyola and around the city. He also reviews Chicago theatre for the Chicago Theatre Blog.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 2008, Julian fulfilled one of his life goals by performing the role of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, thus becoming one of the few individuals to have performed professionally in all 38 of Shakespeare's plays. He is recognized throughout Northern California as a leading authority on Shakespeare plays and their performance. Julian has also been a two-day winner on Jeopardy!

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.

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.

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.

Deirdre received her BA (Hons) in English from the University of York, UK and is studying for her MA in English from Simmons College. While studying at York she performed in and coordinated publicity for Hit the Switch Theatre Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which transferred to Stratford-Upon-Avon as a part of the RSC’s Complete Works in July 2006. She is currently working in the Communications Department at Simmons College and as a freelance writer, designer and voice actor. She would love to voice audio books and her current writing projects include short fiction and various arts, theatre and film reviews.