"Smith [Shefelton]’s sensitive staged reading took a pleasingly simple approach that privileged excellent vocal performances from the cast. Sat in a curved line with scripts on music stands, actors simply stood to enter the stage, raising their music stands as they did so. [C]oncentric pairings created clear shape to the reading, focalizing Hero and Claudio as the central duo, while also opposing the women on stage right from the men on stage left. In doing so, Smith [Shefelton] revealed something of the script’s own conscious imbalancing; this is a play leading up to marriages, and yet the stage right side was far more active, in a play which sought to privilege women’s experiences. Smith [Shefelton]’s intelligent staging helped unearth much of this play’s potential for developing the backstory of Shakespeare’s characters." - "The Bardathon"

Read Dr. Peter Kirwan's "The Bardathon" REVIEW