Peter Garino (Artistic Director) is a founding member of The Shakespeare Project of Chicago and has contributed to over 50 theatrical readings as an actor and director since 1995. He is co-adaptor with Barbara Zahora and Michelle Shupe of The Project's newest education outreach production, 50-Minute Romeo and Juliet.  Most recently, he appeared as Delio in The Duchess of Malfi and directed and appeared in Richard II to open The Project's 17th season.  This past season, he directed The Tempest, Measure For Measure and appeared as Sir Amias Paulet in Mary Stuart and George Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor.  Previously for The Project, he appeared in Paradise Lost, The Rivals and played Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII.  On behalf of The Shakespeare Project, he has facilitated his Sonnet Workshop and Page to the Stage Macbeth for local public and private schools and colleges.  Other roles includes Lord Stanley in Richard III, Creon in Jeff Christian's adaptation, In Medea Res, Duke Senior and Duke Frederick in As You Like It, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Mortimer in The Constant Wife, Rev. Manders in Ghosts, multiple roles in Henry V, Boyet in Love's Labour's Lost, the title role in Jeff Christian's adaptation of Faust, Leontes in A Winter's Tale and Duncan in Macbeth. Peter has worked with the Steppenwolf and Organic Theatre companies, the Body Politic, Pegasus Players and with the Oak Park Festival Theatre and Illinois Shakespeare Festival (three seasons).  His directing credits for The Shakespeare Project include Antony and Cleopatra, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No Importance, Pericles (1996 and 2008), The Taming of the Shrew, 2 Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his own adaptations of Shakespeare's sonnets and songs, My Name Is Will, and The Rape of Lucrece.  Peter attended the National Shakespeare Conservatory and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from Illinois State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from Hofstra University, New York. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association, AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild.   

Barbara Zahora (Associate Artistic Director) joined The Project's artistic staff in 2010; she has performed with The Project since 2005. Last season she adapted and directed The Merry Wives of Windsor. This season, she will direct Troilus and Cressida.  As an actor, her favorite roles in Project stagings include Queen Elizabeth I in last season's Mary Stuart, Margaret in Jeff Christian’s adaptation of Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3, and Constance Middleton in The Constant Wife. Barbara has been performing in Chicago for more than ten years; her credits include roles at Writers' Theatre, ShawChicago, Chicago Shakespeare, First Folio, Goodman, Illinois Theatre Center, Oak Park Festival, Northlight, Lookingglass and many others. She has also performed at a many respected regional and international venues, including the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, where she was part of the International Artistic Residency in 2004. Barbara is also an adjunct faculty member in Roosevelt University’s Theatre Conservatory, a voiceover artist, a dialect coach, and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Associaton. 

Meghan Freebeck (Director of Communications) is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin where she majored in English and History. She received her Master of Arts in English at DePaul University. While at the University of Wisconsin, Meghan spent a semester in London focusing on theatre and dramatic criticism. She has worked as a freelance writer, a staff writer at Chicago Now Magazine and is currently a pulicist at a Chicago PR firm and is responsible for social media campaigns, grant proposals and published media such as newsletters, press releases and editorials. She teaches English Composition and Literature at Harper College.