Peter Garino (Artistic Director) is a founding member of The Shakespeare Project of Chicago and has served as Artistic Director for the past 14 years. Recent directing credits for The Project include The Comedy of Errors, Dear Rhoda, and The Better Part of Me. He is co-director (with Helene Augustyniak) of the film By Help of Devils, in which he portrays 14 of Shakespeare's villains.  Selected appearances with The Project include the title role in Timon of Athens, Polonius in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the Prince/Peter in Romeo and Juliet, Marcus Andronicus in Titus Andronicus, Helicanus in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the Duke of Florence in Women Beware Women, Duke Senior and Duke Frederick in As You Like It, Camillo in The Winter's Tale, the title role in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Lord LaFew in All's Well That Ends Well,  and the title role in The Merchant of Venice .  For The Shakespeare Project he has directed Richard III, The Roaring Girl, A Baker Street Christmas Caper, Much Ado About Nothing, Dream Upon Avon and Rowan Williams' Shakeshafte, among many others.  Peter directed the Chicago premier of Tom Stoppard's Darkside (Incorporating The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd). 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). 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.  

 Michelle Shupe (Associate Artistic Director) most recently directed Timon of Athens and Titus Andronicus for The Project.  Last season she co-directed Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women for The Project. She has been active with The Project for many years: acting, directing, assistant directing and serving as dramaturge. Directing credits include: The Shakespeare Project 2015 summer benefit The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, The Merchant of Venice, the 2013 summer benefit Reflections from a Shakespeare Garden (director and co-adapter). As an adapter, she also assisted with the adaptation of 50-Minute Romeo and Juliet. Outside The Project, Shupe has directed at Taffety Punk, and Roosevelt University and assistant directed at Venus Theater and the Washington International School. As an actor, she has appeared in these favorite Shakespeare Project readings: The Duchess of Malfi, The Revenger's Tragedy, King Lear and Cervantes' Three Interludes. She has appeared at various theaters throughout the country, including: Theatre Squared, Shaw Chicago, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Shakespeare Theatre, the Goodman, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and many others.