Barry Edelstein

Barry Edelstein, host of Where There’s A Will: Shakespeare Now, is the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director at San Diego’s The Old Globe and is a stage director, producer, author, and educator. His Globe directing credits include The Winter’s TaleOthelloThe Twenty-Seventh Man, the world premiere of RainPicasso at the Lapin AgileHamlet, the world premiere of The Wanderers, the American premiere of Life AfterRomeo and Juliet, and, during the pandemic, Hamlet: On the Radio. He also directed All’s Well That Ends Well as the inaugural production of the Globe for All community tour, and he oversees the Globe’s Classical Directing Fellowship program. In addition to his recent Globe credits, he directed The Tempest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2018, and he will next direct The Wanderers Off Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company in 2023. As Director of the Shakespeare Initiative at The Public Theater (2008–2012), Edelstein oversaw all of the company’s Shakespearean productions as well as its educational, community outreach, and artist-training programs. At The Public, he staged the world premiere of The Twenty-Seventh ManJulius CaesarThe Merchant of VeniceTimon of Athens, and Steve Martin’s WASP and Other Plays. He was also Associate Producer of The Public’s Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino. From 1998 to 2003 he was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company. His book Thinking Shakespeare is the standard text on American Shakespearean acting. He is also the author of Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.