Full Members

(are those members of the community who regularly review or write about theatre via print, radio, television or digital media.)
 

Denise Armstead, while having virtually no onstage theatre experience (other than a very minor role in a production of The Best Christmas Pagent Ever), has long enjoyed live theatre as an attendee. At the urging of a current SFBATCC member, Denise began writing reviews for local productions, and eventually made her way into SFBATCC, where she is delighted to find herself in the company of San Francisco bay area’s theatre elite. Living in St. Helena makes it a challenge to visit all the splendid theatre companies in the bay area; nevertheless, she has made it her personal goal to see as many productions as she possibly can. 

Ken Bullock has written performing arts reviews regularly for such publications and websites as The Commuter Times, Berkeley Daily Planet, San Francisco Classical Voice and 21st Century Music since 2000, more occasionally in the years before that for arts magazines like Invisible City and Third Rail. A native of the Bay Area, he sold theater and film books at Limelight and has been associated with the Green Room Players and Theatre of Yugen.

Email: ken.bullock@criticscircle.org

Jennifer Charron is a marketing/communications consultant, writer, and life-long storyteller. A native of Seattle, she holds a B.A. in Communications/Journalism from the University of Washington. After living in Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, and Raleigh, NC, Jennifer has made the Bay Area her home. A veteran marketing director in Education and the Wine Industry, Jennifer is now a freelance writer and content specialist, creating product stories, authentic consumer conversations, and nonprofit narratives. Jennifer is an active participant in the Bay Area theater community and a theater critic whose reviews can be seen on the Theatrius website.

Email: jennifer.charron@criticscircle.org

Otto Coelho is an actor, director, acting coach, teacher, and writer. He grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, earned a BA in Drama from Cal State Stanislaus and an MFA from UC Irvine, then proceeded to work in stage productions, television, and film for the better part of thirty years. He says that he has to get onstage every couple of years or so, or else he “starts to lose his shpedoinkel” (note: has not, as of 2022, appeared on stage in three years). He is excited to be the Peninsula and South Bay critic for the TheatreStorm website.

Email: otto.coelho@criticscircle.org

Victor Cordell * is a performance devotee who's actively attended theater in the many places he's lived, from generously sampling the bright lights of New York and London to grabbing anything that came along in the slightly less luminous Singapore and Hong Kong theater scenes.  In the performing arts arena, he has been on the Board of Directors of Island City Opera, Cutting Ball Theater, San Francisco Lyric Opera, and Monterey Opera Company.  A PhD in marketing, Victor is a retired professor and banker who now spends a good deal of his time supporting theater, which he believes is a form of performance entertainment that is unsurpassed in its intelligence, its humanity, and its evocativeness. He covers the whole Bay Area, and his reviews for theater and opera productions can be found at CordellReports.com, BerkshireFineArts.com, and seasonally for San Jose and Silicon Valley only at TalkinBroadway.com.

Email: victor.cordell@criticscircle.org

Harry Duke is an actor, director, radio broadcaster, teacher, and theatre critic whose reviews can be seen in print in the alternative weeklies North Bay Bohemian, Marin Pacific Sun and the community weekly The Healdsburg Tribune and online at the North Bay Stage and Screen website. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Sonoma State University where he graduated magna cum laude. He's been active in the North Bay theatre community for twenty-five years and has been seen on stage in roles as varied as Pozzo in Waiting for Godot to Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors. He co-hosted the North Bay's top-rated talk radio program "The Drive with Steve Jaxon & Harry Duke" on KSRO News Talk at 1350 AM/103.5 FM for two years, and now hosts a weekly theatre segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM. He is also the Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Worst Show on the Web, a popular podcast and entertainment site where his musings on the current state of film, television and pop culture can be found.

Email: harry.duke@criticscircle.org

Susan Dunn finds a community, inspiration, revelation and joy in live theater. She has participated in Bay Area Theater in many varied roles since her move from New York in 1991:   Board and Staff at Hillbarn Theater, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, and Virago, and she has worked as Producer, Box Office or Stage Manager on several new productions in Berkeley and Alameda.  She is proud to bring needed business skills to the arts.  Recently retired from a technology career in the corporate world, where her specialty was reservations system design, she currently indulges her passion for live theater as Staff Historian and Props Manager at Altarena Playhouse, and recently worked as Development Director, Stage Manager and Props Designer for Island City Opera in Alameda. She delights in the ever-changing variety of theater companies and venues all over the Bay Area, and is associated with several local play writers and play reading associations. Susan has reviewed theater at Theatrius, Aisle Seat Review, and Reviews Bay Area.

Email: susan.dunn@criticscircle.org

Joanne Engelhardt is a former newspaper reporter who later moved to the corporate world where she worked on employee publications as well as marketing and corporate communications.  Her late husband was a high school drama teacher who performed in community theaters around the Bay Area. About the time she retired from her full-time responsibilities, he corraled her into helping him with his directing projects. Eventually she was bitten by the acting bug and started performing, first with him, and then by auditioning and getting cast on her own. She still loved writing and found the perfect outlet for her writing and performance experience as a theater critic -- first as the theater critic for the San Mateo County Times, then later at the Palo Alto Daily News/Mercury News. She also reviewed theater for the Santa Cruz Sentinel for about eight years. Later she wrote theater reviews for Aisle Seat Review. Currently she contributes to the Stage and Cinema website.

Email: joanne.engelhardt@criticscircle.org

Mitchell Field just celebrated his 61st. year as a professional hairstylist and salon-owner. Beginning as an apprentice to the world-renowned Mayfair stylist Vidal Sassoon, then to Montreal, Los Angeles and eventually Marin County, Field has cut and colored his way through the last six decades. During his career he established iconic hair designs, popularizing L.A. punk culture working on Billy Idol and Adam Ant, and rock ‘n’ roll styles of the '80s, (Guns N' Roses, Poison, Alice Cooper, Michal Schenker) and styled Michael Richards’ iconic ‘Kramer’ look for his role in 'Seinfeld'. In addition to his career as a hairstylist, Field also ventured into entertainment, establishing himself as a respected Bay Area actor and radio host. Field has appeared in independent films, commercials and in stage plays and musicals for theater companies including the Mountain Play, Ross Valley Players, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Email: mitchell.field@criticscircle.org

Kelly Rogers Flynt is new to the Bay Area and currently writing reviews for BroadwayWorld Bay Area and The Alameda Post. She spent the past few decades in Seattle working in youth theater as a director and choreographer and professionally as a dramaturg. Locally she has volunteered at various high schools in Alameda as a choreographer, an ensemble coach, and provided free audition workshops for youth. Additionally, she continues to work as a freelance writer and is co-host of a writing podcast, The Rough Draft. Outside of theater she enjoys hiking, playing ukulele, playing mahjong and pickleball, paddle boarding, and tap class with hopes of becoming a Tap Dancing Christmas Tree of Alameda.

Email: kelly.flynt@criticscircle.org

R. Gallyot is a San Francisco native who basically grew up in the theater.  Whether ushering at the Opera House as a young boy, a teenager doing the same for A.C.T. during its infancy under director William Ball, or at the newly-built Masonic Temple, he always cordially welcomed people into "his house" before seating them. Later in life he sat on Marian Anderson’s lap, was invited into the hotel room of “The Last of the Red Hot Momas” (i.e., Sophie Tucker), sat on stage next to Rudolf Nureyev and worked with Leslie Caron and Rex Harrison to name but a few. (He could keep name dropping but believes saying less says much more.) His Views: Supporting local theater is imperative; but, compromising demands is counter-productive and serves no one - and audiences need reeducating that not every show deserves a standing ovation.

Email: r.gallyot@criticscircle.org

Robert Gardner is a native of North Dakota, is trained as an archaeologist, and has a life-long love of the arts. He taught for many years at at Saint Mary’s College of California, teaching courses including: Exploring Museums, and Music Around the Bay. In these courses, he enjoyed taking students to discover art and music. Grandson of a frontier newspaper editor, he comes from a family of writers. He loves to explore cultures, especially Native American, South American, and Bay Area. He plays guitar and sings in a Choir, and enjoys studying a wide range of musical styles. He reviews for the Theatrius website.

Email: robert.gardner@criticscircle.org

Gary Gonser * has produced theater productions in Marin for over 15 years.  He has designed and built sets for groups in Marin and Sonoma counties and is especially proud of his work with Montgomery High School Drama Production students.  He has an MA in Psychology and is a project manager for business and theatre projects.  He co-founded the Novato Theater Foundation in 2004 as a non-profit to help raise money for local performing arts and formed Marin Onstage under the NTF in 2012 to support high-quality collaborative productions in local venues. His reviews can be found on his Theatre Hound website.

Email: gary.gonser@criticscircle.org

Marc Gonzalez was bitten by the theatre bug in his Junior year of high school, and has been in the throes of performing, choreographing, and seeing shows ever since. Marc graduated from Foothill College with degrees in Theatre Arts and English Literature, and received his Single Subject Teaching Credential in English from San Francisco State University. While living in the Bay Area, Marc had the privilege to perform with Contra Costa Music Theatre, Pinole Community Players, Foothill Music Theatre, Palo Alto Players, Broadway By The Bay, South Bay Music Theatre, Silicon Valley Shakespeare, Pacifica Spindrift Players, Sunnyvale Community Players, and Coastal Repertory Theatre. Currently, Marc lives in Fresno and is the Theatre Teacher at Bullard High School. Marc has been reviewing shows since 2011 with his blog, The Road to 1,000. You can find Marc's reviews at his Theatre Teacher Talk website.

Email: marc.gonzalez@criticscircle.org

John Angell Grant * was a founding member of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle in 1976, when the very first meetings were held to determine the nature of the Circle. He holds a literature degree from Columbia, with another from Stanford currently in progress. Grant has written about theater for American Theater magazine, BackStage West, Theater Bay Area magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the East Bay Express, the Oakland Tribune, the San Mateo Times, KRE radio, and other publications. John reviewed theater for the Palo Alto Daily News for 12 years before joining The Daily Post in 2012.

Email: john.angell.grant@criticscircle.org

Mary Lou Herlihy had her love for theater sparked at the Westport Country Playhouse, in the town where she grew up. After graduating from Smith College with a Degree in Fine Arts, she pursued a career in museum exhibition. She retired from the National Park Service after nearly 30 years where she’d led teams in the creation of museum and visitor center exhibits. Writing theater reviews is a natural expression of her love for theater, which she now has more time to enjoy. Her reviews can be found on the Theatrius website.

Email: mary.lou.herlihy@criticscircle.org

Barry David Horwitz taught English and Drama at Saint Mary's College, for many years. His has also taught at U.C., Berkeley; Univ. of Paris, Sorbonne; and as a Visiting Prof. of Contemporary Drama at Univ. of Montpellier, France.  He served as the Founding Artistic Director of The Quixotic Players for many years and acted and dramaturged with Shotgun Players, Berkeley. He has published on Langston Hughes and U.S. '50s Drama. Now, on FUN-Employment, he is running and reviewing plays on the Theatrius website.

Email: barry.david.horwitz@criticscircle.org

Flora Lynn Isaacson has been an actress, director, professor and theater critic. She acted in more than twenty plays over her lifetime, first at the Palo Alto Children’s Theater and Palo Alto Community Players, then at Mills College, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco State, San Francisco Actor’s Workshop, and last at the Fringe Festival of Marin, where she also directed one-act plays.  She taught speech and drama for 28 years at Laney College and also directed student plays there. She wrote theater reviews for two publications, the West Side Observer and San Francisco Bay Times. She is now, at the age of 91, still enjoying theater and posting reviews on the For All Events website.

Email: flora.lynn.isaacson@criticscircle.org

Doug Konecky came to theater from the music side. His songs have been recorded and performed by many artists through the years, including Barbara Streisand, Patti LaBelle and Glen Campbell. He began reviewing theater for AOL in 2000 and was their principal San Francisco writer for five years. His independent San Francisco Theater Blog has been in operation since 2007.

Email: charles.kruger@criticscircle.org

Chuck Louden has been an avid pop culture junkie since he was a kid.  He was active on the entertainment committee in college and wrote movie and theater reviews for a local San Francisco newsletter for over 15 years. He now contributes to the Stage and Cinema website. In addition to writing and attending Bay Area theater, Chuck swims and runs several times a week and has run over 260 marathons.  He currently teaches swimming and fitness classes every weekday both for San Francisco Rec & Park Dept as well as on line for Destination Fitness that he founded during Covid.  He’s also the middle school track & cross country coach for the International High School in San Francisco.

Email: chuck.louden@criticscircle.org

Steve Murray started producing theatre in 1998 with his critically acclaimed non-profit benefit series Viva Variety, branching out into one-man performance pieces, burlesque, parodies of Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Trog, and over 50 standup comedy shows. He is also currently the Bay Area correspondent for CabaretScenes.org, covering vocal music. He’s a foodie, competitive swimmer and tennis player, and loves film. He recently retired from a career in biotech, mainly in oncology research. His reviews can be found on BroadwayWorld.org where he is the San Francisco correspondent. 

Email: steve.murray@criticscircle.org

Cari Lynn Pace wrote theatre and lifestyle reviews for six Marinscope Newspapers and now contributes to the Stage and Cinema website. She was born with a love of music and performances, writing her first family play at age 12 to engage four of her nine siblings. She supports the Marin Symphony and was a long-standing Director of the Friends of the Marin Center for the Performing Arts. As a veteran real estate broker and a past President of Marin Association of Realtors, she writes and instructs real estate courses. Her book, Don't Shoot Me...I'm Just the Real Estate Agent! has thankfully not been made into a movie and never will be.

Email: cari.lynn.pace@criticscircle.org

Eddie Reynolds * is a former Board member and Board Chair of TheatreWorks whose love of theatre began by his seeing Boys in the Band in his freshman year at the University of Tennessee. He attends and reviews 150-180 shows a year throughout the entire Bay Area region, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and other venues.  Besides being an avid supporter of a number of local theatre companies, he is a season subscriber to the SF Opera and regular attendee at SF Ballet and SF Symphony.  Eddie also sings with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus for whom he commissioned the 40th Anniversary Concert, Unbreakable, by Andrew Lippa, in memory of his late husband, Ed Jones.  Eddie retired in 2016 as an independent, organization development consultant in order to devote full-time to reviewing theatre, having worked with a hundred-plus executive teams in both the for- and not-for-profit sectors since 1989.  His reviews can be found on his Theatre Eddys website as well as the Talkin' Broadway website.

Email: eddie.reynolds@criticscircle.org

Nicole Singley * is a Sonoma County-based writer and editor who studied English literature and creative writing at UC Berkeley. Nicole is a full voting member of the American Theatre Critics Association, a contributing reviewer for the Petaluma Argus-Courier, and was formerly a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review. Her work has also appeared in the North Bay Bohemian, Marin Pacific Sun, and online at Talkin’ Broadway.

Email: nicole.singley@criticscircle.org

Jeffrey R. Smith grew up in a renovated shop where willow baskets were previously made by his immigrant grandfathers. It was marginally heated by a wood stove; it offered no indoor plumbing. The experience left its mark: to this day, Jeff only reviews at theaters with heat and plumbing. In high school, he became interested in theatre. Occasionally he passed by the Regent Theatre on East Genesee Street in Syracuse, New York. He never attended a single performance at the Regent but, theatre was added to his list of things do when he ascended from family penury: as Gerald and Sara Murphy vowed, “Living well is the best revenge.” Jeff judges a show purely by its strengths. Those who read his reviews are urged to look beyond the dross and to appreciate the magical elements of the show. His reviews can be found on the For All Events website.

Email: jeffrey.r.smith@criticscircle.org

Lynne Stevens has had a career involving stints at a number of print publications; InfoWorld, Palo Alto Weekly and Communication Arts. She currently holds down the post of Administrative Secretary at a private San Francisco club where she is webmistress, produces a monthly Bulletin, and is their right-hand woman. Books and theatre are her friends. She reviews plays for the Theatrius website.

Email: lynne.stevens@criticscircle.org

Patrick Thomas * is a writer with a wide range of experience, having written for several magazines, including WIRED and San Francisco, the travel newsletter Gemütlichkeit, as well as for some of the Bay Area's most prestigious brands, including Apple, Oracle, Charles Schwab, Genentech and Cisco.  He sees as many as 80 shows every year, most in the Bay Area, but also in New York, London, Chicago. His reviews of Bay Area productions can be found on the Talkin' Broadway  website. 

Email: patrick.thomas@criticscircle.org

Woody Weingarten was tickled, while in a suburban New York high school in the ‘50s, to have a poem published in a national anthology. His first paid gig, though, was a book review for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1965. Between those two, he became addicted to Broadway shows. He later penned a monthly piece for Audio magazine and two decades ago began writing theater and arts reviews, features, and a column for the six Marinscope weeklies. In 2012 he added the For All Events and Patch websites, in 2020 Local News Matters (Bay City News), and in 2023 Aisle Seat Review. He’s co-written a musical with his composer-performer wife, who died in 2024; authored four books, MysteryDates®, The Roving I, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, and Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, and is working on a couple more. He expects to croak, at age 102, with his rump on an ergonomic chair and his fingers on an old-fashioned keyboard.

email: woody.weingarten@criticscircle.org

Barry Willis * has worked extensively as a writer/editor for many technophile publications and websites including Stereophile, Guide to Home Theater, Ultimate AV, AudioVideo Interiors, Home Theater, Photographic Magazine, The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, and DTV Magazine. Since 2007 he has been the American correspondent for British audio-and-music journal Hi-Fi News, where he has a monthly opinion column. He was a contributor to Food Arts, the longtime trade journal of the fine dining industry, garnering a 2006 nomination for a James Beard Award in Journalism. Formerly Executive Editor of the NorCal edition of Aisle Seat Review, Barry writes about visual art and theater for the Marin Independent Journal and reviews film, opera, and theater for the Stage and Cinema website. 

Email: barry.willis@criticscircle.org

Adjunct Members

(are those who, through their participation in the community as directors, designers, educators, performers, non-reviewing media members, etc., bring an additional level of critical perspective and experience or other theatrically-related background to the Circle.)

Joseph Cillo is a supporter, fan and regular attendee of theater and various performing arts performances presented in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of For All Events, a website devoted to travel, wine, dining and entertainment with calendar listings, reviews and news content. As of May 2015, For All Events features more than 1,200 reviews written and posted by 44 different critics/reviewers, of which many are members of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He also reviews films and performing arts as time allows.

Email: joe.cillo@criticscircle.org

Karin Cordell * was born and raised in Manhattan. With a love of theater, she continues to increase her attendance and appreciation of the art. Besides having seen over 1000 productions across the U.S. and overseas; edited over 600 theater/opera reviews; and co-authored 12 travel and event reviews, she spent two years on the board of Island City Opera and as a member/performer in East Bay Playreaders. With a Ph.D in Education/Communication, her professional work included coordination of Arts Curricula for the state of Delaware and the District of Columbia Public Schools, as well as authorship of two books and several peer reviewed papers.

Email: karin.cordell@criticscircle.org

Sarah Duarte has been a lover of music and theater her entire life. She’s been teaching vocal music and dance in the San Jose Public School system for 17 years and counting. An Opera major in college, Sarah took a break from performing to raise a family but has thoroughly enjoyed returning to the stage in the South Bay, most recently as Sally Bowles in the South Valley Civic Theatre production of Cabaret. Sarah co-hosts (with AJ JAffari) the Broadway with AJ and Sarah podcast, where they review local shows, interview local actors and production crew, and discuss other aspects of the Bay Area theatre scene. Follow them on social media @BroadwaywithAJ

Email sarah.duarte@criticscircle.org

AJ Jaffari has been performing on stage since a very young age. He is currently a student at San Francisco State University where he studies Radio, TV and Film while also continuing his theatrical pursuits. AJ was most recently seen on local stages in a featured role in the City Lights Theater Company production of Kinky Boots, Motel in Fiddler on the Roof (SF Bay Area BroadwayWorld Nomination), and Emmett in Legally Blonde. AJ is a singer/songwriter with 2 full length albums available on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and more. He also hosts the Housewives Happy Hour podcast where he interviews reality TV personalities. AJ co-hosts (with Sarah Duarte) the weekly podcast Broadway with AJ and Sarah. It's a mixture of reviews of local shows, interviews with actors and production crew, and discussions of other aspects of the Bay Area theatre scene. You can follow AJ on social media @BroadwaywithAJ

Email: aj.jaffari@crticscircle.org

Philippa Kelly is Resident Dramaturg for the California Shakespeare Theater (where she has dramaturged 40 productions since 2009) and Resident Dramaturg for the newly-established Remote Theater. She is co-recipient of a Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Bly Award for Innovation in Dramaturgy (2015), and, with Cal Shakes as sponsor, she received a 2020 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, awarded to support her dramaturgy work with Cal Shakes during Covid19. Philippa has published 11 books, 45 peer-reviewed articles and 55 playbill articles. Her latest publication is Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field (Routledge, April 2020, Associate Editor Amrita Ramanan). Over several years, Philippa has led teams funded by the Walter and Elise Haas Foundation and the California Arts Council to partner with schools across the Bay on curriculum development to enable theater studies to thrive in under-funded schools.

Email: philippa.kelly@criticscircle.org

Michael Oesch is a San Francisco-based lighting designer for dance, theatre, opera, musicals, and film. He has worked with Smuin Ballet since 2004 as the Lighting Director, where he has designed lighting for many of their world premieres. He has also designed lighting for The Magic Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, West Wave Dance Festival, El Teatro Campesino, Solano College Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, New Conservatory Theatre Center, as well as many other Bay Area companies. He earned his BFA in Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University and his MFA in Lighting Design from UC Davis. He is also a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 – the Union of Theatrical Designers. He sees over 100 productions a year in the bay area, in all disciplines of live entertainment.

Email: michael.oesch@criticscircle.org

Jeffrey Ramos is originally from the Philippines and moved to the United States in 2007. A biology major in college intending to go to Medical School, he now works as a Validation Engineer for a software company in San Mateo. He became a theater fan when he saw his first musical starring Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon (2001). The magic of live theatre quickly captivated him and he has been a staunch supporter of the community ever since. He typically sees over 40 productions a year. Jeff has worked as an actor, producer, stage manager, production manager, crew member, and usher in various theatrical productions in the Philippines, LA, and San Francisco Bay Area. In his spare time, you can see Jeff teaching fitness at F45 Studio in San Bruno, running multiple Spartan Races all over the US, or traveling to different cities around the world to do touristy things. Follow his adventures on Instagram at @jepriy

Email: jeffrey.ramos@criticscircle.org

Jeanie K. Smith * reviewed theatre for the Palo Alto Weekly, San Jose Metro, Talkin’Broadway and Mountain View Voice in the South Bay for more than 15 years. She has directed numerous productions as well, notably for Pear Theatre, Palo Alto Players and Dragon Theatre. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Drama, is a published scholar and dramaturg, and an Associate member of Stage Directors & Choreographers. She shares her reviews and musings on theatre, arts and culture on her Critic At Large 2.0 website.

Email: jeanie.k.smith@criticscircle.org