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Rob Crisell is an author, actor, teacher, and Shakespearean in Temecula, CA. He teaches poetry and Shakespeare with the Murrieta Valley Union School District as part of its Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program. He is a Shakespeare lecturer with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He has acted in The Merchant of Venice, Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), Baskerville, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest (Prospero), Macbeth, Othello (Iago), and others. Over the quarantine, he has acted in Much Ado About Nothing and Merry Wives of Windsor (with Nathan Agin’s “A Working Actor’s Journey production) and King Lear (Quarantine Players). He has written and performed several one-man plays featuring Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Shakespeare in America. He’s the author of Shakespeare’s Book of Wisdom: Advice on Living a Wiser, Happier Life from William Shakespeare & Friends (DePortola Press 2018). His 2016 TED Talk is “How NOT to Hate Shakespeare.” His verse adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra will be produced by Full Circle Players in Riverside, California in October 2020. He is a graduate of Yale University and George Mason University Law School. For details, visit www.robcrisell.com or www.facebook/robcrisellactor/.

My son and I perform Sonnet 32 for The Sonnet Response Series

In mid-April, I took part in the Sonnet Response Series, where 154 artists from around the world each performed one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. I chose Sonnet 32. I recruited my son Soren Crisell star in it. He also wrote an original score for it. (You can watch all 154 sonnets performed here.)

My son Soren skeptically reads Sonnet 32.

“To be or not to be” from Hamlet — One of the Quarantine Monologues

This is the final video that my daughter and I filmed for Wendi Johnson’s Quarantine Monologues project with the Full Circle Players. In it, I perform Hamlet’s famous 2B/2B speech from Act 3. I hope you like it.

Rob performs “I have of late” from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

I performed this speech by Hamlet from Act 2, Scene 2 on a rainy day near the beginning of the quarantine by Soren Crisell. I had no idea it would sum up my life so well two months later.