In a recent article for BWW, Sherry Shameer Cohen wrote:

"Coming up at the Darien Arts Center is a staged reading of actress and playwright Mary Jane Schaefer's play, Shakespeare and the Heart's Desire. This is the third of Schaefer's trilogy about Shakespeare's life and it explores a part few people know about. Each play can be a stand-alone. (The earlier ones are Shakespeare Rising and Judith Shakespeare Has Her Say.) "All three plays try to show him as human, although the first play also celebrates his emergence as a great artist," says Schaefer. She is being modest. The plays have angles most people don't expect and illuminate his interests and his emotions. This is not heavy Shakespeare, the type of play you feel obligated to see in order to fill your quota of serious theater and fit in with the theater snobs. This is accessible Shakespeare and it's thrilling. Directed by Mark Graham, the cast of Shakespeare and the Heart's Desire includes Larry Reina, John O'Hern, Damian Langan, Tom Zingarelli, Allan Zeller, Joe Maker, Miles Everett, Scott Bruno, Betty Jinnette, Emilie Roberts, and Marca Leigh. The play includes live Elizabethan-style music, composed on short notice by Stephanie Wong, who teaches violin, viola, piano and flute at the Darien Arts Center."

MJS: As I have noted in the Trilogy section of this site, the play was very well received by a gracious, focused audience.