Selected Press Quotes, for full articles please visit The Filigree Theatre and/or contact Juice Consulting Public Relations
The Turn of The Screw
The carefully crafted atmosphere in the staging of this ghost story may have you wondering if unseen spirits are lurking in the dark..." Austin Chronicle
The Filigree Theatre’s latest production—playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw—is a piece of old Austin-style intimate artistry...What is most remarkable is just how much this atmosphere serves the production, rather than detracting from it." -AJF Review |
Director Elizabeth V. Newman is clearly aware how unconventional the performance venue is, and she uses this to heighten the psychologically fraught, close-to-the-vest ghost story..." -AJF Review |
With an evocative, spooky atmosphere and two dynamite performances, The Filigree Theatre’s The Turn of the Screw is a wonderful mid-winter ghost story that serves to remind audiences that theatrical magic can happen even in the strangest of locales..." -AJF Review
100 Planes
West Coast Premiere
100 Planes
World Premiere
The Cast as a whole is excellent …Elizabeth Newman’s direction is quick and efficient, keeping the performance tight.” |
Filigree’s ‘100 Planes’ is subtle, yet powerful, examination of women in the military” - AUSTIN ARTS WATCH |
100 Planes is a powerful look at how women fight to survive in masculine spaces, and the disastrous effects this struggle can have on the psyche. The play forces the performers to step up to a higher level of emotional intelligence…creating a nuanced piece of drama that’s sure to leave the audience shaken.” |
…100 Planes is an intriguing look at a sector not often examined in theatrical works and does so with a subtle, nuanced hand…” |
Miss Julie
Filigree’s production…create[s] a very complicated look at class, gender and power, one that is painful but necessary to watch given the way those very same issues still haunt us today.” - AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
TRIO
World Premiere
...easily the most kinetic and visually impressive production of Filigree’s season, serving as a welcome display of the diverse types of works that the fledgling company is prepared to produce."
-AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
A Delicate Ship
Austin Premiere
The Filigree Theatre’s production of this moody, moving work is a subtle, emotional exploration of the complicated nature of modern love and adulthood, and it’s well worth seeing. -AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN |
In the second production of the company’s premiere season, Filigree Theatre’s Austin premiere of “A Delicate Ship” takes this nuanced script and gives it a thoughtful, heartbreaking production.” |
Betrayal
To play these deliciously layered levels of text and subtext requires extremely nuanced performances, and all three actors are more than up to the task… Perfected "Pinter pauses" and all, Newman and her cast take a well-known script, often derided for its problematic misogyny and cavalier attitude toward spousal abuse (a particular line is addressed in the program), and show us a side of adultery we may not often consider. Are we in control of who we love, and are we even conscious of it? And in the end, toward for whom is the betrayal most bitter: our partners or ourselves?” |
...this production is executed with impressive precision, and remains professionally faithful to Pinter's style… |
Any Night
Los Angeles Premiere
|
Thomas and Fahlgren strike no false notes in Newman’s sterling production… |
Elizabeth V. Newman’s authoritative staging incorporates the bizarre and the quotidian into a seamless dreamscape with riveting performances by Zac Thomas and Marie Fahlgren…”
"There is something dangerous and tense about Any Night from the moment the play commences; it is to Newman's credit that she is able to maintain the tension right up until the final, shattering moments." "Under the keen direction of Elizabeth Newman, Any Night is utterly absorbing to the very end..." - Paul Myrvolds Theatre Notes |
"Brilliant writing, directing and acting make Any Night the success it is." |
"The director, Elizabeth V. Newman, accurately describes the play as a 'fever dream or a nightmare," one that unfolds on a soundscape filled with "stifled screams pierced with echoes of songs half-remembered." |
"Suffice it to say that the dark, subconscious vision of Any Night never falters or weakens. It is scary as hell from beginning to end." |
"Director Elizabeth V. Newman certainly leads a gifted, disciplined team to create this fundamentally disturbing, nerve-scraping tale of love and loss, horror and despair, hope and desperation in such a visceral, intimate way." - The World Through Night-Tinted Glasses (zahirblue.blogspot.com)
Any Night
Austin Premiere
"There's a steady build in the tension here, precisely managed by director Elizabeth Newman and the two actors."
"While Fahlgren and Thomas are before you in the dark rooms of their minds amid the powerfully symbolic disorder and randomness of Vanessa Montano's set design, you'll be holding tight to your seat as the action builds to a decisive and unequal confrontation of threat and violent surprise." |
"Fahlgren with her expressive features and slim pajama-clad figure presents the epitome of fragillity, but there's a ferocity to her, especially in those trance states, that provokes our misgivings." CTX LIVE THEATRE
BY MICHEL MEIGS Sunday, October 2nd, 2016 FULL REVIEW:
| ||
The Sniper's Nest
Austin Premiere
|
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
CHANGE OF VENUE This year, FronteraFest is takin' it to the streets – and a chapel, a bookstore, a home ... BY ROBERT FAIRES, JANUARY 10, 2014, ARTS ...The Sniper's Nest takes place during the summer prior to John Kennedy's assassination, when, according to Judyth Vary Baker, she and Lee Harvey Oswald carried on a torrid affair. FULL ARTICLE
|
CTX LIVE THEATRE
BY MICHAEL MEIGS Friday, 31 January, 2014 This staging directed by Elizabeth V. Newman is dark and powerful, entirely in keeping with the subject matter. Newman's sound design is superb. Scene changes are accompanied by period-faithful excerpts that are evocative but not intrusive. Director Newman stages it to keep the suspense high. FULL REVIEW
|
Goodnight Children Everywhere
THE LONDON FREE PRESS
COMPANY UNAFRAID TO WALK ON EDGE
BY JOE BELANGER OCTOBER 4, 2012 8:16:16 EDT PM
COMPANY UNAFRAID TO WALK ON EDGE
BY JOE BELANGER OCTOBER 4, 2012 8:16:16 EDT PM
...Goodnight Children Everywhere, directed by Elizabeth V. Newman, examines the “strain of overcoming trauma and the daunting, and sometimes ugly process of healing.” Due to sexual content it is not recommended for people under the age of 18. The play is set in 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War and tells the story of four siblings who return to London, England, after being apart for five years when they were evacuated to Canada. |
Said director Newman: “It has been wonderful to explore the complex ways that the trauma of war and government-mandated exile (Operation Pied Piper) resonate within individual characters and shape how they relate to each other as a family. The four siblings were sent away as children and have now returned to the family home as adults and strangers to each other and to themselves. This makes for an unpredictable, charged, and even dangerous situation within the family dynamics.” |
THEATRE IN LONDON
GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE REVIEW
BY KENNETH CHISHOLM OCTOBER 5TH, 2012
GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE REVIEW
BY KENNETH CHISHOLM OCTOBER 5TH, 2012
...avoids the easy drama and goes for a warmly genial tone with a family trying to get back to normal, only to find that kind of normal is does not apply anymore. |
In short, the whole effect is like stepping into 1945 and viewing the time free of easy nostalgia and assumptions. |
...the music makes that possible with a clever combination of period recordings like Vera Lynn and haunting modern songs that creates a clash of moods that complements the play’s hard-edged emotional complexity well.
This play is a powerfully insightful look at such a situation in all its emotional complexity.
THEATRE IN LONDON FULL REVIEW
Mocha
World Premiere
With its incredibly strong text and equally strong performances, Mocha is a poignant drama that doesn't come along too often.
Shows designed to made you think are rarely this successful or honest.
Mocha, currently enjoying its World
Premiere at FronteraFest, won't be forgotten anytime soon. The play, written by Eleanor Burgess and produced by EVN Productions and Last Act Theatre Company, gives an honest and unapologetic look at international adoptions.