Usual Girls
New York Times
REVIEW: BRUTAL INTIMACY AND EXUBERANCE DEFINES 'USUAL GIRLS'
"Impeccably directed by Tyne Rafaeli... With hilarity and grimness, it connects the dots between pleasure, pain and shame."
Full review here
Usual Girls
Vulture
"It’s one thing to be able to articulate your artistic goals and another to pretty much nail them. But that’s what Peiffer, along with director Tyne Rafaeli, has done with Usual Girls, a visceral growing-up play that moves from rambunctious to somber without apologizing for either extreme, its nuttiness or its anger. "
Full review here
Usual Girls
New York Stage Review
USUAL GIRLS: ACHING JUST LIKE A WOMAN, AND BREAKING TOO
"richly entertaining and deeply unsettling...with driving pace and lean muscularity... Usual Girls will stay with you long after the curtain call."
Full review here
I Was Most Alive with You
New York Times
REVIEW: SPEAKING (AND SIGNING) OF JOB, IN 'I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU'
"Rafaeli's staging is a marvel of polyphony"
Full review here
In a Word by Lauren Yee
New York Times
Critic's Pick
IN A WORD GRAPPLES WITH LOSS AND LANGUAGE
"...the director Tyne Rafaeli tilts the play toward surrealism, keeping horror at bay with quick-fire dialogue... the play ultimately suggests that even if loss on this level can’t really be understood, it can be survived..."
Full review here
Ironbound
LA Times
IRONBOUND AT THE GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE: AN IMMIGRANT'S PORTRAIT, PAINTED WITH PIERCING REALISM
"...it illuminates the American experience through the immigrant's journey. At a moment when the issue of immigration is being used as a political football, it's easy for some to distance themselves emotionally from the debate.
But by holding us to the fire of Darja's story, "Ironbound" forces us to recognize the bitter reality of a system that renders invisible those hard-working casualties of the American dream..."
Full review here
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias
Time Out - 4 stars
"...superb rape comedy...Crowley and Rafaeli’s tricky tonal balancing act requires high-wire nerve, but they manage it"
Full review here
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias
The Village Voice
MICHAEL YATES CROWLEY'S "SABINE WOMEN" CONFRONTS RAPE CULTURE WITH DARING HUMOUR
"...a clever indictment of the blinding misogyny that underlies how our society insists on discussing rape, and the damage we all suffer as a result...."
Full review here
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias
The New Yorker
"...works well, both as a comedy and, ultimately, as a full-throated protest against rape culture through the ages..."
Full review here
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias
New York Times
SEXUAL ASSAULT AS BOTH HISTORY LESSON AND SATIRE
"....Victimzation is turned into strength through insight. A serious effort to dramatize a rape and its reprecussions..."
Full review here
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias
Financial Times
4 stars
"...by avoiding all trace of melodrama and sentimentality, Sabine Women confronts us with the bleak vision that rape is a basic fact of life. The legendary mass abduction referenced in the title was, after all, How The Romans Got Wives. This becomes the theme of a concluding class presentation by Grace, where she reframes the whole of human history as an endless cycle of sexual violence. Rape, on this reading, is part of who we are..."
Full review here
How Do You Direct a Play About Sexual Assault? How Do You Direct Two of Them?
The interval
Full interview here
Measure for Measure
Santa Cruz Shakespeare / Cal Shakes
"Political hope springs eternal in SCS’s stunning new production of Measure for Measure"
"...“truth is truth” is the key to Rafaeli’s poignant modernization of the play and its message... It may not be the Shakespeare play we deserve right now, but it’s the one we need..."
Full review here
Measure for Measure
Santa Cruz Shakespeare / Cal Shakes
How Santa Cruz Shakespeare saved MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Full article here
Actually by Anna Ziegler
LA TIMES
SEX , CONSENT, GENDER, RACE: A POTENT COCKTAIL IN ACTUALLY
"...the minute-to-minute game-play in this production, tautly directed by Tyne Rafaeli, is gripping..."
Full review here
Actually by Anna Ziegler
Theatremania
"Under Rafaeli's direction, Actually makes its issues complicated, and never passes judgment. ... too smart for clichés. It is not to be missed..."
"...Employing a bare stage, two chairs, some poignant lighting, and atmospheric sound, director Tyne Rafaeli vividly creates the world of a present-day college campus — a dorm room, a dining hall, a music room. Tom and Amber feel like they are surrounded by a bustling collegiate universe while simultaneously being the two most isolated individuals on the planet..."
Full review here
My Fair Lady
PlayMakers Rep
PLAYMAKERS REP SOLVES THE MISOGYNY PROBLEM OF LERNER AND LOEWE'S MY FAIR LADY
"...Other companies who wish to revive this show should take special note of Tyne Rafaeli’s fresh take. She has called Shaw’s misogyny on the carpet, rather than condoning it. The adjusted ending is this production’s most surprising and satisfying moment. PlayMakers Repertory Company has fixed My Fair Lady..."
Full review here
My Fair Lady
PlayMakers Rep
PLAYMAKERS REP'S MY FAIR LADY IS FRESH AND ENLIGHTENING
"...PlayMakers’ version of this classic musical, onstage now under the direction of Tyne Rafaeli, is just as charming and fun as one would expect, giving homage to classic productions of the show while also adding in subtle, modern undertones that really drive home what many have long failed to realize: My Fair Lady, though often billed as such, is anything but sexist or anti-feminist, and instead, is about the power of women and of Eliza in particular..."
Full review here
Tyne Rafaeli featured in The Interval's "WOMEN TO WATCH"
"...Here are 16 female writers, directors, designers, and producers who the theatre community should be watching..."
Full article here
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST in top 10 shows in Cleveland in 2016
"It has the eroticism and heat of a Beyoncé concert and the avant-garde artistry of a Gaga tour..."
Full article here
EURYDICE in top 10 shows in Wisconsin in 2016
"APT director Tyne Rafaeli shaped a gorgeous and moving production of Sarah Ruhl’s play about learning how to love when all of us must die."
Full article here
Love's Labour's Lost
Great Lakes Theatre / Idaho Shakespeare Fest / Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Fest
INSPIRED DIRECTOR, ENERGETIC CAST DROP THE MIC IN TRIUMPH IN GREAT LAKES THEATER'S 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
'"...Tyne Rafaeli's version, a fresh, physical take on the oldest battle in the book, the one that rages between the sexes. It has the eroticism and heat of a Beyoncé concert and the avant-garde artistry of a Gaga tour..."
"...Rafaeli incorporates hip-hop, Japanese Noh theater and noise pop, among other aural and visual styles, to create a sensory – and sensual – experience, one that feels completely in the moment, yet respectfully rooted in its source material..."
Full review here
Love's Labour's Lost
Great Lakes Theatre / Idaho Shakespeare Fest / Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Fest
IDAHO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL AND DIRECTOR TYNE RAFAELI MAKE LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST LOOK EASY
"...In her directorial debut with ISF, Tyne Rafaeli has successfully blended modern culture with traditional Shakespeare in a way that never feels forced or odd. Modern inclusions enrich the source material rather than feel like they've been jammed in to get a laugh..."
Full review here
BWW Review: A LION IN WINTER at TRT is a Theatrical Masterpiece
Full review here
REVIEW: ‘Lion in Winter’ at Two River Theater
Full review here
Goodspeed's 'Chasing Rainbows' A Complex, Nuanced Tale
Full review here
BWW Review: CHASING RAINBOWS: THE ROAD TO OZ at Goodspeed Opera House
Full review here
A YOUNG FEMALE VISIONARY TACKLES MUSICAL THEATRE
Full article here
ONE OF THE THEATRE WORLD'S MOST BUZZED-ABOUT DIRECTORS HELMS NEXT PRODUCTION OF IDAHO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Full article here
Eurdyice By Sarah Ruhl
American Players Theatre
DIRECTOR RAFAELI FINDS THE HAUNTING MUSIC OF LOVE IN APT'S EURYDICE
"... In Rafaeli's hands, Ruhl's plays take on a darker and deeper hue. Her poetry, to me, has never sounded so rich, textured and urgent....Rafaeli is so attuned to this author's awareness of how hard such communication can be, the moments when two souls manage to reach each other are almost unbearably moving..."
Full review here
Eurydice By Sarah Ruhl
American Players Theatre
APT'S "EURYDICE" SHINES A BRIGHT LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE
"...APT's “Eurydice” looks and feels like theater magic at its best. It swoops and dives, blurring the lines between the living and the dead. It exposes the raw side of love, the painful side. And yet, in this stunning production, love is always worth it..."
Full review here
Eurdyice By Sarah Ruhl
American Players Theatre
APT'S EXTRAORDINARY EURYDICE WEEPS FOR FATHERS AND LOVERS
"...Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this production acquires a spiritual ambiance drawing the audience into Ruhl's and Rafaeli's underworld where Orpheus searches for Eurydice and literal sobs were heard in the audience on opening day..."
"...Weep. Laugh, because there's humor overflowing from the performance under Rafaeli's visionary direction, and remember love..."
Full review here
Eurdyice By Sarah Ruhl
American Players Theatre
"...Eurydice is one of the most exciting and inventive productions APT has ever mounted. It is also an exercise in heartbreak that is as disquieting for the audience as it is for the characters..."
"...This story explodes in a stunning fantasia directed by Tyne Rafaeli — a hyper-theatrical exploration of love and loss with music so sad it makes stones cry..."
Full review here
Pride and Prejudice
American Players Theatre
'"..Paying close attention to Austen's novel, director Tyne Rafaeli has staged a coherent portrait of how few options women like the Bennet sisters have,.."
'"...Hence even those female characters most apt to provoke ridicule have moments that inspire empathy for women whose amalgam of barely repressed panic and emptiness reflects an uncertain future..."
Full review here
Pride and Prejudice
American Players Theatre
KINETIC, JOYFUL "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE TAKES A FRESH LOOK AT THE BENNET SISTERS
"...Rafaeli is a master of pacing and energy. A sense of joy permeates the play, even when strictures of early 19th century society threaten to sink it..."
'"...Rafaeli turns a drawing room romance into a kinetic, dancelike piece, full of motion and energy. She carefully times each pause and makes each lingering glance a message. It’s a fascinating, fresh way to see one of literature’s great romances..."
Full review here
Pride and Prejudice
American Players Theatre
APT'S "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" SHINES
'"...APT has resisted the temptation to turn the Austen classic into a flouncy, ornate period piece, allowing director Tyne Rafaeli to shine a bright light on the social issues that drive the story.'
"...Rafaeli often calls upon her large acting company to interact with dancelike precision, representing the social dance in which each of them are required to execute the appropriate steps. What could have been contrivance instead provides an additional interpretive layer that further strengthens the narrative..."
Full review here
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