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Audrey Cefaly -In the Press
"What makes her special: After seeing a handful of Cefaly’s works, Washington Blade reporter Patrick Folliard describes her as “compassionate and unfailingly thoughtful in tackling big ideas in wholly relatable ways…Cefaly gives a voice to those you don’t always hear. Her work is at once unexpected and familiar.” He singles out The Gulf as “phenomenal…A two-hander about a lesbian couple who hash out their romantic differences in the confines of a small fishing boat in the Alabama Delta.” Florida Rep’s associate artistic director, Jason Parrish*, says that Cefaly’s plays “tackle big issues... READ MORE
Featured Press Coverage
"Audrey has a unique contemporary voice and she promises to have a huge future in the American theater."
broadwayworld.com
REVIEW: "....unflinchingly honest…. Cefaly’s writing is richly-layered, creating compelling characters that must balance love and heartache, the safe with the unfamiliar."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
REVIEW: "a strikingly beautiful and evocative world premiere…. poignant and emotionally glorious…. a radiant gem of light into the ordinary struggles of love, loss, and life"
theatrebloom.com
REVIEW: "...it's the emotional journey of Maytag Virgin, not the destination that gives it such a wallop. Cefaly writes with sympathy and a finely-sharpened wit..."
broadwayworld.com
Critical Response to
ALABASTER (from New Play Exchange)
“Audrey's play is a beautiful character study. It has deep and flawed and human characters that keep you rapt for the duration.” Jason Parrish, AD, Florida Rep
“A stunning play about art, vulnerability, and taking that first step toward healing .” Brian James Polak, playwright, podcaster: The Subtext
“Sometimes a piece just glues you to your chair, makes you laugh, rips your heart out, and when it's done you want to hold the people you love tightly and not let go. ” Tony Caselli, AD, Williamston Theatre
“Alabaster" is that one-in-a-thousand play that works both as a bittersweet comedy that's full of surprises and as a heart wrenching testament to what it means to be alive in an age of uncertainty.” Joel Stone, Literary Manager, NJ Rep
“Scars of life. A talking goat! YES!!! This is theater at its best. ” Ann Filmer, Founding AD, 16th Street Theatre
Critical Response to
LOVE IS A BLUE TICK HOUND
"Theatre does not get better than this production of LOVE IS A BLUE TICK HOUND.... words of poetic simplicity, ordinary characters caught and stifled in lives, reluctant to face the pain of making choices but ever reliant on the love of another to help them through their pain. And love is what Audrey Cefaly writes about -- not stories about falling in love but stories that test the strength, depth and willingness that love requires in our most personal relationships. BLUE TICK HOUND is not Theatre of Spectacle. It is Theatre of the Heart, Soul and the Funny Bone. Each of the four, twenty-five minute plays centers around two characters caught in a relationship that underneath is full of pain, doubt, indecision and apathy towards a harsh and mostly unforgiving life. Yet each play treats these fragile characters gently with compassion, humor and nobility. In Audrey Cefaly’s world of Theatre we are given two people, a conflict and a conversation that is both ordinary and captivating at the same time. We do not laugh at these people. We laugh at ourselves as we realize our pain is their pain." Jack Cannon, Professor of Theatre, University of Alabama at Birmingham
“Deeply compassionate, and deceptively simple. Characters whose universal needs and very particular dilemmas alternately break our hearts and inspire us with their resilience. These plays are exhilarating examples of the writer's craft.”
Paul Donnelly, American Playwright
"Audrey Cefaly is gifted. Her characters pulse with life, heartache, and humor. This is playwriting that is as spare and lean as our public lives and as rich and multifaceted as our inner lives. If you want to challenge your actors, young or old, to truly struggle with the humanity of their characters, to make those connections and moments really matter, this is indispensable material. "
Scott Reed, Assistant Professor of English, Georgia Gwinnett College
"Audrey Cefaly’s beautifully drawn characters and timely stories are a treasure. The truth and humor of “Love is a Blue Tick Hound” will captivate audiences and theatre artists. Her stories are unique, exquisitely crafted, and from the heart. Audrey Cefaly is a magical southern writer whose vision speaks to the world."
Alan Litsey, Professor of Theatre, Birmingham-Southern College
"Spare is an excellent word to describe these short plays, but don't confuse spare with simple. There's such rich complexity in the characters that every actor will be challenged to find it all, and such beautiful storytelling that every audience will find themselves instantly and completely engaged in the plays throughout. The genius of Audrey's writing is in knowing how people really speak and act when faced with decisions, not over-telling the story but letting it play out naturally, with silences every bit as telling as words. There is a warmth and great humor in the depth of her experience, and it comes through in all the right places. "Fin and Euba" is simply one of the best short plays for two women you'll ever find, and "Clean" has one of the best opening lines I've ever heard on stage, and rises from there. I promise that you'll love these plays."
Scott Bloom, Fellow, American Community Theatre Association
In the Press
THE GULF
"Evocative... invested with an assured, soulful intimacy"
The Washington Post
"Doubtless, in the lives of Kendra and Betty — hearty women working menial jobs in the Bubba-infested backwaters of southern Alabama — there have been brushes with bigotry. But in this world premiere the canny Cefaly, who has an ear for the cadence of the region, is far more interested in the wounds Kendra and Betty have inflicted on each other, and whether whatever comfort they find in each other’s arms outweighs the pressure of their rapidly diverging goals and expectations."
The Washington Post
"As funny as it is powerful, as tender as it is passionate, THE GULF reveals a pair of volatile lovers whose relationship is as sharp as a fishing knife - pointed and dangerous... Two of the most riveting performances I have seen this season so far."
BroadwayWorld.com
"A riveting production... while the 80-minute immersion into the mismatched pair’s world is certainly intense, it’s way funny too."
The Washington Blade
"And the explosion comes with the conking out of motor and the smell of roses. And you will not believe what happens a few feet from your own eyes. The power of it, the unexpected nature of it. Lives of pain going into a great eruption in which Zampelli and Rizzo match any on-stage physical encounter I have seen before. And it feels both necessary and right. Let me add this as a coda: Both Rizzo and Zampelli are always in the moment. They are who they are; they don’t swerve and veer or try to catch a breath and hide somewhere. The portrayals by Maria Rizzo and Rachel Zampelli will be talked about beyond DC, as they should. They set a high bar for those who come after them, when The Gulf becomes a play produced through the United States, as I am sure it will be. The parts are meaty, the situations universal, and the writing of Cefaly a marvel of details built on silence as well as language."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
In the Press
MAYTAG VIRGIN
"a strikingly beautiful and evocative world premiere…. poignant and emotionally glorious…. a radiant gem of light into the ordinary struggles of love, loss, and life…. reveling in unspoken moments, Cefaly’s directorial mind allows great emotional swells to come to fruition often in the unsaid spaces of her dialogue"
TheatreBloom.com
"....unflinchingly honest…. Cefaly’s writing is richly-layered, creating compelling characters that must balance love and heartache, the safe with the unfamiliar."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
"...it's the emotional journey of Maytag Virgin, not the destination that gives it such a wallop. Cefaly writes with sympathy and a finely-sharpened wit..."
BroadwayWorld.com
"One of theater’s most profound love stories between a woman and man." ~ DC Metro Theatre Arts
DC Metro Theatre Arts
"Cefaly makes her characters rich and mixed-up enough for us to build some real affection for them."
Washington Post
