FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS
AMERICAN THEATRE - 6 THEATRE WORKERS YOU SHOULD KNOW
PLAYERS 2016: FIFTY PEOPLE WHO REALLY PEFORM FOR CHICAGO
ASK A DIRECTOR - Hannah Wolf's Interview with Marti
SELECTED PRESS QUOTES
““John Proctor Is the Villain,” [is] one of the best plays I’ve seen since the return of live theater — and one that places a traumatic occurrence in a stunningly imaginative context. The classroom of the outstanding Register’s Mr. Smith seems a kind of oasis of enlightenment for a one-stoplight town in northern Georgia (or maybe, we city slickers are just too quick to impose our own provincialism on rural America). His pupils — all seven evoked with thrilling authenticity under Marti Lyons’s stellar direction — are studying Miller’s “The Crucible” with a seeming preoccupation on the character of Abigail…” - Washington Post
“Cambodian Rock Band…a haunting, wise, political and personally searing show, a work that will resonant with anyone with a family history of escape and a piece that has the guts to try and get inside of the head of…a perpetrator of crimes against humanity.” - Chicago Tribune
“Marti Lyons's skillful direction makes joy blare from the amps even as tragedy screams from the dialogue…At the intersection of tragedy, rock, and comedy, Victory Gardens has launched one of the best plays of the year.” - Chicago Reader
“For fans of director Marti Lyons, “The Favourite”—Yorgos Lanthimos’ cinematic answer to the question, “What if Stanley Kubrick cared about the inner lives of women?”—served as a neat placeholder between opportunities to witness her most recent local productions: Jen Silverman’s “Witch” at Writers Theatre, one of the artistic high-water marks of 2018, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s latest Short Shakespeare! entry, “Macbeth.” Stylistic and thematic symmetries emerge, from anachronistic idiosyncrasies (at one point Eric Parks’ Banquo offers a perfectly timed “Whaaaaat?” as if he was auditioning for a T-Mobile commercial) in period settings, to complex, nuanced portrayals of femme fury. Although perhaps the most immediately identifiable similarity is this production’s pressing concern with the present, as it is hedged ever closer on all sides by eternity.” - New City Stage
“To Jen Silverman, without whom there would be none of this: You have written a diamond. A hard, sharp, lustrous thing made from the bones of what came before. It swallows our dreary daylight and returns it immaculate. How the fuck did you do that? Follow-up: are you a witch? To Marti Lyons, specifically: you are literally a genius. I am in awe of you. It was an unspeakable pleasure getting to witness your work with this specific cast and crew. In the parlance of my generation: you killed it. It is dead. Long live it.” - New City Stage
“That's because this incisive playwright manages —with the assistance of an exemplary director, Marti Lyons, and nine striking young actresses (plus one slightly older one, playing a soccer mom) — to illuminate with unerring accuracy the psyches of the funny, inquisitive, garrulous, anxious, profane, passionate players in a ferociously competitive weekend soccer league…Lyons, known mainly for her work in Chicago theater, offers an impressive accounting of her abilities in her Studio directorial debut. The compactness of the space adds a magnitude of intimacy that imbues the play with even more intensity…Lyons has also included a new, percussive soundscape by Mikhail Fiksel that, together with some snazzy lighting effects by Paul Toben, helps amplify the tension between vignettes.” - The Washington Post
" Lookingglass may be known for Mary Zimmerman-style shimmering imagery, but there is nothing whatsoever spectacular about "Title and Deed," which is directed with an exceptionally sure and humanistic hand by the rising and talented young director Marti Lyons...There is just one Chicago actor, Michael Patrick Thornton...[who], seems to have an immediate way into Eno's neo-Beckettian style, a sense of Eno's wry humor, a feeling for Eno's way with words and a propensity for heading directly to the emotional jugular." - Chicago Tribune
“…among the strongest offerings in the delightful history of the Apprentice Company. Filled with ghostly apparitions, clever storytelling devices and some downright scary moments, the nine segments slip effortlessly from giddy fun to disturbing terror in seamlessly integrated tableaus that use startlingly simple special effects” – LEO Weekly
"[Calamity West] is also shrewdly teamed up here with director Marti Lyons, who also is the real deal. With these two hugely talented women, you're never ahead of their game. And thus you sit back, enjoy yourself and try to figure out the nature of the play." -- Chicago Tribune
"...Whereas modern superhero movies are often criticized for the consequence-free “destruction porn” of city-razing climactic battles, Prowess zooms in to examine the damage inflicted on the psyches of these street-level non-supers by fighting violence with violence. Under Marti Lyons’s sharp direction, Holter’s work is engaging and exhilarating, with huge aesthetic assists from Michael Stanfill’s cracking projections and Ryan Bourque’s kickass fight choreography." - Time Out Chicago
"Neff benefits from the very tight direction of Marti Lyons — this play moves at a blistering pace that ensures its talky, static nature does not land it in the lake. And he also has two terrific Chicago actors baring their souls in a most satisfying fashion." Chicago Tribune