REVIEWS OF RECENT PRODUCTIONS AND CO-PRODUCTIONS WITH COMBINED ARTFORM
Tilted Frame
“TILTED FRAME stretches the boundaries of traditional improvisation…They drop the facile and forced wackiness of comedy club improv for a far more daring and difficult form."
- SF Guardian
“The talented cast takes suggestions from the audience and riffs, improv style, but with a technological twist. With video and computer screens, they maneuver in and out of the stage (you have to see it live to get the full effect). There are a few glitches here and there (and kudos for being able to coordinate dialogue while manipulating media), but the actors use each mistake to their advantage, joyfully pointing them out, in fact, and gaining our respect. It is obvious they are all having the time of their lives.”
-Kate West Reviews
Eavesdropper
Improv Revolution
Co Production with Renegade Productions
"an intriguing experiment with some unexpected payoffs. "
Jane Austen
Co-Production with Impro Theatre
“YOU GOTTA GO. One of the funniest evenings in town is tucked away in a little theater on Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s quite unbelievable, actually—as you sit there expecting “theater”, suddenly two random suggestions come from the audience, and an amazing comedy troupe spins an entire play into comedy gold right before your eyes. It’s called Jane Austen Unscripted, a stunning feat of performance and literary wizardry. And incidentally, it’s hilarious. I promise you, this brainchild of English stand-up and actor Paul Rogan and Impro Theatre’s artistic director Dan O’Connor is magic.”
Letter from the Editor (Annie Gilbar, Editor-in-Chief, LA Times Magazine, page 8, 11/30/08)
“GO. Aside from its breathtaking wit, the show reveals the codes of behavior that accrue into a acting style, and even a social style. This is a comedy about essence rather than substance, revealing how one is so often confused with the other. If there is such a thing as humane comedy, this would be it.”
– Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly
“HILARIOUS!” – Lindsay William-Ross, LAlist
“OUTSTANDING…something absolutely not to be missed.” – SoCal.com
“SENSATIONAL…ingenuity, imagination and hilarity….” – LA Stagescene
“BRILLIANT…Gorgeous period costuming and language.” – Kate West Reviews
“AMAZING wit and accuracy.” – Curtain Up
“PURE JANE AUSTEN sans script! – Accessibly Live Off-Line
Tennessee Williams
Co-Production with Impro Theatre
“IMPROV GENIUSES…Absolutely hilarious…a different show every time…they let loose their imaginations and the rest is magic.”
--Steven Stanley, StagesceneLA
“VERY FUNNY…charming…remarkably smooth.”
– Jennie Webb, Backstage West
“GO. TENDERLY COMEDIC…savvy…lingers somewhere between satire and homage. It’s a very smart choice.”
– Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly
“CRITIC’S CHOICE…HILARIOUS, absurd and genuinely moving, the evening showcases the troupe’s tremendous agility and infectious sense of play…Absolutely in keeping with Williams… Irresistible…makes you want to go back again.”
--- Charlotte Stoudt, LA Times
Common Air
Co-Production
"Lyras plays the all-male sextet with precision, distinction and dazzling intellect."
GO! LA WEEKLY THEATRE FEATURE
PICK! "A complex network of ideas... Characters are developed with subtlety and depth... Punctuated with precision and sensitivity"
-BACKSTAGE WEST
"An impressive parade of colorful characters that are as passionate as they are diverse." -LA SPLASH
"Sure to be remembered at years end as one of the finest solo performances of 2008."-LA STAGE SCENE
"Dont miss it now. A remarkable one- man show" –STAGEHAPPENING
Received a 2008 Ovation Nomination for Playwrighting for an Original Play and won for Best Sound Design by Ken Rich.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Co-Production
Los Angeles Times- Critics Choice
"Their mutual surrender has real stakes — and the performers gorgeously conjure the sudden weightless astonishment of finding themselves attached to each other.
There are few contemporary stage romances willing to shed so much blood to reveal such heart.
A writer like John Patrick Shanley can remind us that falling in love mixes terror and thrills in ways that knock you flat!
The actors move through the play's emotional minefield with grace and guts, grabbing Shanley's street talk by the fistful and shoving it at each other full-force!"
LA Weekly – GO
"Actors Deborah Dir and Daniel De Weldon sat at separate bar tables on the stage, staring into space, smoking, playing out Shanley’s Apache dance with scrupulous honesty and attention to the details of blackened knuckles and bruised pasts.
They get it so right, the authenticity of it in a world of fakery — a fleeting, sacred moment!"
Back Stage West – Critics Choice
"The surprise is what comes after the sex: an honest, clumsy cry for what could otherwise be described as nothing less than romance, the attempt at which is both humorous and touching.
Ready to blow away anyone!
Dir, gives Roberta many different dimensions. DeWeldon's performance is wonderfully layered."
City Beat – Critics Choice
"Director Michael Arabian establishes the depth of these characters’ alienation before they speak a word. "
Deborah Dir and Daniel De Weldon take over and bring Shanley’s pungent language to life.
The Nothing Boys
Co-produced with Produced by Junk Productions, Theater Mambo, and Rob Weiss (HBO’s Entourage).
"Inventive and funny" – LA Weekly
“very significant and uplifting” – LA Splash
PAPA
by John DeGroot
w/ Open Fist Theatre Company
“Stage veteran Adrian Sparks builds on a physical resemblance to the celebrated novelist to inhabit him body and soul, capturing not just his bravado but also the restlessness and desperation that plagued him toward the end of his life.”
June 2006
SF Chronicle – Ruthe Stein - Clapping Man
Love Letters
by AR Gurney
(w/ Lila Theater )
“In a true San Francisco twist (at the delightfully intimate Off-Market Theater, produced by Matt Quinn), the woman is portrayed by a man in drag—Donna Sachet, alternating the role with Pippi Lovestocking.”
March 2006
SF Bay Times- Tom Kelly
“Gurney's straightforward story here gets the added frisson of director Matthew Quinn’s creative casting, which works surprisingly well. Both director and performers prove savvy and splendidly restrained, never veering off course in pursuit of cheap effects, but subtly deepening our enjoyment by cleaving to the lives brimming on the page.”
March 2006
SF Guardian - Robert Avila
Santaland Diaries
by David Sedaris
(w/ Steinbeck presents)
“The intimate Off Market Theater provides a great venue, focusing attention on the performer and the wonderfully wacky writing.”
December 2005
SF Bay Times- Tom Kelly
Evil Dead: Live
w/Primitive Screwheads
"Evil Dead: Live," which is produced by C.A.F.E. and the Primitive Screwheads, seeks to capture that magic and put it onstage. To pay homage to Raimi's vision.”
'Evil Dead' comes alive onstage -- raspberry Kool-Aid included
February 2005
SF Chronicle - Jane Ganahl
Reviews of Combined Artform
“A small for-profit called Off-Market Theater opened two years ago in San Francisco , providing mainly rental space to other companies, but inquiries at umbrella groups in major U.S. cities failed to turn up any others.”
“Capitol Hill can stand to profit”
June 2005
Variety - Jan Graves
_______________________
“Improv as new theater.
This was the intention of Matthew Quinn, who operates the Off-Market Theater and is hoping to help various groups, from musicians to actors, to come together and explore new theater forms. He also actively courts students from San Francisco State to use the facilities, primarily to create an ongoing infusion of new blood and creative energy.”
”Onstage, without a safety net”
March 2005
Contra Costa Times- Pat Craig
_______________________
“The important difference between the mag/book and the C.A.F.E. performance, though, is that the performance boasts lights, music, and a stage that audience members are encouraged to storm. "It could be anything," the director emphasizes. "Audience members and performers can decide they want a flute to play with them, or they want to sing [their bit of text], or they want a video of the American flag to play behind them. If somebody like Jill Schmill off the street came in and read her bank statement while her friend plays taps in the background, whatever. That would be great."
“Was Lost, But Now I'm Found - Read your shopping list onstage at "An Evening of Found Text"
June 2004
SF Weekly- by Hiya Swanhuyser
_______________________
“…Joining in this effort has been Off-Market Theater on Mission Street downtown, opened by Matthew Quinn and Steve Kahn of theatrical company Combined Art Form Entertainment. Off-Market has been hosting a number of local improv troupes in addition to C.A.F.E . resident improv company Tilted Frame, a uniquely techno-media-based venture co-founded by Quinn and Heather O'Brien that incorporates things like live-video feed and the Internet into shows.”
“Out of their heads”
June 2004
SF Guardian- Robert Avila
_______________________
“One of the newest is the Off-Market Theater on the second floor of an office building on Mission Street. It's a two-theater complex, compact converted offices -- developed by Matthew Quinn and Steve Kahn -- …”
“Off-Market joins theater boom”
March 2004
SF Chronicle – Sam Hurwitt
_______________________
Regarding The Next Stage Theater in San Francisco:
“…transformed into a handsome small theater with state-of-the-art multimedia capability….”
Review of “Love and Sex”
February 2002
SF Guardian - Brad Rosenstein
