Reviews

Junek and Skiles are two actors at the top of their game, under the direction of May Adrales
and in a stunning bookstore designed by Daniel Zimmerman.

brilliantly staged by Adrales, who underscores throughout this play how hard
it is for these characters to truly face each other

Stark, pointed and brutal. But it is also beautifully conceived and performed by a tight ensemble of eight actors, who use music, stylized movement, puppets, and masks to show how revolutions go wrong and how those in power will sadistically abuse it.

Innovative direction…  Powerful and provocative, this production of Animal Farm reminds us all of the amazing things theater can do – and should do.

Searing… powerful… Adrales enacts such scenes through evocatively physical theater.  It’s both beautiful and disturbing, inspiring and dispiriting.

Deftly directed by May Adrales,  Animals Out of Paper is exciting summer theater.
It doesn’t get much better than this.

Deftly directed by May Adrales,  Animals Out of Paper is exciting summer theater.
It doesn’t get much better than this.

Actors Rock, Gaines, and Frey breathe life into this play and
director May Adrales, along with her designers, provide a wealth of imagination.

…takes your breath away and makes your imagination soar.

…simply breathtaking….enough to make this critic stand, clap her hands and say, Amen.

A smart, fast-paced comedy that wrings laughs from the topics of cultural identity and assimilation. Neither predictable nor politically correct, it’s a satirical cartoon that has heart and even occasional poignancy…. Director May Adrales has paced the production wisely so it neither lags nor feels artificially hurried.

A smart, fast-paced comedy that wrings laughs from the topics of cultural identity and assimilation. Neither predictable nor politically correct, it’s a satirical cartoon that has heart and even occasional poignancy… Director May Adrales has paced the production wisely so it neither lags nor feels artificially hurried.

Every aspect of the show is refined and specific: the acting is snappy, with no emotion or movement wasted, the lighting and scenic elements create elegant stage pictures, modern and understated.

Kudos should be given to May Adrales for directing a stellar production.

Director May Adrales keeps the production moving, and brings out the humor and cleverness in Hwang’s script.

It’s a very neat play about a very tangled subject, and director May Adrales’ production at Portland Center Stage, with its whirling scenery, crisp performances, and brisk pace, is solid.

The show, directed by May Adrales, is as smooth as its revolving scene changes, capturing a brittle and deftly timed presentational comic edge in its performances and navigating the tricky shoals of its bilingual text (about a quarter of the dialogue is in Mandarin, with English supertitles) without an apparent hitch.

With director May Adrales at the helm, PTC has smartly engineered this “Deathtrap”
to deliver a theater thrill ride.

Director May Adrales makes terrific use of Daniel Zimmerman’s grand single-room set design—the walls filled with enough weapons just waiting to be used that Chekhov must be nodding happily in his grave—creating a purely pleasurable contraption of twists and reversals.

Director May Adrales keeps the action clipping along at a fast and furious pace.”

Director May Adrales has triumphed in creating a tightly wound ticking clock of a
production that engages and satisfies.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

Edith is a beautifully rendered portrait… This is my 10th Humana Festival (since 1998), and I can’t recall another play that sparked an instantaneous standing O, nor a play that more deserved one.

The visual appeal and staging is phenomenal

Directed by May Adrales, “Everything You Touch” begins with a breathtaking sequence in which a New York trash heap morphs into a runway of models.  And that scene isn’t the only eye-catching touc

Director May Adrales has made excellent use of this set-up by creating a seemingly effortless flow and movement which plays unobtrusively to each of the three seating sections. Adrales has elicited excellent performances from her entire cast, and sustained proper moods throughout.

Director May Adrales has made excellent use of this set-up by creating a seemingly effortless flow and movement which plays unobtrusively to each of the three seating sections. Adrales has elicited excellent performances from her entire cast, and sustained proper moods throughout.

The haunting yet beautifully-dramatized world premiere play LITTLE BLACK SHADOWS, Kemp Powers’ captivating new drama under the astute direction of May Adrales

Director May Adrales and her design team create visual and aural layers that enhance and magnify Powers’ themes.

Under the sensitive direction of May Adrales, the SCR production is most revealing concerning the attitudes of both blacks and whites in that prewar period. The production is beautifully staged.

The tableaux created by these bedtime scenes are gorgeously rendered in May Adrales’ visually arresting production.
…inspired talented director

Complexities and uncertainties pile on top of one another until it’s no longer possible to tell what the truth about anything is, and both Lee and director May Adrales exploit that to its full dramatic effect

Complexities and uncertainties pile on top of one another until it’s no longer possible to tell what the truth about anything is, and both Lee and director May Adrales exploit that to its full dramatic effect

The playwright couldn’t have dreamed up a better showcase, with this fine cast and concise staging
by May Adrales that never lets any question linger too long.

A thoughtful, well-acted new play by J C Lee… As it unfolds in a series of fluidly written scenes, “Luce,” directed by May Adrales hugs tightly the ambiguity of Luce’s behavior. 

In this gleefully unpredictable portrait of New York yuppies the director May Adrales employs a lighter comic touch, establishing a slick normalcy that masks rather than draws attention to the outlandish world of the writer. Backed by a spunky pop soundtrack, scenes start with a jolt, gain momentum and finish with a twist.

In this gleefully unpredictable portrait of New York yuppies the director May Adrales employs a lighter comic touch, establishing a slick normalcy that masks rather than draws attention to the outlandish world of the writer. Backed by a spunky pop soundtrack, scenes start with a jolt, gain momentum and finish with a twist.

Director May Adrales’ staging fully mines the play’s emotional richness. Performing on Mimi Lien’s abstract set featuring large sculptural formations gorgeously lit by Jiyoun Chang, the actors deliver stirring turns, while Huang Ruo’s Eastern-inflected score strikes all the right notes.

Director May Adrales’ staging fully mines the play’s emotional richness. Performing on Mimi Lien’s abstract set featuring large sculptural formations gorgeously lit by Jiyoun Chang, the actors deliver stirring turns, while Huang Ruo’s Eastern-inflected score strikes all the right notes.

Director May Adrales’ staging fully mines the play’s emotional richness. Performing on Mimi Lien’s abstract set featuring large sculptural formations gorgeously lit by Jiyoun Chang, the actors deliver stirring turns, while Huang Ruo’s Eastern-inflected score strikes all the right notes.

Director May Adrales’ staging fully mines the play’s emotional richness. Performing on Mimi Lien’s abstract set featuring large sculptural formations gorgeously lit by Jiyoun Chang, the actors deliver stirring turns, while Huang Ruo’s Eastern-inflected score strikes all the right notes.

Director May Adrales’ staging fully mines the play’s emotional richness. Performing on Mimi Lien’s abstract set featuring large sculptural formations gorgeously lit by Jiyoun Chang, the actors deliver stirring turns, while Huang Ruo’s Eastern-inflected score strikes all the right notes.

May Adrales intelligently directs, emphasizing the themes of ethnic isolation and the struggling emergence of Asian-American identity. If the first production of Dance and the Railroad brought attention to Hwang as an original voice in American theater, this revival points up how much he has increased our consciousness of Asian Americans and their not-so-easy assimilation into American culture.

A graceful, extended climax (sensitively directed by May Adrales), in which the men collaborate on an “opera” of Ma’s terrible journey to the West, deepens the piece immeasurably.

May Adrales’s elegant, spare, beautifully visualized production gives Hwang’s cunningly economical play a poetic feel, without scanting its underlying anguish. Both actors do well; their silences do a lot of the talking. Wu’s intense impassivity as he rehearses his stylized motions is particularly riveting.”

Director May Adrales has added size to what has heretofore been regarded as an intimate, delicate play …
Given the size and scope of Zadravec’s subject, Adrales’ staging is a perfect fit for it. The strong impact of her
production in a small capacity theatre is exhilarating.

Director May Adrales has added size to what has heretofore been regarded as an intimate, delicate play …
Given the size and scope of Zadravec’s subject, Adrales’ staging is a perfect fit for it. The strong impact of her
production in a small capacity theatre is exhilarating.

Director May Adrales creates a fluid and cohesive production, eliciting wonderful performances from her cast and bringing out both the humor and the drama with equal skill. The tone is equal parts magical and realistic, and Adrales’ blend works nicely.

May Adrales direct a heartfelt, entrancing production.

Stefanie Zadravec’s new play deftly wove together stories of relationships and family in a way that defied laws of coincidence but made for an entrancing story. The play explored grief and empathy, including welcome doses of humor and folklore, with a unique, heartfelt voice. May Adrales directed a moving production with a strong cast.

The imperceptible magic that pervades human existence and the power of myth to assuage sorrow are invoked by the playwright Stefanie Zadravec as she entwines the lives of strangers in “The Electric Baby,” a gently touching new drama at the Two River Theater Company in Red Bank.  A mix of expressionism and magical realism… The Electric Baby is capably directed here with a confident hand by May Adrales.

You could just feel the audience hold its collective breath at tense moments, hear it laughing hysterically
at others and see it shed tears as the end of the play

Adrales, who is young and an Artistic Associate at the Rep, has a sensibility about things that goes far beyond her years. She has plotted a path for her actors and created a navigable forest through which they can steam.

Unnerving and intense … what we are watching is a world coughing up on the lines of separation that we have created throughout the years.

The production transforms with swift fluidity thanks to May Adrales‘s dynamic direction.

The director, May Adrales, gets excellent performances from her cast.

Director May Adrales and her crack team create an environment we can totally believe in, even when it’s a dreamscape. Kimber Lee has an excellent ear for language and its musicality. The characters and their relationships are intriguing and wonderfully portrayed.

Beautifully executed! Charming and uplifting!

Vivid Performances! Such a pleasure to watch—the acting is so uniformly fine!

Immersive—rich in atmosphere and plenty entertaining!

The story is a cleverly constructed, deceptively simple-seeming labyrinth, skillfully directed by May Adrales so that each twist lands with subtly disorienting or maximum comic, game-changing effect. 

Thanks to May Adrales’ stage direction and Nina Ball’s killer set, this thing cooks.

Top Ten of 2016!  May Adrales’s high-octane staging moves so swiftly and surely, you may not initially appreciate the buckets of ​stagecraft she & Nguyen throw at us scene after scene. In design and pacing, the production ransacks the aesthetics of comix and grind house, applying their flashy framing & penchant for sex, drugs and violence to a dead-serious story of war, displacement & assimilation.

“Vietgone” has many pleasures — including jazzy comic performances from an excellent cast, several in multiple roles, under May Adrales’s direction.

The whole Manhattan Theatre Club production, from its outstanding ensemble to its resourceful director, May Adrales, is in perfect synch with Nguyen’s deranged yet heartfelt vision.

Under the dynamic direction of May Adrales.

LA Times Critics Pick! directed with controlled spunk by May Adrales

This hilariously audacious sequel, just like its first installment, is once again under the confident direction of May Adrales, who helms this exceedingly more purposely amped-up production with a game openness to showcase any of the fantastical scenarios cooked up by Nguyen’s imaginative genre-bending script, which whizzes back and forth from soapy melodrama and angsty, explosively-delivered hip-hop rhymes, to wacky sitcom-style vignettes, comic book-flavored sequences, and even, yes, AVENUE Q-style puppetry!

the talented May Adrales is directing and once again dollops of vintage and contemporary pop culture are crucial ingredients in a playwriting brew that has the characters rap their feelings when words seem inadequate to the task.

A brilliant piece of staging by director May Adrales

A brilliant piece of staging by director May Adrales