press

The Fall

The New York Times: Honor Moore
“Mr. Nowell and his superb director, Kate Marks, manage a tone that teeters effectively between the tragic and the hilarious, until by the end, you are left powerfully, and unexpectedly shaken…The text is wonderfully served by the swift physicality of the direction and the video set design.”

Cool New York: Caraid O’Brien
“Elegantly directed…Marks choreographs her actors with great artistry: Jill’s body is carried among the cast, expressing her helplessness and need to be helped. The actors mime their props and scenes often end with dance-like flourishes that work well.”

High Drama: Christopher Farr
“The Fall is beautifully staged by director Kate Marks whose vision for the production is theatrical. When not participating in a scene, the actors became a part of the background as Ms. Marks posed them in abstract positions which sometimes reflected the undercurrent of the scene being played downstage. One of the stronger moments of the piece was when the relationship between a husband and a wife from meeting through marriage was conveyed to the audience within five minutes through gesture added to a series of lines reflective of the relationship in different stages. The movement and pacing of this scene was superb.”

Odyssey

Off-off online Pick of the week
Off-off online: Samantha O’Brian
"Homer's Odyssey is a grim tale of extreme hardship and grief, with a steadily increasing body count. Hilarious, right? In fact, when watching this new adaptation by writer and director Kate Marks, you'll be surprised to find yourself laughing. In Odyssey, produced by the Looking Glass Theater, she tackles the classic with a modern eye, a colloquial tongue, and a comic touch… Marks's blocking (there was no choreographer) for depicting the sea is simply breathtaking. Clad in whirling blue skirts and tight tank tops, the actors craft several raging storms. Their most delightful creation is the tide arriving on Calypso's shore. Rushing downstage in two rows, the first line of actors drops lightly into the arms of those behind, leaving a billowing blue skirt and a slight breeze in their wake. Repeated several times, the dance is a beautifully sensual device to show the passage of time."

Jack!

The New York Times: Laurel Graeber
“Although the staging is intimate, much about this show is big: really big…Kate Marks the director has given Jack! lots of circus flash, with inventive masks and rollicking choreography.”

Nothing of Origins

American Theatre Web: Andy Propst
“Director Kate Marks has given the play a visually rich production.”

TalkinBroadway.com: Mathew Murray
“The Performers, Roemer, and Marks have shaped the show in such a way that is has plenty of movement and personality.”

Bumping Umbrellas

Backstage.com: Elias Stimac
“Kate Marks staged and choreographed the play for maximum effect, playing up the humorous moments to balance the sexual sequences. Together these women have created a unique vision of how one indiscretion can change the course of many lives.”

writing reviews for kate marks

Bird House

TheaterOnline.com: Ashley Griffin
"There are some evenings at the theatre that just make being a critic worthwhile...a breath of fresh air...Writer Kate Marks has accomplished what other writers only dream about."

"Lewis Carroll did it with Alice in Wonderland ... L. Frank Baum did it with The Wizard of Oz: gave us stories of fantastical worlds where innocent girls stumble backwards into their watershed moment and grow up from the inside out.  Now, playwright Kate Marks brings us another place of fantasy where not one but two girls on opposite sides of the same world struggle with the same journey.  This is Bird House...Ms. Marks has created a tiny world with its own rules, flavors, tragedies, triumphs, heartbreak and tenderness.

"Marks' script is enthralling. The way she arranges her words and creates these characters is meticulously stylized. She writes in an almost poetic way, where the words themselves are important, not just what is being said. And the world she's created is something unique in and of itself; although little is ever explicitly defined and the audience must interpret the play in their own way, the stylistic vocabulary is undeniably marvelous."

"Bird House is full of stunning imagery"

"Kate Marks has written a dream of a world so consistent in tone that even though axes fly through the wind and cuckoo birds burst out of people's mouths, she sustains our interest. Likewise, Heidi Handelsman has conjured this fantasy so fully that even though we see the puppeteers through the life-size windows of this hand-crafted bird house (Sara C. Walsh's set), we remain raptly dreaming. It's impossible to dismiss Bird House, and yet equally hard to accept."

"Kate's script is a dreamscape masterpiece, with a bubbly surprise twist to every line leading up to a grim and satisfying darkening end. "

Odyssey

Von Sabine Stimming of Echo News
"Written with creativity and great gusto."

I-95 South

Nilo Cruz
"I-95 South is a playful piece of writing that is graced with humor and the freshness of word games that transform reality into a magical landscape. Traversing the form of the road play, this is a dazzling script of a most original texture. Her main character, Cell crosses the boundaries of cross-dressing into a world where time is measured in the rhythms of Elvis Presley music and the big dream is to personify the King. This play offers the fantastic wounded reality of a young girl coming of age, along with a flamboyant depiction of pop culture and domestic dysfunction."

Flyers

Hi Drama: Christopher Farr
"One of the better written pieces of the 2004 Winter Forum was a touching production entitled Flyers by upcoming writer Kate Marks. Flyers was solidly directed by Heidi Handelsman and starred Julia Davis and Rob Stewart. The play was revolved around a woman who passes out flyers on the street. She feels so rooted that she almost turns into a tree. But due to her competition with a man who is a superb “flyer passer outer”, she discovers that she can pass out flyers, and more importantly, that she has the capability to take risks and leave her roots."

Flyers and Other Tales: Buried, Converting Numbers, and Flyers

Backstage.com: Andy Probst
"The ways in which people hold on to their dreams in an increasingly impersonal and restrictive society are at the center of Kate Marks' three gently lyrical plays performed under the rubric "Flyers and Other Tales."