Press
Profiles and Interviews
American Theater First Person Essay
When life imitates art, a playwright's work and family life nurture each other in surprising ways. Read the article here.
Washington Post
Peter Marks of the Washington Post profiles me before the world premiere of Honey Brown Eyes at Theater J. Read the article here.
nytheatre.com Interview
nytheatre.com interviews me on the eve of Honey Brown Eyes' New York opening. Read interview here.
Brooklyn Rail
Andi Stover interviews the Working Theater about the genesis of Honey Brown Eyes before its New York Premiere. Read the article here.
Adam Szymkowicz Interview
I was interviewed by Adam Szymkowicz as part of his ongoing series of interviews with playwrights. Read the interview here.
Slovenes in the USA
David Dolenc interviews me about playwriting on his lovely blog that features Slovenes and Americans of Slovenian descent. Read the interview here.
Works by Women Interview
Works by Women interviews me about collaboration and being a female theater artist. Read Interview here.
Reviews
The Electric Baby
"Sometimes even a crtitc is charmed into analytical silence. No, make that enthralled and also warned. Not that I can't think of ways to explain The Electric Baby, but even if I were right, it might dull both its delicacy and its strength." Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
" As dazzling as the dialogue is dreamful." Michelle Pilecki, Pittsburgh City Paper
"This surreal show functions like "an adult pop-up book with just that mix of fun and surprise." -The Week
Honey Brown Eyes
"Ms. Zadravec has tackled a bruising subject and dared to approach it through her own, more humanistic aesthetic, one that can spot isolated moments of grace in even the most nightmarish scenarios. It will be interesting to see where this aesthetic takes her next." - Eric Grode, The New York Times
"'Honey Brown Eyes' is, in a sense, itself an expression of shock at how the latticework of a civilized country can come unglued overnight...Zadravec's drama makes for an absorbing evening, especially when it lets its traumatized characters reveal, in muted exchanges, who they were before the nation broke down into armed camps of Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims.
“Although each character is allowed to show some mettle, Zadravec doesn't overplay the heroism. Putting them all around kitchen sinks, she wants us to see how, in the midst of incomprehensible cruelty, tragedy could come to be something utterly average.” — Peter Marks, The Washington Post
"Playwright Stefanie Zadravec deploys a different kind of kitchen-sink drama, one that perceptively explores the psychologically crushing consequences of a war that, in Honey Brown Eyes, leaves two former friends on opposing sides. " - Diane Snyder, Time Out New York
"Playwright Stefanie Zadravec doesn't indulge in stereotypes. She recognizes that chaos unleashes demons and, on occasion, angels.
"...Zadravec is to be lauded for a taking a faraway conflict and skillfully revealing its universal lessons. - Fern Siegal, The Huffington Post
"As it sets up its jokes delivers its painfully torqued punch lines, Honey Brown Eyes, never lets the audience forget the brutalities that consumed a nation that had once papered over its differences with the paste and pulp of such consumables. The small cruelties and the petty thieving, the individual murders and the neighborhood slaughters, the rape camps and the 'cleansings' — Zadravec references them in ways both offhand and ominous, and the result is a play that sometimes packs the make-you-jump punch of (another signal pop-culture influence?) the very best horror movies." — Washington City Paper
"The Bosnian war acheives unsettling immediacy in Stefanie Zadravec's Honey Brown Eyes." -The San Francisco Chronicle
"As a writer Zadravec is skillful at keeping her audience on its toes. Absurd but raucous comedy can turn on a razor-thin edge to tragic violence, then to much darker comedy and then on into the unknown. As a result, the tension builds almost unbearable at moments, especially through the second act, when you don't know whether to expect a tender gesture or a rude invasion." -Andy Buck, Theatermania.com
"Honey Brown Eyes is not an easy play to watch, and it does not give easy answers. Instead, It allows us to experience the ways humanity and horror coexist in a war where the 'enemy' is not made up of faceless strangers, but of people you know and perhaps once loved."
— The Washington Times
"Stefanie Zadravec's new drama succeeds powerfully in its effort to put a human face on the Bosnian War. By highlighting themes of survival, torn loyalties and loss of innocence, Honey Brown Eyes enables us to see ourselves in a chapter of history most of us know only through CNN dispaches and politcal rhetoric. - Ethan Kanfer, Show Business Weekly
"Zadravec zooms in on that world gone berserk by intertwining two dramatic stories that happen in two kitchens. Her focus is on relationships, on exploring the ways in which people manage (or not) to preserve their humanity when chaos and hell prevail. She brings the kitchen sink genre to a new level of intensity and power. Her characters cling obsessively to the little details of everyday life - coffee, sugar, onions, TV, radio, music - struggling to preserve the illusion of normalcy." -Saviana Stanescu, nytheatre.com
"Stefanie Zadravec's Honey Brown Eyes at Theater J is a passionate, thought-provoking play about war, whose serious message is intensified by its implied comments on youth, age, courage and the disastrous effects of conflict — not just on nations but on brothers and friends."
— The Examiner
"Playwright Stefanie Zadravec is really doing something impressive here, drawing us in so intimately into the world these players inhabit, a world that would seemingly seem rather similar to ours, if not for the interrupting atrocities." — dcist
"Stefanie Zadravec's play is a point-blank depiction of war in all its dehumanizing horror. Thankfully, it's also a story of humor, kindness, and possible redemption." -Steve Hauk, Theasy.com
"Playwright Stefanie Zadravec, hones in on the personal, rather than the political or military to lift the shroud on the everyday tragedies of living — and dying — in a war zone. Honey Brown Eyes takes place away from the blare of news reports and morning paper's headlines, ending the work a keener sense of reality and brutality. — Washington Jewish Week
"Zadravec distills centuries of ethnic hatred and dimming news coverage by introducing elements we can all relate to, from the way Western pop culture permeates our lives or the strong sense that camaraderie and love aren't attributes tied to the fate of nations, but are instead elements of life that are firmly woven into the human experience. -Leonard Jacobs, City's Best
"...meticulous writing..." — metro weekly
"...explosive and disturbingly real..." — DC Theatre Scene
Save Me
An emotional, thought-provoking evening of entertaining theatre...Save Me delights in offering many arguments on all the sides of a very thorny issue. That many are left unanswered or resolved is perplexing and, in the end, satisfying...a comfortable framework with newly found quirks and ideas. Thank God—literally!”
— broadwayworld.com
“A very keen eye towards character.”
— broadwayworld.com
The Fear Project
“And top honors among the playwrights must go to Stefanie Zadravec, who contributes both the opening and closing numbers. The first, Leaving, about the disintegration of a Connecticut couple when they hear about a disaster from a TV newscast, is a sharp living room social critique...”
“...What’s lovely about this piece [Haunted] is how the mania subsides into a meditation on trust and ambiguity, a celebration of human connection as an antidote to irrational paranoia. It seems like the perfectly placed coda to the entire evening.
— theatrescene.net
“The pieces’ brevity can limit their depth, but the playwrights generally manage to ring some changes, as with Haunted, in which Zadravec plays on the eerie similarities between the teen slasher-flick setup and romantic rural getaways.”
— Time Out New York
“New Yorkers will find particular resonance in such segments as [Zadravec’s] Leaving...”
— New York Post
“Equally Compelling...is Stefanie Zadravec’s Haunted, where a couple’s romantic getaway turns creepy in the middle of a storm. Zadravec manages to indict the sort of man-to-woman violence that might be found in a Lifetime movie, while also giving the short piece a grand ‘Twilight Zone’ feel. Van Cleve and Zadravec play the piece so that each of Zadravec’s twists surprise grandly.”
— American Theatre Web
"Stefanie Zadravec’s Haunted has “a wry edge and is well played...”
— Backstage
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— theatrescene.net