Olivia Vaughn Hern

The Taming of the Shrew

July 19, 2026

What ultimately distinguishes this production is its refusal to flatten Shakespeare into a contemporary thesis. It neither apologizes for the play's misogyny nor sensationalizes it. Instead, Otto trusts that audiences are capable of holding competing truths in their minds simultaneously: that "The Taming of the Shrew" is uproariously funny, dramatically exhilarating, and profoundly unsettling. In embracing the play's ambiguities rather than escaping them, Shakespeare CSE has launched its "Shakespeare Entirely" series with a production that is not only intellectually invigorating but also enormously entertaining—a reminder that the greatest classics endure not because they provide easy answers, but because they continue asking impossibly difficult questions with inexhaustible theatrical delight. [more]

Dad Don’t Read This

June 29, 2026

Under Claudel’s direction, the four actresses are totally believable as teenage girls circa 2014, with Yoo’s Mal giving the most layered and mysterious performance. (Yoo had her big break last season as the conflicted Raelynn in Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain.) Although the play is completely authentic and persuasive, as it is plotless we do not know where it is going. Nothing much happens nor do the girls grow up in the course of the play. They do eventually each reveal their fears about growing up and what the future holds for them. Each of them seems to be suffering from an unspoken trauma they only hint at. If you don’t identify with one of the four individual girls, you might be bored by the lack of action on stage though it all is very convincing. [more]

(un)conditional

October 5, 2025

Although the advance press materials suggest that Ali Keller’s "(un)conditional," the 2024 Lighthouse Series winner at SoHo Playhouse, is about wife swapping, it is, in fact, about two couples with different sexual problems that eventually become one story when it transpires that two of the people know each other from work. Director Ivey Lowe has used a suitably light touch to deal with this delicate and sensitive subject matter. While the play is never erotic, it may be the most intimate play you have ever seen so far. The actors playing the two couples are excellent at handling this tricky theme, one that cries out to be addressed more often even though it may make some uncomfortable. [more]

We Do the Same Thing Every Week

May 11, 2025

Scenes progress, and it becomes clear that nothing which happens in Dick and Jane’s house makes a whole lot of sense, and that’s absolutely the point of Leverett’s witty, clever, and smart play. Giving a firm nod to the absurdist playwriting genre first popularized in the mid-1950s, "We Do the Same Thing Every Week" imparts the mindless, repetitive, and boring existence of humankind, which no amount of parlor games, huge vacuums (household or existential), duets, tap-dancing Things, or anthropomorphized cats and fish can overturn. [more]

What Else Is True?

August 21, 2023

Another problem with the play is that although the subject is “Improv” we never actually witness any, just theater games to prepare for group improvs. Games like Mind Meld, Mating Call, 99 Problems, Zip Zap Zop and the Pattern Game are practiced but as the rules are not made clear, many in the audience be confused by what is happening. Throughout the play we are told that Miles is the most brilliant of them all, based on his auditions and performances, but except for a brief moment in the next to last scene in which he performs two characters in an improv alone, we are never shown any evidence of this. [more]

The Trouble with Dead Boyfriends

June 21, 2023

The show is a deft combination of action and humor with elements of horror. One of the production numbers, "Dissection Dance," is an homage to the "Time Warp" choreography of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." The name of the high school, George R. Romero High School, invokes the zombie horror films he created. And with the ensemble's comedic timing, the show delivers an entertaining romp, with a feminist twist, through the psyche of three adolescent girls: Madison, Stella, and Grace. It needs a bigger stage and more actors but it is still an entertaining theatrical experience. [more]

How to Load a Musket

January 25, 2020

An essay more than a play, with players as opposed to characters, "How to Load a Musket" is a racist diatribe that fails to make its points coherently. The costumes and appointments on the walls of a black box space say all that there is to say in a play that ultimately leaves one wanting for more. The scenic design by Lawrence E. Moten III is the show’s best asset. [more]