“With the light of the poet, [the actor] explores the uncharted abyss of the human soul, of his own soul, he mysteriously transforms himself, his hands, eyes, and mouth full of miracles...The actor is at once artist and work of art; he is the man at the border between reality and fantasy....Whether he knows it or not, everyone has the urge to transform himself.”
the trip to bountiful
“Without a single misstep, Sloan moves relentlessly forward, refusing to be held back by age, illness or the tragic tale itself, tragic only because the inevitable is always before us and before Carrie’s attempt to realize her 20-year-old dream. This is a play about a sense of mission, and the clarity that she and the company bring to it is unparalleled. You don’t care that it takes two and a half hours; in fact, you hate the fact that it’s over—that is great theater, folks.”
-The Berkshire Edge
painting churches
“…the considerable charms of Ted Pugh… He plays the intensity of Gar’s interest in poetry and in his own analysis of poetry with a delicacy equal to Sloan’s take on life. He moves with precision and care through a growing mess of boxes, books and papers, some of it deposited by him in spite of himself. He carries off the heart-shaped pieces of dialogue with a natural aplomb. He is the father everyone wants and no one really gets and when he reveals the emotional see-saw on which he stands, teeter-tottering right and left, up and down, he breaks your heart.” Berkshire Bright Focus
Washington Square
Bethany Caputo plays the psychologically abused Catherine. The actress has a raw energy that humanizes and empowers every character she takes on. (Did you see her in “Our Town” at PS21?) In “Washington Square,” she harnesses it to vulnerability, lets it crush her with pain, and uses it movingly when Catherine’s strong womanhood comes to the fore.” The Columbia Paper
eugene’s ghosts
“It is a role begging to be played by the wonderful Fern Sloan. She glides into view nursing her gnarled hands, smiling, covering, suffering, denying. Fern/Mary’s beauty lingers, and it is easy to picture the spirited young Ma later described by her husband. Sloan unearths her ingénue voice to relive Mary’s schoolgirl Catholicism and her habitual request for mercy. It grows in depth and amplitude toward Act One’s stirring peak, as the actress allows blame to roar out of its cage to devour all doctors. It is the most compelling variation of the evening. In between, she explores teasing blame, understated, sarcastic blame, loving blame, and bitter, bitter blame.” The Columbia Paper
mrs ripley’s trip
“Jumping in and out of character, Pugh and Sloan manage to continue the sense of the inner person in their narration while clearly differentiating the storyteller from the story. They are both superb technicians and they know how to make this sort of material work…What is said, and what is meant, in the words the two elderly characters share become vividly clear through the playing of the actors. What could be just another story theatre event becomes an epic of emotions played for all its possible values.” - The Independent, June 2000