←Recommendations of The Wake

Loved seeing this on Zoom early in the pandemic as part of Pittsburgh Public Theater's PlayTime Series. A great play for actors, great dialogue, moving and funny.

When sisters reunite to honor their dead sister, Colleen, deep-seated resentments and guilt surface from these wonderfully created, uniquely human characters. Colleen manifests into a hurricane which physically and emotionally shakes the characters to theirs cores, forcing them to closely examine their lives, their relationships, and their losses. Ryan beautifully, and almost magically, inserts Florida wildlife into this struggle, and connects humanity to the earth.

There's so much to love about a Tammy Ryan play, the theatricality, the sharp injections of humor, the use of physicality, surprise, sight, and sound. But what I love most of all is the way they sneak up on you: you're just listening to casual conversation, but there's an edge to it, but you're sucked in, lulled, and then all hell breaks loose. The Wake excels at all of this.

Beautiful play, a family in all its complexity and turmoil brilliantly painted. Extraordinarily and powerfully human. Marvelous work!

I was fortunate enough to see the world premiere of this play at Premiere Stages. What a compelling, thrilling, and beautiful play about two sisters who went on different paths in life coming to terms with their mutual grief at the loss of their this sister. Tammy Ryan writes with a great ear for dialogue, a compassionate eye for character, and a strong feel for the theatrical (especially in the second act). Produce this play!!!

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize “The Wake” by Tammy Ryan as the winner of the 2019 Premiere Play Festival. “The Wake” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to its position as winner out of 659 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the play’s theatrical exploration of grief and climate change. The play will receive a developmental Equity production at Premiere in July 2019, and we hope to see it in other theaters. Our congratulations and thanks to Tammy.

Beautiful family drama, set at the eye of both emotional and literal storms, whose gorgeous imagery and complex familial relationships will bring you back, again and again, to question the wisdom of ties that bind. There are no heroines in this family, nor are there villains. Only gorgeously and lovingly drawn characters who each hold fragments of their family puzzle; each longing for acknowledgement, forgiveness, and redemption in their own way. Definitely add this one to your reading list.

Oh the ties that bind. There's a hurricane brewing outside a cabin and inside, family members are fighting their own personal hurricanes. This family drama highlights the challenges of diverse family dynamics without eliminating the love and care that makes blood relations such a human puzzle. We love, we lose, we fight, we anguish, and then amazingly - we love again. The sudden appearance of wildlife at crucial moments highlights awareness of our relationship with the natural world and how it informs our relationships to others.

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize “Hurricane Colleen” by Tammy Ryan as a semifinalist for the 2018 Premiere Play Festival. “Hurricane Colleen” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 22 semifinalists out of 572 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the play’s high-stakes premise, the warm and human characters at its heart, and the smart, theatrical devices by which the playwright reminds us of the encroaching sea. Our congratulations and thanks to Tammy.

Oh, wow, I loved this play. Tammy Ryan uses layers of imagery that never feel muddled or forced -- they blend together seamlessly and beautifully in a way that left me stunned. HURRICANE COLLEEN is a powerful story about forgiveness, indebtedness, nature, and family. Not one of these characters is all good or all bad, and that is what makes them so beautiful, rich, engaging, irritating, and unforgettable. A play I will come back to again and again -- I can't wait to see it on stage someday.