Gill, by Kieran Moreira
*Audience Choice - Motion for Pictures Screening Series*
*Narrative Short, Best Sci Fi - Longleaf Film Festival*
“Wells’ screen presence is undeniable. Her performance is the key ingredient that makes GILL a gripping and mesmerizing watch.”
“The sci-fi short stars Caitlin Wells, who left Durham for New York City a year or two ago but is well-remembered in the area for her stage work as a director (Yes to Nothing) and an actor (Orlando)…. The film shines with strong production values, satire and suspense, and a typically charismatic performance from Wells.”
-Brian Howe, “Motion For Pictures Screening Series,” Indy Week
Orlando, by Sarah Ruhl
Delta Boys Theater Company
regional premiere
*Outstanding Featured Performance, Outstanding Production & Outstanding Ensemble Performance for Orlando in Triangle Arts & Entertainment's "Best of 2017" List*
*Orlando was one of Indy Week’s Top Ten Plays of 2017*
*Five NC theater critics' favorite shows & "State of Theater" 2017 round table discussion on WHUP radio's "Lights Up" (start at 11:17, 14:43): https://whupfm.org/episode/lights-up-122017-permanent-archive/*
Dustin Britt (Triangle Arts & Entertainment): “I'm sure we all wanna talk about Orlando. It made brilliant use of that space.”
Roy Dicks (News & Observer): “Everybody is gonna have Orlando on the top of their list - the most magical thing that I saw for the whole year. It takes you completely out of the norm and you're in some different world. So perfectly done: everything, whether it was the acting, directing, sets, costumes, lighting… The strangest thing of all is that, whoever directed this, we've got to get him or her to do our next show because they're just so great - it was directed by all of them! It was impossible to look at them and think this group… (they) seemed like many more. So tight, so together, amazing.
Byron Woods (Indy Week): “Let's pile on a little bit: that show was blessed all the way around. It's remarkable that 5 actors get together and agree on a unified artistic vision that takes them through a pretty daunting adaptation. We've got very strong acting… I don't know if we are going to be hearing from the Delta Boys again, but if this is the last we hear from them it was a good note to go out on. High praise where praise is due.”
Dawn Reno Langley (Triangle Arts & Entertainment): “That was my favorite small theater production of the year. I think every single character in that play, every actor, had such a gender-bending ability it was just a segue from one moment to the next and it was just beautifully done. To see that production done so well in a local venue was really worth the whole year.”
Jackson Cooper (Classical Voice of North Carolina): “I thought Orlando was incredible. It's not the kind of theater that we see in the Triangle. This kind of Wooster Group, Elevator Repair Service type of experimental work that really has a very strong united vision from everybody… really great.”
Interview with Frank Stasio on WUNC Public Radio's "The State of Things": http://wunc.org/post/bending-time-and-gender-through-orlando#stream/0
"The cast, who is onstage throughout the entire play, are energetic and well-meshed. Their ability to hook into each other’s lines, as well as their physical ability to choreograph the often abstract tableaux in the performance, is excellent; and together, they build an interesting and enjoyable perspective.
Though each actor in this production is talented, Caitlin Wells, who plays the Archduchess, has a wacky, over-the-top sense of humor that is like a manic Lucille Ball with an English accent. One of the things that makes for a good comedian is the ability to deliver the funny lines clearly and distinctly. That might sound easy; but it takes timing, clarity of voice, and the ability to throw that voice when you’re moving about the stage. She not only manages that, but also has an elastic control over her face that reminds one of the characters in Cirque du Soleil shows. She can tell a whole story with her eyebrows."
-Dawn Reno Langley, Triangle Arts & Entertainment
"Two cast members stand out conclusively: Caitlin Wells, whose intense passion and rigorous timing present The Archduchess and a multiplicity of other characters from which one cannot look away."
-Dustin K. Britt, Triangle Arts & Entertainment
“This smart, stylish take on Virginia Woolf's novella was exceptional in all aspects. Even more remarkable, superlative actors shared directing duties while confidently escorting us through Sarah Ruhl's daunting stage adaptation, across a half-millennium of developments in gender roles, all in eighty thrilling minutes.”
-Byron Woods, “The Top Ten Plays of 2017,” Indy Week
“Delta Boys Theater Company’s current production puts its own brilliant spin on the piece…. Four equally talented players support (Orlando’s) extremely engaging performance….Caitlin Wells humorously embodies numerous oddballs…. Delta Boys’ fluid, tautly paced staging is all the more impressive because the task is done collectively. Artist Elsa Hoffman’s patterned steel set pieces, including a London street scene and the queen’s elaborate dress, comprise a show of their own. Joseph Amodei’s atmospheric lighting and Kim Black’s clever gender-morphing costumes complete this nigh-perfect presentation. The timeliness of a work about gender identities is obvious in today’s political landscape but Woolf’s themes transcend the present with universal insights, marvelously rendered in this production.
-Roy C. Dicks, “Theater review: Satirical ‘Orlando’ a brilliant spin on Woolf’s novel,” The News & Observer
"A triumphant production. Five self-directed actors sketch striking stage tableaux as they deftly skate across a half-millennium-long history of the human heart.... A rewarding production filled with the joy of storytelling.... At the last, Orlando remains confident in her search for understanding. An equally confident production puts that quest on the strongest ground, and earns our highest recommendation."
-Byron Woods, "A superlative adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando packs centuries of insight into a fleet eighty minutes," IndyWeek.
Maccountant, by William Shakespeare & Jaybird O'Berski
Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern
"Nancy Merlin, Caitlin Wells, and Liam O'Neill serve as an odd but very amusing trio of foreign cleaning women. Wells also serves brilliantly as the waifish Peggy Macduff. They give strong comic performances."
--Dustin K. Britt, Triangle Arts & Entertainment
"The only remotely sympathetic character is Caitlin Wells’s Peggy Macduff, a character who, as Shakespeare fans recall, makes an early departure. Nancy Merlin, Liam O’Neill, and Wells’s clown-like weird sisters strike a resonant note as immigrant cleaning ladies from the Eastern bloc who have attained extensive knowledge of interoffice affairs through their explorations of the company’s waste bins."
--Byron Woods, IndyWeek
photo by Alan Dehmer
The Nether, by Jennifer Haley
regional premiere
Interview with Frank Stasio on WUNC Public Radio's "The State of Things": http://wunc.org/post/nether-theatrical-commentary-digital-world#stream/0
photo by Nick Vandenberg
Love & Information, by Caryl Churchill
presented as part of Manbites Dog Theater's Other Voices Series
regional premiere & encore presentation of The Delta Boys' acclaimed 2015 production.
*"Nine great local theater performances of 2015," Byron Woods, IndyWeek*
Durham Magazine Weekend Best Bets, January 7-10, 2016
"In a five-star production last January, part of the Delta Boys' achievement was how imaginatively a quintet of self-directed actors filled in the blanks, sharply defining individual characters in specific situations and conveying transitions in more than 60 different relationships. A kinetic, non-stop show."
-Byron Woods, Indy Week
"A gifted quintet played a compelling game of human pinball as Caryl Churchill's characters got the news (or didn't) in 65 relationships, ranging from snarky lovers to torturer and victim."
-Byron Woods, Indy Week
photo by Jillian Clark
Dark Vanilla Jungle, by Philip Ridley
*"Nine great local theater performances of 2015," Byron Woods, IndyWeek*
"Rarely—very rarely—do we find as perfect a combination of playwright, director and performer as in this staging of Dark Vanilla Jungle. Actor Caitlin Wells and director Staci Sabarsky... have turned Philip Ridley’s cryptogram of a script into a compelling and prismatic act of witness.
Wells’ character charms and disarms us at first, ...then we start to notice Andrea’s jackknife mood changes. And, through... Wells’ meticulous, jaw-dropping performance, we find ourselves trapped on the ride with Andrea as she falls through the flimsiest of safety nets.
As we watch with concern and increasing horror, we can see an elastic young mind gradually rewiring itself in response to the damage it’s known. As it does, something dark and very hungry blossoms in a bright young girl, in the most compelling local production I’ve seen in quite some time. Drop everything; this you’ve got to see."
-Byron Woods, Indy Week
"A winsome young woman matter-of-factly related her experiences of neglect and abuse. As she did, something dark and monstrous slowly blossomed in Caitlin Wells' amazing and harrowing solo performance."
-Byron Woods, Indy Week
"Caitlin Wells gave a captivating performance in Burning Coal's Dark Vanilla Jungle, ...a five-star show that deserved packed houses and added dates. The work onstage was brilliantly complete."
-Byron Woods, Indy Week
And the Ass Saw the Angel, by Nick Cave, John Fidel Justice, and Jaybird O’Berski
Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern
world premiere
"Wells, in all of her willowy glory, does a wonderful job of portraying both world-weary but innocent-in-her-own-right Cosey Mo, as well as beautiful, spiritually-adored Beth"
-Susie Potter, Triangle Arts & Entertainment
Tarantino's Yellow Speedo, by Monica Byrne
Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern
world premiere
"The most engaging performances come from the serene, likable Nicola Bullock and the high-strung Caitlin Wells—who ably portrays her character's eager, nervous energy."
-Brian Howe, Indy Week
"Caitlin Wells and Nicola Bullock drive the majority of the show, and thankfully the story is in capable hands. Wells’ emotional intensity and volatility is palpable, and (she and Bullock) give us an incredible dance between Khala and Mia."
-Jesse Gephart, Triangle Arts & Entertainment