K A R I N A C A S I A N O
press / audience
ROOTLESS: La No-Nostalgia
By Karina Casiano
New York City: April 2008, chashama @ 42nd Street; October 2008, Gerald W. Lynch Theater
7th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival, P.S.122, May 2010
VIII Festival Internacional de Cabaret, Mexico City, July 2010
"Casiano's beautiful and powerful singing voice makes the heartbreaking moments in Rootless all the
more affecting. Moving."
Dan Lehman, Backstage Blogs
"Casiano is... talented and gutsy... Expressive performances of the songs."
Martin Denton, nytheater.com Blog
"Karina’s Rootless is ingenious and daring. The lyrics to the songs, her movements, her commentary and even the wardrobe are fantastic. We were very impressed.”
Maite Junco
“It was fascinating how Karina managed to incorporate several media into the show. Some of the songs are like music videos! And her voice is clear and strong.”
Susan Baum, The Personal Trainer for the Voice
“Rootless: La No-Nostalgia was marvelous! Spendid! So well-built, so well conceived. We were much moved. She has depicted a synthesis of all of us. We were marveled by the ease with which she interpreted several different styles of songs, the accents, her stage presence, her power, her creativity. Casiano is an all-inclusive artist and deserves to perform on great stages. Absolute professionalism. Chapeaux.”
“Rootless: La No-Nostalgia is brilliant, inspirational, moving, thought-provoking, educational, unforgettable, poignant, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining.
and in the dramatic ones. She has a beautiful voice that sends chills throughout the theater. Also, Casiano showed impressive inventiveness in utilizing a performance space when she used the theater window... I was blown away. Casiano’s mind speaks volumes!”
“Karina is an incredible singer, writer and performer. She really blew me away with her work. Rootless: La No-Nostalgia challenged and moved me in so many ways - I'm still thinking about it. Dana Jacks, Actress
chance to showcase her singing voice.”
Maruxa Relaño, Journalist
¿Qué me trajiste?:Cabaret BoricuaBy Karina Casiano
San Juan, Puerto Rico, May and June 1999
Café-Teatro Delirio Habanero, Teatro Nacional, La Habana, Cuba, January 2000
Ecuador, Perú, Chile, Argentina, January - May 2001
"¿Qué me trajiste?, a happy marriage of brains and entertainment, is really good theater."
Albor Ruiz, The Daily News, New York, September 23, 2003
"Karina Casiano has charisma. (She) knows how to move the audience to silence, to tears, to
bittersweet laughter... and makes us accomplices of what happens on stage. A beautiful show full
of intelligent resources and moments of humor and tension,¿Qué me trajiste? is a show worthy to
be seen."
Paúl Rivas, El Comercio, Quito, Ecuador, January 28, 2001
"(¿Qué me trajiste? has) a very well thought structure... (It is) a witty proposal because it does not deal with the subject of exile in a sensationalist manner... Karina Casiano will certainly get very far."
Genoveva Mora, La Hora, Quito, Ecuador, February 11, 2001
COLONIA2007 o el cabaret de los días terribles
By Karina Casiano
Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 2000
Teatro Malayerba, Quito, and Casa de la Cultura, Ibarra, Ecuador, February 2001
HERE Arts Center, New York City, 2004
"An iconoclastic actress."
Mario Alegre Barrios, El Nuevo Día, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 21, 2000
"[Karina Casiano is] a restless actress who uses her talent to approach the social issues we share in our country. Colonia 2007
offers a sample of alternative artistic creation with a high social content."
Hiram Guadalupe Pérez, Primer Hora, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 24, 2000
Colectivo C-4's
DÍA UNO ...Eve of the Beheading
By Jorge Díaz
Festival de Teatro de Caguas, Teatro Arcelay, Caguas, Puerto Rico, 1999
Centro de Bellas Artes, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2000
Festival de Teatro de La Habana, Cuba, 2000
"From her twisted toes to her moribund embittered mask of a face, her stony voice and her skillful use of her
wheelchair, Karina Casiano – as the nearly catatonic Hosanna– inspires the rest of the production. It's been
long since I have seen such strong and precise acting on stage."
Lowell Fiet, Claridad, San Juan, Puerto Rico, December 15 - 21, 2000
La Criatura Theatre Company'sSilence Is Health / Silencio es Salud
By Karina Casiano
February 2006, CSV Cultural Center, Lower East Side, New York
June 2006, chashama @ Queens, old Citibank Building, Long Island City, New York
www.lacriatura.org
"An excellent idea and a magnificent staging! I could not imagine why you would want the audience to move, but seeing the play, I realized why. It was perfect! Congratulations! Keep going. You have a whole lot more to offer. "
Rodolfo Queebleen, Playwright and Editor, Hora Hispana Magazine, The Daily News
"Everything -the performances, the staging and the direction- was powerful and moving. I was engaged by it every single moment. Thrilling! It is evident that many people worked hard to make it possible, and it's really inspiring to see innovative and thought-provoking work by people from our generation."
José Antonio Cruz Director of Audience Development & Public Relations, Spanish Repertory Theater, New York
Rodolfo Queebleen, Playwright and Editor, Hora Hispana Magazine, The Daily News
"Everything -the performances, the staging and the direction- was powerful and moving. I was engaged by it every single moment. Thrilling! It is evident that many people worked hard to make it possible, and it's really inspiring to see innovative and thought-provoking work by people from our generation."
José Antonio Cruz Director of Audience Development & Public Relations, Spanish Repertory Theater, New York
I enjoyed the performances as well as the overall theme of the piece. The issue of government-sponsored torture, the definition and even the purpose of torture are all problems that have not gotten adequate discussion in the U.S. The location is great. I am glad to see that building used in such an interesting way. I enjoyed Silence is Health and look forward to your next effort.
Peter Neddo, FilmmakerThe play was as disturbing as we need it to be. I was in awe with the images you were able to create and the use of the space left me astonished. I thought of saying hi afterwards but I preferred to savor the last image of the bride running away. I was much moved.
Eva Vásquez, Playwright and Scholar, CUNY
The Dog in the Manger
By Lope de Vega, directed by Isabel Ramos
Spanish Repertory Theater, New York
New York ACE 2005 Nominee Karina Casiano "Best Comedy Actress"
Karina Casiano plays Diana, Countess of Belflor, as a spoiled, capricious adolescent. She wears too many pink
bows in her hair, a pink strapless prom dress, furry burnt orange mufflers on her forearms, and two large white
coffee cans strapped to her ballet slippers so that her feet never touch the ground. When she is not sitting on her
high throne, she clomps around the stage with surprising elegance, towering over her subjects. The streamlined
eight-member cast makes Lope's language their own; they trip out his rhythms and meters naturally, easily, and
at a lively pace.
Prof. Christopher D. Gascón, Comedia Performance Journal, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater,
December 2004, SUNY, Cortland, New York
MedeaAmuralladaBy Eurípides
A production of Ágora Teatro directed by Isabel Ramos
San Felipe del Morro Fort, San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 2005
www.agorateatro.org
Karina Casiano’s histrionic quality is noteworthy. She effectively gave life to the
multiplicity of Medea’s feelings: hate, love, rancor, uncertainty, wrath and sorrow.
[Casiano] gave Medea all the frenzy, and sometimes the lack of judgment that a
woman betrayed after ten years of happy marriage can express. The moments when
she struggles between her love for her children and her decision to restore her honor
through vengeance, are adequately intense.
Tatiana Pérez Rivera, El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico, Aug.11 and 14, 2005
PROCESSION
By Badal Sircar
Directed by Rosa Luisa Márquez
Teatro Rodante de la Universidad de Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
March 1998
Márquez has used this reality (of downtown Río Piedras) as a starting point and proceeds
to show us the difficulties of a character named Khoka. It seems this character could be
played either as male or female. In the performance I attended it was played by the
tireless, vibrant, acrobatic, supple and beautiful Karina Casiano.
Jorge Martínez Solá, The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico, March 11, 1998
Copyright Karina Casiano 2003-2010. All rights reserved.