K A R I N A C A S I A N O
press
¿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 2007offers 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
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
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, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
August 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, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
March 11, 1998