Press Rooms

The Revolution is LIVE and ONSTAGE.

WHAT THEY SAY:

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LD Alex Jainchill Lights UniSon at Oregon Shakes

‘UniSon’ a complex & dazzling work

‘UniSon’ unleashes power of August Wilson’s poetry

OSF’S UNISON ROCKS POETRY ON STAGE

'Hannah and the Dread Gazebo' and 'UniSon'

‘UniSon’ terrors will linger

Oregon Shakespeare Festival premieres UNIVERSES’ ‘UniSon’

'UniSon' to Open This Month at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

OSF Announces it's 2017 Season (UNIVERSES' UniSon)

Berkeley Rep Announces 2016 Ground Floor

From Poet to Playwright

UNIVERSES' Party People Wins of (4) TBA Awards 2015

UNIVERSES' Party People 11 Nominations - TBA Awards.

San Francisco Gate on Party People

KBOO Community Radio

TCG on Party People

The Five Point Star

D.C. Theatre Scene

2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays

Theater Louisville on Ameriville

Total Theater on Ameriville

The Courier-Journal on Ameriville

Rocky Mountain News

America.gov on Universes (Rhythm Road Tour)

Independent Weekly on Universes LIVE'

Daily Nexus (CA) on Slanguage

The Boston Globe on Slanguage

The Boston-Bay State Banner on Slanguage

Chicago Sun-Times on Slanguage

The Courier-Journal on Slanguage

BACKSTAGE West on Slanguage

Daily Breeze (CA) on Slanguage

Variety on Slanguage

Los Angeles Times on Slanguage

Anchorage Daily News on Slanguage

Houston Chronicle on Slanguage

El Diario

The New York Times on Slanguage

Curtain Up on Slanguage

The Village Voice on Slanguage


“As intellectually stimulating as its fluid, nonstop action is overwhelming…Fast, confrontational, reflective by turns, and packed with music and dance as propulsive as the years when the groups were spawned…Volatile, fiery choreography and spirit-moving blues, jazz, work-song and Latino songs…Show stopping numbers…A well-deserved, prolonged standing ovation…Power to the people, indeed!”—San Francisco Chronicle

“As relevant and as thought-provoking as it is, Party People is also mightily entertaining…From the extraordinary opening musical number that creates historical context for this intertwining story of the Panthers and the Lords, we become caught up in the flow of revolutionary zeal…The audience was instantly on its collective feet at show’s end, applauding thunderously, shouting and hooting.”—Theater Dogs

“People can (and should) debate how Party People stands as a political statement, but as a piece of theater it’s a crusher. Maybe it’s all too much for Oregon, but the Berkeley crowd ate it up. And why shouldn’t they? The show is good for: Revolutionaries, bystanders and regretful sellouts alike. The show is not good for: The Man.”—Edge San Francisco

“This play is extraordinarily valuable, it’s crucial to an understanding of that turbulent time…Let me tell you, I was there, and this play captures us. It captures the coalition of black and brown young people trying to make change and fighting the repression that came down against us.”—Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers with Huey P. Newton

“High-energy, vibrant, roller coaster ride—via dialogue, monologue, poetry, music and dance—of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, two minority-based revolutionary groups of the 1960s and 1970s.”—Ashland Daily Tidings

“Thrilling…A relentlessly kinetic musical memoir about the ambitions and regrets of 1960s revolutionaries…Powerful and raw…Millicent Johnnie’s choreography is haunting, evoking complicated themes with simple movements. The music, which incorporates salsa, hip-hop, gospel and blues, is flat-out hypnotic…Let the production wash over you like a jagged theatrical collage, [and] Party People will leave its mark on you.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

“This show is all about feeling and, more generally, humanity…Takes the standard musical formula and completely rips it up, unceremonious shreds it to pieces, and thankfully refuses to acknowledge the restrictions of standard theater convention. And thank our lucky stars for that. This is pure adrenaline.”—Stark Insider

“You’re in for an exhilarating evening…Under the direction of Liesl Tommy, the evening’s insistent and infectious music, including the hip-hop (of which I confess, I am not a fan), the choreography, scenic and lighting design, camera projection and general stage craft are all original and all first rate. The talented actors make the topnotch writing come alive. Party People has outstanding visceral, emotional and intellectual impact. That’s very rare in one piece of theater.”—Berkeleyside

“A dazzling creation by the New York-based theatre collective known as UNIVERSES…Party People is an artful mixture of spoken poetry, hip-hop theatre, blues, jazz, gospel and rap. Mesmerizing monologues punctuate this well-balanced theatrical potpourri.”—KLCC Radio Eugene

“The New York performance group Universes — with their dazzling display of linguistic fireworks — make Def Poetry Jam seem like a meeting of the Dead Poet’s Society.” - Boston Bay-State Banner

”For what these brilliant wordsmiths really do—and do with the kind of verbal and musical facility old Bill Shakespeare engaged in when modern English itself was in its earliest stages of development—is nothing short of reinventing the multiplicity of mother tongues in which they negotiate their world on a daily basis.” - Chicago Sun-Times

”A headlong explosion of poetry, percussion, and multi-culti musical exploration that absolutely demands to be seen.” - The Boston Globe

”The group’s musical sophistication is especially surprising. Blasting through the fractured syntax of New York urban culture, the quintet exhibits the melodic veracity of a seasoned doo-wop group and the contrapuntal percussion of an adroit rhythm section.” - Variety

“Call this ‘Stomp’ for the larynx…Those who have previously dismissed rap and hip-hop as bastardized and anti-intellectual will findSlanguage a captivating glimpse of a much-maligned movement. These eloquent practitioners confirm that modern poetry, so sadly marginalized in recent decades, can still resonate in our contemporary culture.” - Los Angeles Times

”…exuberant, insightful…they have created something special, a work of heart and soul that distills the essence of the city.” - The New York Times

”An effervescent, racially mixed group who call themselves Universes...are as likely to kick some poetry as break out into a capella singing, to orchestrate a vocal exercise as they are to burst into a step show....Their energy and realness is unmatchable.” - The Village Voice

”Slanguage will catch you by surprise…snap you to attention…Whether you feel like a true urban American or an absolute alien to this culture,Slanguage is a great experience.” - Curtainup.com

”What we are witnessing here is the unmistakable birth of new art for a new generation.” - The New York Theatre Experience

”With an unremitting athletic urgency, the performers ripped through a kaleidoscopic tour of urban street language as it was, is and might be. It’s a wild, rattling ride, spilling over with humor, passion, insight and political awareness, with the occasional shuttle to pathos, lest we forget that ghetto life ain’t all fun and games.” -Anchorage Daily News

”Slang offers a common ground between young and old, urban and rural, white and ethnic.Slanguage makes the cast’s verbal art — and the cast members themselves — visible to audiences who typically would not see or hear them. And that’s a good thing.” - The Courier-Journal of Louisville, KY