"Next time there's talk of the theatre dying, send the woe-sayers to…these Poor Players. The troupe is a homegrown treasure and Shakespeare is safe with them…
they're irresistible."
        - Critic, Welton Jones

AS YOU LIKE IT
"Rosalind may have a 5 o'clock shadow and the goat-herd Phoebe an Adam's apple, but the surprise in Poor Players' production of As You Like It is how little its cross-gendered casting affects the charming final result. It's hard not to snicker at the size difference between the actors (all the "women" are 4 inches to 12 inches taller than their "male" suitors), and the sight of Max Macke (as Rosalind's cousin Celia) in a pouffy, glittering wedding dress is a hoot. But the men are, if not convincing as women, at least girlish, feminine and genteel without any brassy makeup, sexy clothing or false mammaries. The San Marcos venue also worked beautifully in the second act forest scenes, with the theater's large scenery-loading back doors swung wide to expose a real eucalyptus glen behind the building (the cast frequently went into the trees, their dark, dancing shapes magically silhouetted against the night sky)."
        - Pam Kragen, North County Times

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
"The company's talented artistic director, Richard Baird, provides a riveting performance throughout with outstanding vocal work, body language, and an impassioned sense for the vengeance-obsessed Shylock. He was a marvel to watch -- everything from his calm tone (but eager trembling) at the prospect of making the loan, to his palpable pain at the loss of his young daughter, to his focused and unhearing pose while mercy is begged of him during the trial, to his victorious gleam when it looks like he will finally achieve revenge for his years of embarrassment, to his agonizing destruction at the hands of a mocking society who prove to be as merciless as Shylock had.

"Another great, young talent in the show is Beth Everhart as the sparkling Portia who begins the show as a playful teenager lounging by the pool and gossiping with her servant/playmate Nerissa (Sherri Allen) about her many suitors whom she doesn't want to be stuck with and the one she does. It's perhaps more her personality change than her costume change that allows her to go unnoticed by her new husband while defending his friend in the trial over Antonio's pound of flesh, for Portia suddenly transforms into a mature and serious young woman - an apparently permanent transformation most likely brought on by her participation in the emotionally wrenching trial scene so compellingly conducted by her and the entire cast.

"Richard Baird directs the show as well, once again making creative use of his unusual surroundings. Setting this piece in the present day, and knowing the hot, little theatre cools off better with the roll-up doors rolled up in back of the performance space, he occasionally has the characters enter and exit through the doors, and at one point has Bassanio and some of the hip henchmen pull up to the back of the door in a sports car. Nick Kennedy offers a strong performance as said Bassanio, with other fine performances coming from Neil MacDonald as an outrageous suitor and Jen Meyer as Shylock's daughter who abandons her father and her faith to marry into the accepted Christian society. Yet, in Baird's moving conclusion, she eventually finds herself more alone than ever."
        - Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill

"Baird and his pals usually strike an artful balance between Shakespearean values and the pop counterculture gestalt that feeds on them."
        - Martin Jones-Westlin, San Diego Citybeat

"Artistic director Richard Baird is devoted to making 400 year-old plays feel hip and relevant. Cellphones ring, and a car pulls up outside the open, industrial space that Baird uses to excellent advantage. His Shylock is a marvel of tangled motivations, a shabby immigrant whose unswerving principles cause him to lose everything -- his daughter, his money and his religion. Baird heightens the Jewish themes, and in a stunning final moment, when Shylock's daughter learns of her father's fate, she drops to her knees and sings 'Kol Nidre,' the ancient Aramaic prayer that renounces all vows, sung on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur.

"Beth Everhart is marvelous as the beautiful and cunning Portia, and Nick Kennedy does his best work as her beloved Bassanio, for whose friendship the merchant Antonio, played by John Tessmer as a dour depressive, borrowed the money that nearly costs him a pound of his flesh. It all culminates in a harrowing, knife-wielding courtroom scene.

"With religious racism and church scandal splashing across the news every day, it's easy to become detached and dispassionate. But good theater hurls you into the emotional maelstrom and forces you to engage, analyze and empathize."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
"The Poor Players revel in bold, fresh takes on Shakespeare, and do so again here to great effect. The fairies are especially captivating - passionate nature spirits who are a blend of human, animal, and otherworldly spirits. Julie Clemmons leads the way as the knavish Puck with a fun, darkly mischievous, and sexy streak running through him, and who clearly delights in life - especially when some trouble arises. And especially when that trouble was agitated by himself. Neil MacDonald is the stately Oberon, Puck's sometimes harsh and other times romantic master who looks to make the fairy queen Titania his consort. Sherri Allen plays the latter with a deeply feminine and a lilting, otherworldly voice that practically sings when she speaks.

"And then, of course, there's Bottom, here played by Director Richard Baird who employs great physical comedy in making an ass out of himself both as a half-man/half-donkey adored by the fairies and as a dramatically melodramatic actor who wants to perform every role in the play.

"Baird's direction of the show is sensual, effective, and creative. After an amusing pre-show of the mechanicals preparing the stage for the production, it opens with a dramatic confrontation between Theseus and Hippolyta that eventually seems strange (by the time of their wedding prelude, all hostility has inexplicably disappeared), but it does, however, add to the sexual and romantic tension nicely emphasized throughout the evening."
        - Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill

"The real standouts in this production are Julie Clemmons and Bethany Smith. As the elfin Puck (pointy ears and all), Clemmons is sly, mischievous, part Clockwork Orange/part Charlie Chaplin - agile and nimble and impishly outstanding in her use and clarity of language. Smith plays an adorably nerdy, bespectacled Helena, interminably running, spaniel-like yet sensuous, after the scornful Demetrius (Jeff Sullivan). Both women unintentionally steal focus when they're onstage, though some of the interactions of the star-crossed, mixed-up lovers (including Jen Meyer as Hermia and Adam Parker as Lysander) are delightful."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

"Thanks to Baird's inventive direction and a host of fine performances, the play is amusing and engaging throughout.

"Julie Clemmons is magnetic as the pointy-eared prankster Puck. Her petite size, lithe athleticism and naughtily arched eyebrows make her ideal as the mischievous fairy who creates romantic chaos with various love potions and spells. Bethany Smith has terrific comic timing as the clumsy, love-besotted Helena, whose unrequited love for Demetrius leads them both to chase the eloping lovers, Lysander and Hermia, into the forest. And Baird is hilarious (almost parodying himself in more serious roles) as the doltish, braying blowhard Bottom, who spends half of the play with the head of a donkey (thanks to one of Puck's spells).

"Jeff Sullivan and Adam Parker are youthful vigor incarnate as the competitive young lovers Demetrius and Lysander, respectively, and Jen Meyer matches their energy as the exasperated Hermia, who is first the object of their combined affections, and later discarded by them both. Martin White is stiff and stern as Hermia's father, Egeus, and then warm and likable as Peter Quince, leader of the workmen/acting troupe.

"Pulling double-duty as both workmen and fairies are Josh Gren (a delight as the voluptuous Thisbe in the workmen's terrible play); Brandon Walker (as the funny, light-in-the-loafers Snout); Tara Donovan as the balletic fairy Peaseblossom; and Keath Hall as the knuckleheaded workman Snug. Neil MacDonald and Hilary White round out the cast as the stately and mysterious fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania (as well as the Duke Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta).

"A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the best-conceived and staged productions Poor Players has brought to North County in the past three years."
        - Pam Kragen, North County Times

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
"The small, shoestring Poor Players production underscores the vehemence and the sexuality of the play. This overheated couple can barely keep their hands off each other, but their tightly coiled emotions also send them spiraling into hot-tempered, vicious outbursts, even abusive acts. Their passion destroys them, but what a way to go. Their separate suicides provide the ultimate reunion, and even salvation.

"Richard Baird is a powerhouse as the conflicted Antony, an imposing presence, virile and commanding -- but brought to his knees by his ardor, and reduced to a weeping shadow of his vigorous former self. He is a bipolar behemoth, drawn inexorably to that siren of the Nile. As Cleopatra, Amy Meyer is beautiful and beguiling, though more credible as temptress than potentate. As the cynical soldier Enobarbus, the conscience of the play, Max Macke does a lovely job, thoughtful, poetic and - this being a Poor Players production - soused with the best of 'em. The violence is also there, as always, and handled well. The deaths are heart-stopping and heart-breaking.

"Nick Kennedy has directed with all the youthful vigor this company is known for. They make Shakespeare fresh and young and relevant."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

"This show, running through April 10 at San Diego's Academy of Performing Arts, is the Players' best recent effort, with Richard Baird's tortured Antony colossally toppling under the weight of his own ego. Tony's ill-fated affair with diva Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (a feisty Amy Mayer) is a product of warring ancient Rome, with a befuddled Octavius Caesar (Nick Kennedy) scratching his head over the whole damn thing. The Shakespearean paradox runs on all fours as director Kennedy entrusts the scope of talent to his actors."
        - Martin Jones-Westlin, San Diego Citybeat

"Richard Baird, who has become one of San Diego's foremost interpreters of Shakespeare, makes Antony anything but a conventional romantic lead. Either dressed like Lawrence of Arabia, in shades, or in beige desert fatigues with kevlar "armour," Baird's Antony is, by turns, a braggart, a baby, a warring lover and loving warrior, a buffoon, and ultimately heroic.

"Baird plays Antony as a fractured colossus, wanting to reassemble himself, just not yet.

"Nick Kennedy, who also directed, makes Octavius a bully's younger brother, the kid always chosen last at the playground. Built from envy, stifled desire, humorlessness, and an obsession with order, Kennedy creates a Portrait of the Nazi as a Young Man. It's easy to see how this paranoid control freak -- praised by some as founder of the Augustan Age and the pax Romana -- could invent the Praetorian Guard to protect himself.

"Under Kennedy's direction…his party scenes, in particular, rival the "lascivious wassails" of P.B. on a Saturday night."
        - Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader

"What can be one of Shakespeare's more plodding works becomes a vigorous, passionate, tragic, and at times surprisingly humorous tale in the hands of Director Nick Kennedy and the Poor Players cast.

"Richard Baird and Amy Mayer set the tone from beginning to end with their exceptional, captivating performances. Richard is a confident lover and seasoned general who seems to be living in an amorous haze. Amy Mayer is his exotic and sensuous lover Cleopatra whose head appears to be a little clearer than Antony's as she easily manipulates him with her words and her body. Whether she's really just using him or is also truly in love is not revealed until the second act. That act is written almost as one painfully long death scene, but ends poetically as a physically and mentally collapsing Antony is comforted by a heartsick Cleopatra.

"The role of Octavius is played by the director, Nick Kennedy, and is performed in a pretentious, business-like manner -- a perfect contrast to the rough and boisterous Antony. Octavius's disgust for Antony's crude personality is highlighted during the " keg party scene" in which he watches disdainfully as Antony and his lieutenants party.

"Max Macke turns in another great performance, this time as Antony's right-hand man who dearly loves his friend, but who makes a fateful and painful decision to switch sides when Antony's downfall appears certain (he also does a pretty good pantomime of Lepidus, which we find more amusing than Lepidus does).

"Modern trimmings are used to good effect including guns, the wheelchair, and the all-important beer keg, while costumer Stacie Taylor blends old and new by putting Antony's group in modern desert military fatigues and Octavius's clan in more formal dress with ceremonial sashes, while Cleopatra is adorned in a variety of outfits that range from revealing to modest, but which always flatter the beauty who changed the course of Roman history."
        - Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill

"Poor Players clarifies a bit of the history and squeezes much of the pungent juice from this late tragedy.

"[Baird's] Antony is a mood-swinging soldier and politician at the end of a career that has put him at odds with Caesar (Nick Kennedy) and in thrall to Cleopatra (Amy Meyer).

"Baird's Antony has also gone native - looking at first like a Saudi royal in burnoose and sunglasses. Although the beautiful Meyer has nothing like her co-star's vocal subtlety and dimension, she keeps up with him, conveying the bitch-goddess facets of the Egyptian queen better than many a more experienced actress.

"Directed by Kennedy (priggish and petty as Caesar), the show boasts a well-spoken, multidimensional Enobarbus in Max Macke, and beautiful line readings by Neil MacDonald in the small role of Agrippa."
        - Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union Tribune

"It's refreshing to see just how well Shakespeare can be pulled off without a large budget. The scenery, apart from a black-box platform upstage center, is non-existent. The costumes were quite good-the women's sexy and contemporary, and the men's desert fatigues suitable and non-distracting. Quite impressive when you consider that the budget is in keeping with the name of the theatre company.

"And despite my disagreement with some aspects of the approach to Antony-as-party-animal, I liked the Doors-themed soundtrack. Nice touch.

"And as always with Poor Players, to see such youthful talent pour themselves with such abandon into the work, with such good result, is impressive indeed."
        - SpearBearer.com

ROMEO AND JULIET
"The classic love story of all time received a retelling that felt fresh and original, with the talented group at Poor Players Theatre reaching deep into these characters and the story to find both great humor and great tragedy."
        - Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill

"Under Baird's muscular direction, there were many magical moments. The opening, for instance, with a bit of Puccini as background (beautifully sung by Maile Stephenson), spotlighted the Friar (appearing instead of a Chorus) setting the scene and foretelling the star-crossed story. In a slo-mo mime, the lovers move from dreamy dance to a heap of corpses, as the grieving fathers kneel over them and reluctantly shake hands. Lovely image. The boys-will-be-boys scenes were convincingly testosterone-driven, milking every sexual innuendo imaginable.

"Baird surely brings the Bard to life in intriguing and inventive ways - ways that consistently appeal to and attract young people, and that's a boon for us all."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

MACBETH
"[Baird] plays the title role in his own riveting volcanic style, which usually finds him-along with much of his audience-in a sweat within five minutes of his first entrance. Baird's Macbeth truly has a heated brain and a mind full of scorpions. Baird spits and sprints through his speeches with, nonetheless, great clarity and subtlety of expression. His Macbeth sees the snares in the Witches' tricky prophecies, and knows he is powerless to stop himself either from forcing fate into self-fulfillment or trying to deny inevitable consequences. Baird conveys how Macbeth stands outside himself watching with sardonic horror, culminating in a nihilistic and cynical, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow." There is something about him (Baird)-perhaps a touch of the Wellesian-that makes me urge you to catch him here, early on."
        - George Weinberg-Harter, BackStage West

"In the Poor Players Macbeth, soldiers come on stage with automatic weapons, eerily evoking today's soldiers in Iraq, and they smoke pot when the dirty work is done. The witches, whose prophecies spur Macbeth's ambition to be king, are not supernatural beings, but war widows dressed in their dead husband's camouflage, and it's enraged grief that makes them scary. Beth Everhart's Lady Macbeth is blond, slight and sexy, a Martha Stewart gone mad who embraces her husband with genuine heat before bloodying her hands in the framing of innocents of Duncan's murder ... Baird makes a fine Macbeth - good and scary in the dagger scene; creepily haunted in confronting Banquo's ghost amid his stunned dinner guests; and visibly exhausted of all hope when he concludes that "life is a tale/ told by and idiot, full of sound and fury/signifying nothing."
        - Jennifer de Poyen, San Diego Union Tribune

"In the title role, Baird soars."
        - Mark Jones-Westlin, San Diego CityBeat

"Performed in 90-breathless minutes, Poor Players' Macbeth is the most riveting, visceral and exciting production of this play ever witnessed, and I've seen more than a handful over the past 50 years."
        - Charlene Baldridge, La Jolla Village News

"Poor Players hits bulls-eye with dark, robust Macbeth."
        - Pam Kragen, North County Times

"Ever since I saw Poor Players production. I've been haunted by it..this is a powerful production."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

"Poor Players is on the fast track to becoming one of San Diego's "Theater Wonders." "
        - Carol Davis, San Diego Jewish Times

"... something primal this way came."
        - Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader

"Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once to Macbeth!"
        - Jenni Prisk, Our Town

MEASURE FOR MEASURE
"... when it comes to the dramatic personae, Poor Players soar."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

"... commanding performance."
        - Carol Davis, San Diego Jewish Times

"Brandon Walkers funny Pompey, Richard's Baird's "snow-broth" Angelo, and Justin Lang's Lucio."
        - Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader

TWELFTH NIGHT
"Brandon Walker is aptly lovesick as the Duke, and while she seems wildly adolescent, Tara Denton makes Olivia as capricious as written. Max Macke does another funny turn with the fat-man (he played Falstaff before, and now Toby Belch), and Neil McDonald is amusing as the doltish Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Richard Baird's Malvolio looks like Anthony Hopkins' slicked-back, uptight butler in Remains of the Day, and he moves with a comical, stylized grace. He makes the character sympathetic at the end, still vengeful but even more hurt and humiliated. We actually feel sorry for him, which doesn't happen in many productions. He's guilty of pomposity, after all, not evil. Kennedy's Feste is enigmatic; dressed like a beggar, he's a rather despondent fool. Tony Misiano really does look like his twin sister, Viola, and Beth Everhart makes Cesario (Viola in male disguise) a smart, savvy, thoroughly likable bloke..Poor Players have a wealth of creativity and imagination, and they enrich the San Diego theater scene."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatreScene

"Baird, one of the best young actors around, maybe in the country."
        - Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
"You've got to hand it to Poor Players. They're not afraid to approach the work of William Shakespeare in brave new ways. The transposition of Merry Wives from 17th-century England to America's Deep South is highly imaginative."
        - Pam Kragen, North County Times

TAMING OF THE SHREW
"Poor Players evinces heart, warmth and originality in its current production of William Shakespeare's feminist-era problem play, The Taming of the Shrew.

"The problem is making the plot palatable in modern times, when a "froward" and unfettered woman may be the norm rather than the exception and her "taming," and even the play's taming, smacks of abuse and male dominance.

"Director Richard Baird, who also plays Petruchio, ameliorates the problem by creating in Petruchio a passionate man bent upon discovering and good-naturedly "taming" her ---- that is, revealing to her the possibilities of a shared life with dedication and consideration on both sides.

"Granted the method is mad, but so, partly, is Baird's Petruchio, who enters falling-down drunk and sobers up in a hurry when he sees Tara Denton's disheveled and willful Katherina.

"The devoted theatergoer sees many "Shrews" in a lifetime. Director Baird provides unique moments of revelation and insight, such as Petruchio's apparel at the wedding, not the usual gaudy array.

"Actor Baird lowers his voice here, adapts a certain attitude of body there, and recites the "my goods, my chattel" speech as if citing a book. His eyes gleam with delight all the while. Quite obviously this Petruchio adores Katherina from the moment he sees her and makes intelligent, devious effort to woo her. His toned-down acts of "taming" seem therefore to be more benevolent and efficacious than cruel.

"Denton's Kate is a tomboy who's never met her equal. As Katherine melts, Denton's liquid eyes tell tales. When Katherina thinks she's been jilted at the altar, Denton's interpretation of the speech reveals the character's vulnerability now that she's opened herself to love. Her eleventh-hour instruction of the other wives is heartfelt and sincere rather than snide. Petruchio's pride is manifest in Baird's moist eyes as he reaches out and says, "Kiss me, Kate." Katherina has met her match, and in allowing herself to feel and care, she has triumphed. No fool or abuser or macho man, this Petruchio is worth having.

"As always, company members display a wide range of skills with stagecraft and Shakespearean diction. It's Shakespeare on a shoestring, bare bones, but everyone wins ---- the audience by witnessing passion and the actors' growth over numerous productions, and the actors, by learning.

"Brandon Walker provides a geeky Hortensio, suitor of Katherina's sister, Bianca (Dana Attari). His guitar pas de deux is delightfully lithe and funny. Bianca's additional wooers are the wealthy Lucentio (Mike Horton) and the aged Gremio (well-spoken Ed Eigner). Making his company debut, Sean Hills ably and intelligently portrays Baptista, Katherina and Bianca's put-upon father.

"Summer Banks makes an impressive and peppy debut as Lucentio's servant Biondella. Nick Kennedy portrays Lucentio's servant, Tranio, who courts Bianca disguised as his master. Others in the company are Keath Hall, Justin Lang, Courtney McMillon, Stacie Taylor and John Aviles."
        - Charlene Baldridge, North County Times

HENRY IV PART 1
"Three Paws Up for guts to Poor Players for a riveting show in a black box theater. I inhaled secondhand smoke, dodged swords and flying suds, and reveled in watching the spit fly from a most articulate tongue. Get beer on your clothes, smoke in your nose—sheesh, I'm a poet!—and if in-your-face swordplay makes you nervous, eschew the front row. Fraught with attitude, gunshots, cigarettes and smoke, Poor Players' Henry IV, Part One is worth a look... Poor Players are never boring, even at the end of a long weekend."
        - Charlene Baldridge, Fahrenheit

"Founded in 2000, The Poor Players mount classics that are true to their name only in production values. The bare-bones creations make Shakespeare relevant, current, lively and comprehensible -- to aficionados and novices (especially young ones) alike. There are some delectable elements in this Henry. First is the clarity of the text and story, despite the many political/military machinations. Second is the precision of speech, which is more or less consistent throughout. Third is the edgy tone and take, which underscore the relevance and youth of the players and the protagonists. The performances are energetic and engaging. The play deftly melds comedy and history, weaving scenes of court and military matters with bawdy antics. This vigorous triumvirate (Hal, Hotspur, Falstaff) is powerfully portrayed by Poor Player regulars. Artistic director Richard Baird, who recently wowed audiences and critics as Hamlet, is terrific as that hot-head, Hotspur. He is dynamic and charismatic, both in his fiery rages in the face of battle and his teasing amorousness with his wife (sexy-playful Tara Denton). As Prince Hal, Jeff Sullivan starts out a beer-swilling, dope-smoking, rock-music-listening slacker and practical joker but, like his character, he evolves over time, gaining enormously in stature and gravitas. In his Falstaff, Max Macke is channeling Michael Keaton's 'Beetlejuice' with a whiff of W.C. Fields. But it works like crazy. He's funny and quick-witted, appealing and sometimes appalling. The rest of the cast of nine portrays some two-dozen characters, in director Baird's hip, muscular, upbeat and updated production. The language, mercifully, remains intact. The fight choreography is excellent (Baird again, and Keith Hall, who plays several roles, including, hilariously, Falstaff's right-hand man, the drooling stoner/drunkard, Bardolph)."
        - Pat Launer, SDTheatrescene.com

HAMLET
"Poor Players' Hamlet was a reminder that all one needs is four walls and a Will to have a grand evening."
        - Charlene Baldridge, Fahrenheit