NJARTS.NET
FUNNY LIKE AN ABORTION at Miles Square Theatre: ‘Funny, Like an Abortion,’ at Mile Square Theatre, goes to extremes to make a point
“Donze seems like a child herself, dressed in dinosaur-print short-shorts and dancing, singing and galumphing around the apartment as she prepares for a party.”
“Donze and Rhein do whatever is called of them, and that’s a lot. The play calls for the women to break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience several times, but that’s the least of the show’s detours from tradition. Without spoiling any surprises, the action takes turns both giddy and gruesome. Imagine the Marx Brothers and G.G. Allin mounting a version of “1984,” or Monty Python trying to make kiddie porn funny”
NJ.COM
FUNNY LIKE AN ABORTION at Miles Square Theatre: New play ‘Funny, Like an Abortion’ is dystopia too close to home on N.J. stage | Review
“…goofy, insightful, tender, and wild fun. It is also terrifying in its potential to be prescient. That skillful balance produces challenging, visceral theater”
“Donze makes sure that such an attitude never overwhelms (her characters) keen awareness of the gravity of the situation.”
BROADWAY WORLD
Review: THE CAKE at Crescent City Stage
“Nothing captures this humanity more than Joy Donze’s sensitive and nuanced portrayal of Jen. Jen feels torn between two worlds: being true to herself and the love and fond memories of growing up in her small town. She feels terrible that she is a source of pain for Della. And when Della tells her misguided truths to Jen, it hurts that much more.
NOLA.COM
THE CAKE @ Crescent City Stage
“Donze’s empathetic performance adds some depth beneath the drawl.”
BROADWAY WORLD
Review: Rocky Horror Show at Pendragon Theatre
NEW YORK TIMES
‘According to the Chorus’ Review: Backstage Truths
In Arlene Hutton’s play at 59E59 Theaters, the members of a Broadway cast reveal their hopes and fears tucked away in a quick-change room.
"Spry, Zippy, Saucy"
BROADWAY WORLD
BWW Review: LILY-A World Premiere Play Brings Tension to the NJ Rep Stage with an Adult Drama
“The entire cast is excellent. Donze and Daftsios dominate the intense scenes”
OUT IN JERSEY
“Lily” is a powerful play set at the intersection of love and hate
“Joy Donze portrays the many moods of Haley with laser precision: now coy, now bold, sweet, and tart, but always strong-willed and single-minded in her pursuits.”
THE TWO RIVER TIMES
Theater Review: ‘Lily’ at NJ Rep
VISIBLE SOUL
People You Should Know…Joy Donze
Grace Merriman as Nerissa and Joy Donze as Portia in Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at the Secret Theatre. Photo by Reiko Yanagi
THE QUEENS COURIER REVIEW
"Secret Theatre's 'Merchant' is good business"
Joy Donze gives us the full measure of Portia, Shakespeare’s greatest female character. Whether squirming before her undesirable suitors in her 1940s dresses, or making the Duke and his court look foolish as she foils Shylock’s logic in her comical disguise as a man (Anna Winter’s period-atmospheric costumes add dimension throughout), this noble maiden, aided ably by her attendant Nerissa (an acute Grace Merriman), is a beacon throughout, wryly comical and earthily believable.
With Donze’s Portia and Mazda’s Shylock leading the way, nearly the whole cast maintains the mastery of Shakespeare’s sometimes difficult language that’s needed to make the rather absurd storylines clear and offer the effects Shakespeare intended. Famous passages like Shylock’s “Hath not a Jew eyes?” plea and Portia’s “The quality of mercy is not strain’d” speech to the court slide by organically, thus all the more powerfully. -BlogCritics.org Find the full article HERE!
In a cast that is uniformly appealing, several actors stand out. Mazda gives us a surprisingly restrained Shylock, his focused, subtile intensity giving his speeches maximum emotional effect. Carrera delineates a multi-layered, involving Antonio, capturing his basic goodness while never losing sight of an essential priggishness within the character. And as Portia, Donze (along with her partner-in-crime Nerissa, admirably played by Grace Merriman) deftly alternates between bawdy humor and emotional power. - Times LedgerFind the full article HERE!
"...the beautiful heiriss Portia (Joy Donze) a master of comedy in Act 1, and a shrewd but vindictive judge in Act2." - The Queens Courier
-........the students lend comic relief to what otherwise is a pretty solemn two hours. Doble's thumbnail sketches of the three, embodied by the talented Joy Donze (Courtney), Ariel Kim (Mingzhu), and Deshawn Wyatte (Jamal), have a vividness that's lacking in his depiction of the leads. The students' performance of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet (enhanced by their commentary) is at once funny and moving. Their streetwise, up-to-the-minute interpretation of Shakespeare underscores the insight, offered by Mac in an early exchange with Jab, that wisdom doesn't require great book-learning.
-Curtain Up- Charles Wright http://www.curtainup.com/fringe16.html#protectpoets