Press

Meet Sara Jean Accuardi, 2021 Oregon Literary Fellow

Press for CHICK FIGHT

“Funny, fierce, and memorable… Chick Fight is a risk, a deliberately discomfiting statement in a time when comfort is at a premium. You should see it as soon as you can.”
Conner Reed, Portland Monthly

CHICK FIGHT is the kind of in-your-face work of art that makes Shaking the Tree so great. There’s no sitting quietly in the dark, nodding off or checking your watch. You’ll laugh and gasp, you’ll likely recognize yourself in a lot of the situations (for better or worse), you’ll admire the brilliant writing and exceptional performances, and you might possibly feel like you have also been touched by someone with poison in their veins. It’s an exhilarating, thought-provoking, and necessary piece.
Krista Garver, Broadway World

Chick Fight is an example of devised theater doing what it’s supposed to. Between the lighting by Griffin Dewitt, the cello by Armon LaLonde, and the words by Sara Jean Accuardi, it feels like an organic, integrated, singular, vision.
Chris Gonzalez, Willamette Week

‘What a triumph! What a show!!’ By the time the disembodied voice of a public address announcer rings out with those lines at the end of Shaking the Tree’s Chick Fight, we’re not much inclined to trust him… But as a critical assessment of Chick Fight as a whole, they’re spot on.
Marty Hughley, Oregon Arts Watch

Press for Landscape

A touching, disturbing and hysterical tale of American folly
Bennett Campbell Ferguson, The Willamette Week

There’s nothing quite like the writing of Sara Jean Accuardi—it’s clear-eyed and unafraid of heartbreak, but bold in its embrace of compassion and optimism. For this audio drama, she teamed with Theatre Vertigo to tell a tale of a single mother set during the last days of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. – Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week

Oregon Arts Watch, “Drama Watch”

Sara Jean Accuardi, whose smart, touching The Delays was a 2019 hit for Theatre Vertigo, is another writer worth your attention, and her play Landscape has a clear hook in its late-2020 setting amid a pandemic and a presidential election. – Marty Hughley

The Oregonian, “Portland stages offer globetrotting adventures this winter“

Three years ago, Theatre Vertigo premiered Portland playwright Sara Jean Accuardi’s “The Delays,” a time-traveling tale set in an airport newsstand. The result? Rave reviews. A Drammy award. A finalist spot in the drama category at the Oregon Book Awards. Accuardi’s latest collab with the Southeast theater company is a taut, hourlong audio drama personalizing the COVID pandemic. It just may prove equally accolade-worthy. – Lee Williams

Portland Monthly “5 Things to Check Out at the 2022 Fertile Ground Festival“

This new audio drama from Theatre Vertigo, written by Sara Jean Accuardi and directed by Clara-Liis Hillier, with sound design by Jake Newcomb, is set during an amazing time we are all clamoring to remember: the 2020 presidential election. In all seriousness, though, Accuardi’s last collaboration with Theatre Vertigo—2019’s The Delays—won a Drammy for Outstanding Original Script and a glowing notice from Broadway World, so if anyone is likely to “explore connection amid a backdrop of political absurdity” effectively (per Landscape’s press materials), this is probably the team to pull it off. – Conner Reed, Portland Monthly

Oregon Arts Watch, “Fertile Ground: Get your festival on“

Another playwright to watch for, Sara Jean Accuardi, premieres her hour-long audio drama “Landscape” from Theatre Vertigo. It’s set during the waning days of the 2020 presidential election (you know: those happy days when everything was harmonious, peace and goodwill roamed the halls of Congress, and the nation was blissfully united as one) as a single mother attempts to weather the pandemic, politics, and other urgent problems. – Bob Hicks, Oregon Arts Watch

Press for The Delays

The Willamette Week Fertile Ground’s Highlights

Accuardi’s play is both new and a masterpiece… It takes regret and satisfaction, pain and joy, and fuses them together to create a tapestry of spectacularly honest stories and characterizations. – Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week

The Willamette Week WW’s List of Portland’s Top 10 Plays of 2019

Set in a single airport on three separate New Year’s Eves, Sara Jean Accuardi’s masterpiece journeys backward through time and deep into the souls of its flawed and beautiful characters. – Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week

Broadway World Life’s Layovers Become Permanent in THE DELAYS, at Theatre Vertigo

It’s a moving, well-crafted play that shows how easy it is to get trapped… I enjoyed THE DELAYS immensely. Accuardi’s writing is sharp, and I love her decision to reveal the characters’ lives in reverse. Somehow, knowing the end makes the journey even more poignant. – Krista Garver, Broadway World
Oregon ArtsWatch DramaWatch: Drammys for all
It was heartening to see … Sara Jean Accuardi’s emotionally astute and smartly constructed THE DELAYS honored as Outstanding Original Script. – Marty Hughley, Oregon ArtsWatch

The Willamette Week Here Are the Finalists for This Year’s Oregon Book Awards

The Oregonian Here are the 35 finalists for the 2021 Oregon Book Awards

The Oregonian 7 Portland Theater Shows That’ll Keep Off the Chill This Winter

The Willamette Week Productions We’re Most Excited About Through March 2019

Broadway World 10 Things to See at Fertile Ground 2019

Press for Portrait of the Widow Kinski

“A delicate and sensitive play, “Portrait of the Widow Kinski” explores how the powers of love and trust can combine to blind as much as they invigorate.”

NJ.com New play ‘Portrait of the Widow Kinski’ explores the powers of love and trust

Press for Refuge

Seeking Refuge: Enjoy a live performance again

Deities Deliver Wisdom and Warnings in Shaking the Tree’s “Refuge”

Press for Joy Frickin’ Hates Her Dumb Stupid Room

Broadway World Portland Center Stage Play at Home: Short Plays by Anya Pearson, E.M. Lewis, Josie Seid, and Sara Jean Accuardi

With her characteristic humor and insight, Accuardi has created a funny, joyful little play for what are indeed “trapped little times.” – Krista Garver, Broadway Word

The Willamette Week Portland Center Stage Unveils Four New Plays for People to Perform at Home

The New York Times Making Art During a Pandemic: Theaters Seek and Share Mini-Plays

Ut Omnia Bene Play at Home at Portland Center Stage

I loved the inventiveness of this play, and it’s funny throughout, even down to the stage directions – Gigi Little

Judy Nedry Play at Home With Portland Center Stage

Press for The Storyteller

WINNER OF FIRST INTERNATIONAL THOMAS WOLFE PLAYWRIGHTING COMPETITION ANNOUNCED!

Sara’s play is about the power of the stories we tell, to and about ourselves. It’s tender, magical and full of surprises, and it brilliantly answers the Wolfe Competition’s call for ‘highly original, personal stories rooted in geographic place.’ Just like the best of Wolfe’s writing, Sara has deftly harnessed the tension of both wanting to run from your past, while simultaneously seeking to embrace and take ownership of it.

Press for And Everything Nice

Oregon Arts Watch Fertile Ground 2: ‘Dorothy’s Dictionary,’ etc.

Two of the best stageworks in this year’s festival are, in truth, so modest they virtually fly under the radar. Susan Faust’s PERSISTENT WORLD and Sara Jean Accuardi’s AND EVERYTHING NICE, both playwrights also being from the LineStorm group. With these easy-going plays you are tempted to applaud at curtain, smile as you leave the theater, then move on to the next show. But, with each of these, something has cleverly worked on you and gotten under your skin. They stick to your ribs. – Jae Carlsson, Oregon Arts Watch

Portland Tribune Milwaukie’s Chapel Theatre to host free play readings

Press for < 3

Short Documentary about the 2015 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

Broadway World Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Announces 2015 Writers; Runs 6/8-20

Press for That Water Moment

The Oregonian JAW 2012 Wrap-Up

Most touching was Sara Jean Accuardi’s “That Water Moment,” which hinged on the balance of frustration and faith in the lives of young parents (played by Kerry Ryan and Isaac Lamb) struggling with the care of a developmentally disabled child. – Marty Hughley, The Oregonian