‘Ode to Joy,’ at Black Box Performing Arts Center, depicts addicts’ lives with grim humor
“Schimmel, who doubles as the show’s production designer, adds to the atmosphere by decorating the stage with colorful, chaotic scrawls, like something Jackson Pollock might come up with.”
— JAY LUSTIG, NJARTS.COM
Ilana Schimmel, left, and Danielle MacMath co-star in “Ode to Joy.”
‘The Pillowman’: An intense experience, for those who dare
“In a variation on the good cop/bad cop strategy, Ariel (Ilana Schimmel) is unapologetically sadistic...”
Jay Lustig, NJARTS.COM
‘Fat Men in Skirts’ at Black Box PAC: Dark, funny and enthusiastically over-the-top
“I tended to like some of the play’s quieter moments the most: the reflective but deeply weird monologues, and an exchange between Howard and Pam where they constantly contradict themselves (with Pugh and Schimmel falling into an almost mechanical rhythm with each other).”
— JAY LUSTIG, NJARTS.COM
Arthur Gregory Pugh and Ilana Schimmel in “Fat Men in Skirts.”
A tiny N.J. theater is leading local arts’ slow crawl back to indoor performances (2021)
“a pair of abusively authoritarian police, Tupolski (Sean Mannix) and Ariel (Ilana Schimmel), …with the intention of torturing confessions out of them en route to swift executions. The play is bloody, horrific, cringey, chilling and often darkly hilarious.”
— Patrick Maley, NJ.com