Morgan Lavenstein as Pope Joan in Top Girls. Photo by Joe Mazza
TOP GIRLS by Caryl Churchill at Raven Theatre
“Director Lucky Stiff leads the skilled cast as a master conductor coaches an orchestra… a testament to Stiff’s brilliant interpretation of Churchill’s text.” - ChicagoOnstage.com
“Director Lucky Stiff offers a fresh and thoughtful interpretation of Churchill’s script.” - Werner’s Theatre Reviews
“Top-notch… slick… sharp and timely… riveting.” - Chicago Tribune
Photo by Jenn Udoni
LAVENDER MEN by Roger Q. Mason at About Face Chicago
“Guided with expertise by […] director, writer and performer Lucky Stiff, they’ve seemed to inject a transfusion of additional pluck and power into this production.” - Chicago Theater Reviews
“The fabulousness is also in the staging by Lucky Stiff, a director with a well-established drag sensibility” - Chicago Reader
“The eroticism absolutely explodes… a surreal flight of fancy that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated” - Chicago Theatre Reviews
from “Has The World Finally Caught Up With Roger Q. Mason?” By afrikah selah
“Lucky Stiff, who’s directing Lavender Men, said that Mason’s “kind of fantasia allows us to imagine a past that could lead to a parallel future in this world, the one we have to live in, where sometimes trying to make change feels like trying to shove a marshmallow through a keyhole—if failing to do that came with the possibility of disaster or death. It’s an intoxicating possibility.” While Lavender Men’s action plays out “in a cabaret of self,” Stiff said, this is no mere entertainment. Taffeta, they said, “claims her place in the historical narrative as a matter of survival.”
HUNDRED DAYS by The Bengsons at Kokandy Productions
“Stiff’s direction is capable of holding the beautiful artistry of those mental picture moments” - Chicago Tribune
“Heartbreakingly beautiful” - Chicago Reader
“Director Lucky Stiff’s seamless guidance and empathy for their characters, coupled with the percussive, choreographed movement created by Collin Quinn Rice, add so much to this production.” - Chicago Theater Reviews
Lucky Stiff in "Theater of the Mind." Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
James Earl Jones II, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Helen Joo Lee, Em Modaff, Victor Musoni, AJ Paramo, Shariba Rivers, Kelli Simpkins, and Lucky Stiff. Maidenwena Alba and Emily Zhang.
THEATER OF THE MIND by David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar at Goodman Theater
“Lucky Stiff magnificently navigated the journey of Byrne’s memory and the deep feelings conjured up by the relationships at the core of each recollection.” - ChicagoOnstage.com
“At the performance I attended, multidisciplinary artist Lucky Stiff displayed remarkable charisma and empathic calm.” -1Minute Critic
“The ‘Davids’ who serve as our guides represent some of the best that Chicago theater has to offer.” - Chicago Reader
Charles Dickens A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Goodman Theater
“The literally incandescent Ghost of Christmas Past (Lucky Stiff channeling both Diana, the moon goddess, and Pan, the half-hooved god of the wilds) flies Scrooge to formative scenes from his youth” - Chicago Sun-Times
“Lucky Stiff plays an ethereal, flying Ghost of Christmas Past, sparkling with starlight, wearing a glowing moon on their head” - New City Stage
“Lucky Stiff plays the Ghost of Christmas Past as a harlequin-like character[…] a refreshingly different take” - Third Coast Review
JESU MARIA by Lucky Stiff at Pivot Arts
“One standout performance is “Jesu Maria,” named for Joan of Arc’s battle standard, by director and writer Lucky Stiff. In an emotionally generous performance as delicate and detailed as a butterfly wing, they summon an ancestral ghost with a photo transparency, resurrect their grandparents through the bodies of audience members, and perform other quiet acts of magic that build a gauzy bridge between the living and dead.” - New City Stage