The Haven Place by Levi Holloway - Presented by A Red Orchid Theatre
Winter 2016 in Chicago, IL
"This is an ensemble piece of the finest quality...You have a cast that is mostly female, diverse, and ability inclusive and is telling such a ripping good story that the point is made without beating anybody over the head. Their ethnicities are not remarked. Their femaleness is barely remarked. It’s just right there in front of you being incredibly awesome. And you care about them and want to know what happens to them...That’s what real inclusion looks like – seamless."
-Suzanne Magnuson
lasplash.com
"Director Steven Wilson guides the actors with aplomb and fierceness, and keeps the transitions quick, smooth and almost magical...Smart, snappy and almost hyper-realistic, The Haven Place is a road trip adventure with edge-of-your-seat action, fully-realized characters and a sense of hope that the next generation is going to make it after all."
-Lauren Whalen
chicagotheaterbeat.com
Green Day's American Idiot - Presented by The Hypocrites
Fall 2015 in Chicago, IL
"Not only does virtually the entire cast join the band at some point—drummers, keyboardists and guitar players all rotate spots throughout the show, also stepping in and out of the narrative action—but the director, Steven Wilson, integrates the amazing flexibility of his hugely talented young cast with the material in a strikingly rich fashion. The organic way in which the actors become musicians (and vice-versa) makes the efforts of John Doyle, the superb London director who popularized the fusion of cast and orchestra, seem tentative by comparison."
-Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune
"Under Steven Wilson’s galvanic direction there is such a sense of alienation and honesty at work here that you can feel the growing pains of the show’s early twenty-something characters in all their feverish intensity."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Wilson divorces the text from the explicit post–9/11, Iraq War–era milieu of the rather overblown 2010 Broadway production, making it somehow both more timeless and more of the moment."
-Kris Vire
Time Out Chicago – 4 out of 5 Stars
"Wilson mutes the overtly political, post-Sept. 11 references that underscored the original production. Instead, he emphasizes the personal, playing up the frustration and resentment of Millennials experiencing for the first time the angst every generation feels standing on the cusp of adulthood. The show is better for it."
-Barbara Vitello
The Daily Herald
Brewed by Scott T. Barsotti - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA
"With Brewed, Steven Wilson directs his fourth No Name Players show with a diverse ensemble that are believable as sisters who love and loathe each other without looking the part."
-Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Beautiful People by William Saroyan - Self Produced Graduate School Thesis Production
Fall 2013 in Austin, TX
"Director Steven Wilson has elicited a deeper sense from the story, one that's perhaps more in keeping with our modern sensibilities... it's a revelation of theatre and acting craft nestled within a revival."
-Michael Meigs
Austin Live Theatre
Oedipus and the Foul Mess in Thebes by Sean Graney - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2013 in Pittsburgh, PA
"Steven Wilson provides solid and forceful direction...he deserves huge credit for the astonishing performances he's drawn from this impeccably talented cast."
-Ted Hoover
Pittsburgh City Paper
Orange Flower Water by Craig Wright - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA
"The thoughtful and clever direction by Steven Wilson is filled with bold artistic touches that are always appropriate and illuminating, never heavy-handed."
-Sean Collier
Pittsburgh Magazine
The 13th of Paris by Mat Smart - Presented by LiveWire Chicago Theatre
Spring 2011 in Chicago, IL
"Under Steven Wilson's sensitive direction, the six actors all but glow with innocent charm."
-Mary Shen Barnidge
Windy City Times
"The story is freshly told, and Livewire director Steven Wilson anchors the cast's all-out passionate performances with quicksilver humor."
-Monica Westin
Flavorpill
The Iliad adapted by Craig Wright - Presented by A Red Orchid Theatre
Fall/Winter 2010 in Chicago, IL
"The girls, members of A Red Orchid’s Youth Ensemble, easily hold their own as soldiers wielding swords and shields and varying degrees of power. And in director Steven Wilson’s spare but evocative production, they impress with the ferocity of their emotions, the sureness of their intellectual attack and the force and clarity of their diction."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Running just over an hour, the production offers a fairly breathless run through the poem’s monumental geography, but it packs in more wit, thrills and passion than many shows twice its length."
-John Beer
Time Out Chicago
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant by Kyle Jarrow from a concept by Alex Timbers - Presented by A Red Orchid Theatre
Winter 2008 and 2009 in Chicago, IL
“Genius! The most hilariously funny, perfectly realized and in many ways most profound hour of theater now on a Chicago stage."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Steven Wilson's staging for A Red Orchid Theatre manages the rare feat of being scathing and adorable at the same time."
-Zac Thompson
Chicago Reader
Winter 2016 in Chicago, IL
"This is an ensemble piece of the finest quality...You have a cast that is mostly female, diverse, and ability inclusive and is telling such a ripping good story that the point is made without beating anybody over the head. Their ethnicities are not remarked. Their femaleness is barely remarked. It’s just right there in front of you being incredibly awesome. And you care about them and want to know what happens to them...That’s what real inclusion looks like – seamless."
-Suzanne Magnuson
lasplash.com
"Director Steven Wilson guides the actors with aplomb and fierceness, and keeps the transitions quick, smooth and almost magical...Smart, snappy and almost hyper-realistic, The Haven Place is a road trip adventure with edge-of-your-seat action, fully-realized characters and a sense of hope that the next generation is going to make it after all."
-Lauren Whalen
chicagotheaterbeat.com
Green Day's American Idiot - Presented by The Hypocrites
Fall 2015 in Chicago, IL
"Not only does virtually the entire cast join the band at some point—drummers, keyboardists and guitar players all rotate spots throughout the show, also stepping in and out of the narrative action—but the director, Steven Wilson, integrates the amazing flexibility of his hugely talented young cast with the material in a strikingly rich fashion. The organic way in which the actors become musicians (and vice-versa) makes the efforts of John Doyle, the superb London director who popularized the fusion of cast and orchestra, seem tentative by comparison."
-Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune
"Under Steven Wilson’s galvanic direction there is such a sense of alienation and honesty at work here that you can feel the growing pains of the show’s early twenty-something characters in all their feverish intensity."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Wilson divorces the text from the explicit post–9/11, Iraq War–era milieu of the rather overblown 2010 Broadway production, making it somehow both more timeless and more of the moment."
-Kris Vire
Time Out Chicago – 4 out of 5 Stars
"Wilson mutes the overtly political, post-Sept. 11 references that underscored the original production. Instead, he emphasizes the personal, playing up the frustration and resentment of Millennials experiencing for the first time the angst every generation feels standing on the cusp of adulthood. The show is better for it."
-Barbara Vitello
The Daily Herald
Brewed by Scott T. Barsotti - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA
"With Brewed, Steven Wilson directs his fourth No Name Players show with a diverse ensemble that are believable as sisters who love and loathe each other without looking the part."
-Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Beautiful People by William Saroyan - Self Produced Graduate School Thesis Production
Fall 2013 in Austin, TX
"Director Steven Wilson has elicited a deeper sense from the story, one that's perhaps more in keeping with our modern sensibilities... it's a revelation of theatre and acting craft nestled within a revival."
-Michael Meigs
Austin Live Theatre
Oedipus and the Foul Mess in Thebes by Sean Graney - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2013 in Pittsburgh, PA
"Steven Wilson provides solid and forceful direction...he deserves huge credit for the astonishing performances he's drawn from this impeccably talented cast."
-Ted Hoover
Pittsburgh City Paper
Orange Flower Water by Craig Wright - Presented by No Name Players
Summer 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA
"The thoughtful and clever direction by Steven Wilson is filled with bold artistic touches that are always appropriate and illuminating, never heavy-handed."
-Sean Collier
Pittsburgh Magazine
The 13th of Paris by Mat Smart - Presented by LiveWire Chicago Theatre
Spring 2011 in Chicago, IL
"Under Steven Wilson's sensitive direction, the six actors all but glow with innocent charm."
-Mary Shen Barnidge
Windy City Times
"The story is freshly told, and Livewire director Steven Wilson anchors the cast's all-out passionate performances with quicksilver humor."
-Monica Westin
Flavorpill
The Iliad adapted by Craig Wright - Presented by A Red Orchid Theatre
Fall/Winter 2010 in Chicago, IL
"The girls, members of A Red Orchid’s Youth Ensemble, easily hold their own as soldiers wielding swords and shields and varying degrees of power. And in director Steven Wilson’s spare but evocative production, they impress with the ferocity of their emotions, the sureness of their intellectual attack and the force and clarity of their diction."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Running just over an hour, the production offers a fairly breathless run through the poem’s monumental geography, but it packs in more wit, thrills and passion than many shows twice its length."
-John Beer
Time Out Chicago
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant by Kyle Jarrow from a concept by Alex Timbers - Presented by A Red Orchid Theatre
Winter 2008 and 2009 in Chicago, IL
“Genius! The most hilariously funny, perfectly realized and in many ways most profound hour of theater now on a Chicago stage."
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
"Steven Wilson's staging for A Red Orchid Theatre manages the rare feat of being scathing and adorable at the same time."
-Zac Thompson
Chicago Reader
