byungkoo ahn, opera director, opera directing, stage director, theater director
STAGE DIRECTOR / TENOR / PLAYWRIGHT / THEATRE EDUCATOR
P R E S S
EDFRINGEREVIEW.COM
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Haydn-Williams &Alex & Nina (08/14/2021)
“The show is an education, as well as a delight.”
“Innovative piece.”
“The play gives us a futuristic glimpse into queer historical moments.”
LOUREVIEWS.COM
✭✭✭✭
Penn, Louise (08/25/2021)
“One of this year’s best Festival Fringe shows.”
“Multimedia gem.”
“A diverse and completely original show.”
“The text is rich, the stories full, the tone is one of love and celebration. It is a deeply moving and intense show.”
FRINGE BISCUIT MAGAZIN
✭✭✭✭
(08/11/2021)
“A powerful, stirring & vibrant homage.”
“Mastery of the digital theatre medium. Definitely worth a look for those just starting out!”
BROADWAY WORLD
<Halleloo! A Musical Celebration>
Lombardi, Joe ( 06/15/2019)
“The style was frequently operatic and deeply emotional.”
“Patient theatergoers will be rewarded with a celebration of some of the best fruitcakes ever tasted.”
THEASY
<13 Fruitcakes>
Bader, Eleanor (06/16/2019)
“Best Bet”
“A dazzling multi-media extravaganza celebrating LGBTQ lives throughout world history.”
“The production is exhilarating.”
“It’s a gender-bending, evocative, and emotionally resonant presentation.”
STAGE VOICES
<Byungkoo Ahn: 13 Fruitcakes>
Shuman, Bob (06/18/2019)
“Couture and dance en pointe, never decadently, and always with understated, impeccable taste!”
“He apparently finds LGBTQ+ love simply an alternate response to life.”
ONSTAGE BLOG
<La Mama Presents 13 Fruitcakes>
Peterson, Christopher (06/21/2019)
“The universality was clear throughout the frequently operatic and heartbreaking scenes told only through the singing and silent acting of the top-notch ensemble.”
“Intense and intriguing, ‘13 Fruitcakes’ is a slice of history mixed with a poignant message and visual artistry of the continuum of universal queer oppression, deftly meant to be chewed on long after one leaves the theater.”
TEECO 71 ENTERTAINMENT
<A Beautiful Tribute to the Sad Reality of LGBTQ History>
Geraci, Tommy (06/20/2019)
“A beautiful time filled with music, colors, dancing, and history. It felt like a drag show mixed with an opera with a touch of Cirque du Soleil.”
SPOLETO CITY PRESS
<Spoleto – Interessante Sperimentazione al Cantiere Oberdan>
L.G. (07/12/2013)
"The classical voices of opera singers mingle boldly with the voices altered by computer, annihilating time and fashions.”
“Past and present meet in a single dimension. The dreamlike journey, whether it is in the arms of the angels, on Mars or the Moon, or in the mind of man, does not matter.”
HE NEW YORK TIMES
<Hamlet as Eager Korean Prince>
Jaworowski, Ken (06/28/2011)
“......boy, is there intensity!”
“The play is beguiling to watch, a reinterpretation with a dark mind all its own.”
“Hamyul/Hamlet creates a delicious mood of menace.”
“Extended pauses carry great weight here, and the play-within-a-play scene is severe and frightening.”
THE VILLAGER
<Sound and fury signifying something worth seeing>
Stiffler, Scott (07/07/2011)
“Sound and fury signifying something worth seeing.”
“Korean ‘Hamlet’ casts shaman’s spell over Shakespeare’s long shadow.”
BACKSTAGE
“Hamyul/Hamlet.”
Montgomery, Mitch (06/27/2011)
“Ahn's often gracefully marshaled production”
NYTHEATRE.COM
<Hamyul/Hamlet>
Conway, Mitchell (06/23/2011)
“A highly stylized adaptation of Hamlet.”
“Director Byungkoo Ahn delivers grace amidst formality.”
“The adaptation by Minsoo Ahn and Byungkoo Ahn is a clean, comprehensible cutting.”
NEW JERSEY NEWSROOM
<Shakespeare’s Tragedy Undergoes a Stylized Asian Makeover>
Sommers, Micahel (06/28/2011)
“Shakespeare’s tragedy undergoes a stylized Asian makeover.”
“Writer-director Byungkoo Ahn boldly abridges the tragedy to its stark essentials.”
“This “Hamlet” shows how Shakespeare’s tale can be effectively construed though the theater traditions of other cultures.”
BULLET MEDIA
<Hamyul>
Giardina, Henry (06/30/2011)
“Hamyul is, with its distillation of the big words and winding plot of the original, a strangely organic retelling, a production which seems to have distilled the wisdom of the story without getting rid of all that much excess. More art, less matter.”
Talk Entertainment
<Days and Nights>
Moore, Oscar (09/22/09)
“The silhouetted forest as she sings Memories Are Sadder than Love is a piece of art. As are the songs.”
“Very fine production”
LOS ANGELES TIMES
<Long Beach Opera - Downtown Opera>
Swed, Mark (2001)
"In the end, 'Consumers' Paradise' and 'Orlando' proved small operas wanting to be something grander, Postmodern opera ... is such an extravagant enterprise, it requires substantial experimentation; and there is pleasure to be had in a visit to the laboratory."
LONG BEACH PRESS TELEGRAM
<Consumer's Paradise and Orlando by Downton Opera>
Farrell, John (2001)
"There is the chance that they were watching an important piece of musical history happen.
these two works, brief, effective, and entertaining, suggest there is plenty to look forward to."
byungkoo ahn, opera director, opera directing, stage director, theater director