The Two Hander
“A masterclass in acting...two of the finest actresses on the stage today. Ella Dershowitz is a revelation in her portrayal of Claire, a 29-year-old woman being crushed by circumstances, who finds her inner resources with her therapist’s help. Dershowitz is an actress whose career I will be interested in seeing develop.”
Card and Gift
“Shana, as befits a member of the attention-deficit generation, zigzags between hyper-animation and zonked-out fatigue, which allows Ms. Dershowitz to make a meal of the show’s tastier lines. (“I majored in communications,” Shana says. “If that’s not vague, I don’t know what is.”)”
Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
“In this well-acted, precisely calibrated production…Hannah (Ella Dershowitz) has been hauled in for allegedly making the Nazis look bad: mimeographing antisemitic statements and imagery published in German newspapers for a Zionist group to disseminate abroad...Now Hannah, with her agile intellect, aims to unlock the humanity in Karl (Brett Temple), the police officer, and thereby free herself…she jokes, she flatters, she takes advantage of assumptions about female naïveté. Painting herself as dreamily curious and irreproachably truthful, she introduces moral doubt that smudges the crisp corners of Karl’s certainty. She plays him, really, but what she appeals to is his decency — his capacity for loving his neighbor as himself. ”
“Ella Dershowitz brings a delicate, deliberate charm and intelligence to the depiction of Mrs. Stern. It’s a poignant performance, balancing the façade of innocent bewilderment with a cunning flirtation as she attempts to build a personal connection with her jailor. One of the most poignant moments was her outburst about leaving her homeland, the loss of the language that she loves, the familiar places, the pride in German art and thought.”
“The actors are excellent, handling the highly literate dialogue and the play’s emotional undercurrents with equal skill...As Hannah, Ella Dershowitz marries steel and glass. Intellectual clarity grounds her fragility...Hannah is deeply frightened by the absurdist drama she has been thrown into.”
“As Arendt, Ella Dershowitz gives a beautifully calibrated performance that straddles internalized desperation and keen intelligence.”
Intimacy
“These words are delivered with the wise, smiling patience of a parent...In this case, the speaker is an 18-year-old erotic-movie actress, Janet (Ella Dershowitz), who exudes the radiant wholesomeness of the girl next door. Which she is.”
Connected
“Amongst a stage brimming with talent, the standout role is Ella Dershowitz’s Sharon. After playing small background roles through the first hour of the show, she stuns as a girl who was probably born with some natural social awkwardness, but has been driven deeper and deeper into a tunnel of her own loneliness...Her performance is so transformative that I was sure it must have been a different redhead who was onstage for all of those other scenes, remaining entirely convinced of this fact until I was proven wrong at the curtain call.”
“Perhaps the most transformative performance came from Ella Dershowitz. Dershowitz had a trio of characters to portray including a TV Host, a drunk party girl, and a homely gamer with a heart. If you had to take a second to remind yourself that the same actress was playing the drunk girl that passed out as well as Sharon, you’re not alone. Dershowitz has incredible range, shining brightly as Sharon. Her character was truthful, pulling on your heartstrings.”
“Meghan is interviewed by a smarmy TV Host (a spot-on, campy send-up by Ella Dershowitz)...Online role playing games are questioned in an intriguing, humorous scene about an introverted, geeky teen (Ella Dershowitz is excellent as Sharon), whose life revolves around the game of Warcraft...”
Actually
“Amber is mortified by her body, yet gushy, compulsive in expression, and Dershowitz forges a physicality and countenance that’s always in the middle of a tug-of-war - biting her lip but dying to let something spill, magnetically drawn forward yet poised to recoil.”
“Dershowitz’s vanity-free playing of the role is excruciatingly convincing.”
“Dershowitz plays an awkward teenager with eerie verisimilitude, from the fast-talking adolescent drawl to the caved-in, fidgety body language.”
The Wolves
“Standouts include Ella Dershowitz (#13) who is delightful as the team’s designated goofball and clown.”
You Will Remember Me
“Star turns from John Hutton and Ella Dershowitz...The play has its best moments when he is paired with Berenice, played by Ella Dershowitz... Dershowitz performs with the most entertaining nasal twang that drips with “yeah, I’m a shallow millennial – so what?” (We’ll never know if it was an affectation she adopted for the character or if that’s just the way she talks.)”
The Siegel
“Ella Dershowitz is a mixture of ‘no bull allowed in my life’ and of being on the verge of a major insecurity attack as she plays an Alice who is in search of her next platform to help save the world. At times she has the look of a deer in the headlights...something in her eyes also begins to shift as some new spark that was not quite extinguished finds a new flame; and when that happens, The Siegel becomes both funny and intriguing.”
Visitors
“Into the mix comes Kate, played with flair and utter believability by Ella Dershowitz, who arrives on the scene with long legs and blue hair, for free boarding in return for whatever help she can give, even as she herself grapples with the slings and arrows of how to shape her young life.”
4000 Miles
“Ella Dershowitz is sweet and appealing as Bec, Leo’s conflicted former girlfriend, now in college in New York.”