ACTING

In addition to her solo work, Tanya has starred in productions ranging from musicals to Shakespeare to experimental theatre. Companies she has performed with include the Old Globe Theatre, the California Shakespeare Festival (two seasons), TheatreWorks, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, the Willows Theatre Company, El Teatro de la Esperanza, the B Street Theatre, Brava! For Women in the Arts, and many others. Favorite roles include Maria in “The Sound of Music,” Isabella in “Measure for Measure,” The Woman in “Scotland Road,” Lala in “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” (for which she won a Dean Goodman’s Choice Award for Principal Performance), and Jackie in “Jackie: An American Life.”

click here to visit Tanya's Acting Photo Album

A SAMPLING OF REVIEWS

For A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s “Come, My Beloved,” 2002:
"Tanya Shaffer is magnetic as the young woman. Pensive or joyous, flushed 'in the fever of love' or enticingly sensuous in a solo dance (some nice choreography by Katherine Roszak), she captivatingly depicts the surprise, fears and delights of passion.."

- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle

For TheatreWorks’ “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” 2001:
"Shaffer gives a fine, emotionally naked performance. She sees right into Lala's obtuseness, whether she's callow or sulking or raging at her cousin for dressing too nicely at Lala's father's funeral: ‘That was supposed to be my tragedy.’"

- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

For California Shakespeare Festival’s “Scapin,” 1998:
"Shaffer is a delightfully dimwitted Bo Peep of a Giacinta, a walking, baby-talking, badly spoiled doll of an ingenue."

- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner

For Center Rep’s “Scotland Road,” 1997:
"‘Scotland Road’ blooms after intermission, helped in good measure by Shaffer's forceful performance. Speaking in a rich Welsh accent, she tells a compelling story of a timid provincial girl on her way to a house servant's job in America."

- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

For TheatreWorks’ “Voir Dire,” 1996:
"Shaffer, as a prim transplant from Nebraska, gets her smug assumptions tattered in a well-played scene."

- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

For TheatreWorks’ “Under Milk Wood,” 1995:
"‘Under Milk Wood’ is pure nostalgia… And here is what I will take from it: …the pure sex appeal of TheatreWorks newcomer Tanya Shaffer, whether as Captain Cat’s Rosie, the self-repressed schoolteacher Gossamer Beynon, or the wild gypsy-woman Mrs. Dai Bread Two…"

- Michael J. Vaughn, Palo Alto Weekly