PRESS
INTERVIEWS
Click on the following links to read interviews with Tanya Shaffer:
REVIEWS
Click on the following links or scroll down to read press quotes
about various aspects of Tanya's work:
• • •
PRAISE FOR SOMEBODY’S HEART IS BURNING
**ONE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE’S
“BEST BOOKS OF 2003”!!**
Vogue Magazine:
"Perhaps the best of [recent] adventure books penned by women... These incredible characters...form a vivid pastiche."
USA Today:
“[Shaffer] writes essays with knife-sharp perception…She captures the details that tell the larger story about Ghana and Africa, a place of stunning beauty, shocking poverty and loving people so often ravaged by violence and disease.”
San Francisco Chronicle:
" [Shaffer’s] observant recollections clarify her intimate, soul-searching journey and give texture to the narrative, with a candor and tenderness that render it immediately accessible.... Shaffer's focus is on the people she meets, colorful Ghanaians whose stories and actions bring present-day Africa alive."
Booklist:
“Shaffer is a natural storyteller and she evokes the villages she visited and the people she met masterfully. Readers…will be enthralled by her tales.”
Los Angeles Times:
"[Shaffer] has a wonderful light touch... She is one of those people who makes all conflict seem childish and unnecessary."
The Skanner:
"There is an exuberant and frank quality about Shaffer’s writing that will have readers booking flights to West Africa."
Library Journal:
“An adventurous memoir…described with humor, feeling, and vivid detail.”
Publishers Weekly:
“Shaffer's vivid memoir captures scenes of Kenya, Mali and, most notably, Ghana, rarely seen by American tourists…Her tales are rich in visual and cultural explication; villages and hamlets too tiny for names come to hot, vibrant, scent-laden, insect-thrumming life.”
PRAISE FOR LET MY ENEMY LIVE LONG!
Winner of the 1999 Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award for Solo Performance"Riveting, funny, and life-affirming."
- Belinda Taylor, American Theatre Magazine
"...A bright, lively, moving and beautifully performed monologue, as captivating as it is gently but insistently thought-provoking. ....Beautifully supported by elegant, eloquent percussion and string accompaniment, Shaffer creates vivid, instant portraits of the men, women and children that populate her tale.... Through all its comedy and conflict, "Enemy" subtly raises questions about racism and privilege that leave a provocative aftertaste."
- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner
Click here to read the whole review."...A tour de force of observation and evocation. From the polite agonies of public bathroom etiquette on the open-air canoe to the sharp detailing of the African men and one African American woman she meets, Shaffer's "Enemy" is the next best thing to being there."
- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
Click here to read the whole review."***1/2 Captivating; scintillating storytelling... A delight from beginning to end... Alive with cultural intrigue, existential quandary and good humor, Shaffer's "Enemy" is also a showcase of dynamic theatricality... Intelligent, illuminating theater."
- Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune
Click here to read the whole review."A smooth, seductive, and thoroughly entertaining evening of theatre."
- Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union-Tribune
Click here to read the whole review."Touching, funny, exciting, well-written, satisfying... A damn fine evening."
-Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle
Click here to read the whole column."...Hilarious, ironic and compassionate all at once. "Let My Enemy Live Long!" is not only intellectually stimulating and politically provocative, but also rivetingly entertaining, tackling issues of racism, religion and the search for meaning with exuberant humor and deep respect for human contradictions."
- Michelle Goldberg, San Jose Metro
Click here to read the whole review."A wonderful surprise... (Shaffer) seems to strip off her Western veneer and reach the core of such issues as racism, guilt and betrayal..."
-Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury News
Click here to read the whole review."Storytelling at its best!"
- Leah Kohlenberg, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Click here to read the whole review."A one-woman tour de force… Each character is a vivid creation… Shaffer keeps us laughing as she weaves her tale around the themes of racism, guilt, and the search for self in the other."
- Jeanne Carstensen, SF Gate
"Shaffer triumphs… Treading lightly, and with a sense of irony, she touches upon themes of racism both in Africa and here at home, commenting wryly upon inexplicable cultural differences, and infusing all her characters with dignity."
- Jean Schiffman, Citysearch.com
"A delightful storyteller…Introduces a host of rich themes, from the fallacy of escaping oneself in a different landscape to the pervasive divisions of cultural assumptions... Amy Mueller directs with a powerful sense of rhythm and color, and the live musical score by Baba Duru Demetrius is a great source of richness and charm."
- Brad Rosenstein, San Francisco Bay Guardian
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, 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
