selected reviews
BLKS - WOOLLY MAMMOTH
"That’s how engaging the characters are, and how loose and free the cast is in the vibrant staging by Nataki Garrett, who directed the Chicago premiere."
"Director Nataki Garrett directed a previous production of BLKS in Chicago, and her intimate grasp of the play’s quirky characters, catchy rhythms, and underlying poignance is evident in every riveting beat"
FETCH CLAY MAKE MAN
"In Will Power’s play Fetch Clay, Make Man, the weaving of narratives of these two very different men, along with a few other crucial characters in their orbits, brings a stark new reality into focus about who they were. The Dallas Theater Center’s production, directed by Nataki Garrett, presents the thematically layered, thought-provoking plot with style and potency."
"One of the play's strengths is the dialogue, which has a pow-pow-pow of emotional boxing under Nataki Garrett's charged direction."
IS GOD IS
"Under Nataki Garrett’s direction, the whole cast is terrific but “Is God Is” belongs to its female actors"
EVERYBODY
"With a smart, aspirational set design by Nina Ball, a script trimmed of puffery, powerful dramatic and cleverly comedic direction by Nataki Garrett and the keen casting of some of the roles by lottery, “Everybody” is full of riches."
JEFFERSON'S GARDEN
"And director Nataki Garrett masterfully streamlines the expansive plot — which follows Jefferson, James, and Sally from Monticello to Paris, and back — into robust entertainment."
BLKS
“BLKS” really is laugh-out-loud funny, all night long...Garrett directs this show so well"
Chicago Tribune
THE HURT VILLAGE
"The performance takes place in a gorgeous upstairs room with a high domed ceiling in Oakland’s Grace Temple Church. Grippingly directed by Nataki Garrett."
AN OCTOROON
"It’s a fascinating comedic matrix that “An Octoroon” constructs, enlivened by Jacobs-Jenkins’s ear for absurdity and director Nataki Garrett’s sure-handed production for Woolly Mammoth Theatre."
AN OCTOROON
“Garrett's production sends up stereotypes — and the theatrical melodramas that helped promulgate them — with gusto."
BULRUSHER
"Director Nataki Garrett's precisely rendered staging of Eisa Davis' flawed but remarkable play unfolds with a mesmeric leisureliness, taking on the power and potency of myth."
PUSSY VALLEY
"Most theater shows aim to conjure a simulacrum of reality onstage. “Pussy Valley,” ...under Nataki Garrett’s bold direction ... wallops you with what feels like the real thing."
NEIGHBORS
"Jacobs-Jenkins’ tragic farce has more energy and ideas than half a dozen anodyne “issue” plays that pass for contemporary drama on L.A. stages. Director Nataki Garrett achieves an impressive unity of tone in a show that veers from pantomime to dance numbers to realism"
NEIGHBORS
"Director Nataki Garrett, who previously directed "Neighbors" in 2010 for Los Angeles' Matrix Theatre Company, is aided by a solid cast in this high-energy production."