Press Coverage

The New York Times – Review: Everyday Chatter Unveils a Mystery in ‘Say Something Bunny!’

NYTimes Critics' Pick "An out-and-out thrill... as catching as the chickenpox, and if the piece is forthrightly funny and briefly pornographic, it is also sneakily moving."

The New York Times – The Detective Was a Performance Artist. The Evidence Is Now a Show.

“gently humorous, enchantingly quirky … a strangely entrancing new work."

American Theater Wing: Working in the Theatre

"Say Something Bunny, the spectacular production that explores how theatre incorporates and interacts with found materials and real-life characters."

Hyperallergic– A Performance Digs Into the Family History on a Found 1950s Wire Recorder

"An organic culmination of this unearthed story on midcentury American life, and its “little moments of humor, or moments of heartbreak” that Kobayashi discovered in the audio. And it’s the appreciation and pathos for these moments that makes the experience so compelling."

The Brooklyn Rail – In Conversation ALISON S. M. KOBAYASHI and CHRISTOPHER ALLEN with Tess Takahashi

“humor, pathos, and imagination combined with meticulous historical research”

YesBroadway – SAW IT...LOVED IT! Say Something Bunny! Review

"This is the future of art...the kind of really-well-done avant garde theater that gets the attention of the nominating committees for things like the MacArthur "Genius" Grant."

Playbill – Performer You Should Know: Say Something Bunny!’s Alison S. M. Kobayashi

"There is a myth of the indescribable, off-the-beaten path New York experience—the kind that’s happening in a gritty basement known only through word-of-mouth from New Yorkers in the know. A seeming lore of the old days when Manhattan was edgier, Say Something Bunny! proves that those theatrical experiences still exist."

NOW Magazine – ★★★★★ Found audio fuels Alison S.M. Kobayashi's project at Gallery TPW earns a rare perfect score

“★★★★★ earns a rare perfect score … a work of profound empathy, lending meaning and drama to ordinary lives”

No Proscenium – Eavesdropping on The Newburge Family in ‘Say Something Bunny!’ (The NoPro Review)

"For a few brief hours, David and George and Juliette and Sam and Stella are all alive again, resurrected by a stranger, one who cared enough about them to go digging far into the past, holding onto the ephemera they left behind. We should all be so lucky."

The Culture Trip – Review of Say Something Bunny!

""The everyday becomes enthralling in Say Something Bunny!, a surprising new show that discovers compelling mysteries where the most intrepid sleuths wouldn’t expect to find them."

PLAYBILL – The Verdict: Theatre Critics Name the Top Plays and Musicals of 2017

"The productions that critics listed among the best of the theatrical year—from New York to London."

Canadian Art – Say Something Bunny! Review

“Composing whole lives out of fragments of intimate conversation.”

Howl Round – A Guide to Constructing Empathy

"One of the most deeply empathetic performances I have seen in years."

Jewcy – Jewcy Interviews: ‘Say Something Bunny!’

"An entrancing dive into the lives of a New York Jewish family in the 1950s."

CBC – Hybrid media experiments with CBC Radio's Sook-Yin Lee

“Alison’s charting exciting new territory, combining video, installation, visual art, performance, and found source material.”

Drama Desk Awards – Say Something Bunny! Nominated

"Say Something Bunny! nominated for The Chase Award for Unique Theatrical Experience"

Nerd Appropriate Podcast – Say Something Bunny!

"Out of all of things we've been going to lately, it was the one that stood out as super unique."

Columbia Oral History MA - Review: Say Something Bunny!

"Perhaps all that matters is her impressive ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, and that we have the privilege of not just bearing witness, but of also becoming entangled in the narrative ourselves. "

Vogue – The Best New Theater Experience in Town Is Nowhere Close to Broadway

"Say Something Bunny isn’t a line in the sand, it’s a gambit—an irresistible one. If you want to see a great performance, try to get tickets to Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. If you want to reconsider the way you see, head to Chelsea."

Vulture: New York Magazine

"This beautifully produced one-woman show, a delicate and kindly object itself,...the care and thoroughness and love-of-archive will remind you of Serial; the sweetness will remind you of your own grandma."

Tablet – New York’s Hottest Indie Theater Show is About a Found Recording of a Jewish Family from the 1950s

"Somewhere between a one-woman multimedia play and a “live documentary,” Kobayashi takes her deliberately intimate audience on a journey through the wires (the first recording is Act 1; the second is Act 2), and what she found when she began to find answers to her questions on who these people were."

Art F City – When Facts Become Art: Alison S.M. Kobayashi at Gallery TPW

“Deeply felt and most remarkably, close and real… a multigenerational yarn of Rothian heights.”

BUST Magazine – Performance Artist Alison S.M. Kobayashi Brings Life To A 1950s Found Family Recording In Her One-Woman Show "Say Something Bunny!"

"Heartfelt and unforgettable ... profound work."

Playbill –Immersive, Sold-Out Solo Show Say Something Bunny! Extends Through Next Year

"Say Something Bunny!, which has garnered critical acclaim and sold-out several performances since it debuted last spring."

Per La Mente – An Immersive Performance that Transports Audiences to 1950s New York

"A piece that proves that enough ordinary details can paint an extraordinarily touching picture — one that, in Bunny’s case, culminates in a graceful, emotional reveal."

United Solo – Say Something Bunny! Nominated for Special Award

New York, NY - June 20th, 2017: The artist Alison S.M. Kobayashi at the installation of her performance piece titled "Say Something Bunny". The performance iis based around found audio from an old wire recorder that she came across.

NY Theater Buying Guide – Say Something Bunny! Review

"Our highest recommendation! The most original, enthralling, deeply human theater piece in the city, bringing back to life a New York family of the 1950s through brilliant multi-media, immersion, and “found objects”. Profound artistry makes for dazzling entertainment."

Now Magazine – The Toronto visual arts community chooses its favourite shows of 2016

She's proved you can find an interesting story behind anything if you're willing to dig for it.

Show Score – Spectacular Solo Shows

"One person. One stage. One night of unforgettable theater."

Cornell Alumni News - Sound Track

"This unorthodox work takes a pair of long-forgotten recordings that Newburge made of family gatherings in the Fifties and turns them into a two-act, multi-media exploration."

NoPro Podcast – Interview with Alison S. M. Kobayashi

"Unlike anything else on stage in NYC."

Interludes – THE HANGOVER REPORT – Alison S.M. Kobayashi’s obsessive SAY SOMETHING BUNNY! is pure genius

"In the hands of Ms. Kobayashi, who also directs, the piece is pure genius, unfurling with the the utmost grace, wit, and intelligence."

Where.ca Alison S.M. Kobayashi Fills in a Family’s Blanks at Gallery TPW

"Kobayashi pieces together a compelling new narrative, imagining fictional—but still plausible—personal histories for a set of complete strangers, while playfully prodding at notions of documentation, memory and identity."

All About Solo - "Say Something Bunny” is a Deep Dive Into Family History"

"Her achievement is beyond monumental. In the end, when the Dixie Cups’ “Iko, Iko” played, there was a sense of relief and fulfillment. We made it to the end, and the reward, which I will not spoil here, brought tears to my eyes."

Time Out New York – The top ten theater productions of 2017

Say Something Bunny makes Time Out's Top ten theater productions of 2017!

BOMB Magazine: Best of Performance in 2018

"Say Something Bunny! reinvigorates the idea of theater... a total work of art from any perspective."

TimeOut New York – Say Something Bunny! ★★★★ Review

“★★★★ Say Something Bunny! is light, sweet, funny and dear. But Kobayashi’s deep humanism has a way of moving you, even days later. She sifts through the details of strangers’ lives, a prospector who knows that the sand itself is precious. ”

Yes Broadway– 2018 40 Under 40

"the kind of genre-defying theater that makes NYC, well....NYC"

Theater Mania– Review of Say Something Bunny!

"Say Something Bunny! is as much a treasure trove as the discovering of a spool of audio in an old-fashioned recording device. While you might not have seen theater like this before, once you start listening, you can't get enough of the story that unfolds.”

Huff Post – Alison S.M. Kobayashi Breathes New Life into Found 1950s Wire Recording

“Kobayashi’s success turns on both her extensive, iterative approach to her research as well as her charismatic ability to commit herself completely to reenactments of dozens of characters”

Maxamoo Podcast– Review of Say Something Bunny!

"It's like a live NPR, if you like dramaturgy you will love this show... It's a hell of a ride."

Theatre Development Fund – Are You Ready for a Resurrection?

"A universal meditation on what it is any of us leave behind after we're gone... The chitchat on the audio may be unremarkable, but the show's presentation and message are profound and resonant."

Theatre is Easy – Review of Say Something Bunny!

"Say Something Bunny! is hands down the best theatre experience of the 2017-2018 season."

Exeunt– Say Something Bunny! Review

"This fascinating show that is as much about artistic process as it is about human experience."

Show Showdown – Say Something Bunny! Review

"Every family... should be so brilliantly and lovingly reincarnated."

_docubase Interview with Alison S.M. Kobayashi from MIT's Open Documentary Lab

"A one-of-a-kind example of non-fiction storytelling that successfully combines a collective experience, live performance, and immersive media."

The Kickstarter Blog – Projects We Loved: 27 of Our Favorite Kickstarter-Funded Projects from 2017

"fascinating and inspiring for their originality and inventiveness."

Lighting and Sound America – Say Something Bunny! Review

"a one-of-a-kind performance piece that speaks volumes about families, changing times, and middle-class life in America in its post-World War II heyday. Every detail they unearth evokes a world that existed relatively recently and yet is long, long gone... It would be a mistake to miss the chance to get in touch with these voices from a lost world. "

Cultural Colectiva – Review of Say Something Bunny!

"Say Something Bunny connects us with a distant past and shows us the lovely and alluring nature of the simplest moments in life we sometimes take for granted or think as irrelevant in our lives."

Canadian Art – Must-Sees This Week: March 24 to 30, 2016

"a must-see"

Off Off Online – Review of Say Something Bunny

Say Something Bunny! is a wildly engaging experience unlike any other.

City Guide– 11 Immersive Theatre Experiences in NYC

"this funny and fascinating documentary experience reveals the lives of a real Jewish family in New York, whose voices are captured on the recording, and the rich imagination of Kobayashi herself. "

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