PRESS

Macbeth with Taffety Punk’s Riot Grrrls

“Teresa Spencer tears your heart out as both Banquo and Macduff. Playing both characters is a huge endeavor, but she infused each part with super-specific physicality and unique compassion.” - MD Theatre Guide

“The all-female cast has so authentically committed to their roles . . . The Punks did it before, subverting Shakespeare’s cult of masculinity. And they’ve succeeded again with Macbeth.” - DC Theater Arts

Othello with Taffety Punk’s Riot Grrrls

“Teresa Spencer is remarkable as Cassio: she has mastered some masculine mannerisms with dexterity.” - DC Metro Theater Arts

“Teresa Spencer nails Cassio's desperation and regret at the loss of his good name.” - Broadway World

“Teresa Spencer as Othello’s lieutenant also excavates a depth of emotion that made Cassio revelatory for me.” - DC Theatre Scene

Antigonick and The Fragments of Sappho with Taffety Punk Theatre Company

“There’s not much left of Sappho’s literary output: bits and pieces on papyrus, mentions by other writers, only one complete poem. But Taffety Punk has staged what remains—and filled in the gaps where words go missing with music, movement, and ingenuity. The best instance was when Teresa Spencer delivered a poem whose missing matter had been replaced with silence. She would speak isolated words and phrases and in the lacunae it was like the audio cut off—except her mouth kept moving. Someone who could read lips would know what she was saying, because Spencer had composed her own complete poem, which she performed full of feeling, connecting emotional dots left ages ago by Sappho. The effect was transfixing.” - DC Metro Theater Arts

“Eurydike (Teresa Spencer), who delivers a show-stopping monologue conspicuously absent from Sophokles’ original, is at once madcap and tragic as she relates her niece’s troubled youth: “try to unclench / we said to her / she never did / we got her the bike / we got a therapist…” - DC Theatre Scene

Julia in Fallen Angels with NextStop Theatre

“Watching Spencer and Jernigan plow through the myriad outcomes that await them, living dozens of lives before they ever happen, is the reason to see Fallen Angels. . . . Ultimately, it is the cast that makes Fallen Angels a show worth seeing by finding its characters' rich inner cravings and giving them a soul and a voice.” - Broadway World

“What matters most is the witty and often barbed interchanges, particularly between Julia and Jane, which both [Spencer and Jernigan] handle with aplomb, excellent timing, and a fine sense for the subtleties of physical comedy. You expect funny lines and zingers aplenty from Coward, and actors and creative team deliver.” - DC Metro Theater Arts

Too Like the Lightning by Walterhoope

The Governor's Wife in The Caucasian Chalk Circle with Constellation Theatre Co

"While everyone on that stage is impressive in whatever main and subsidiary role they are playing . . . , Teresa Spencer as the governor’s wife and Matthew Schleigh as the singer/Azdak are particularly memorable. As the governor’s wife, Spencer is physically lovely, while her character is innately corrupt; one senses she cannot change—it simply isn’t within her." - MD Theatre Guide

"Most notable from the supporting roles is Teresa Spencer (Constellation's Absolutely! {perhaps}) who acts as the evening's main comedic relief. Portraying the wife of a governor targeted during the uprising which spurs civil war, Ms. Spencer milks a laugh with the smallest flick of her wrist. She changes the energy in the room every time she enters, and there is a noticeable air of disappointment that accompanies each of her departures." - Broadway World

"A good foil for the heroine, Spencer brings recognizable dimension to the hissable Natella, the sort of oblivious snob who these days might jet around the globe on the arm of a cabinet secretary." - Metro Weekly

Alice in Mnemonic with Theater Alliance

"Mnemonic is a play not quite like anything else out there and already deserves to be viewed as a modern classic. . . Theater Alliance has . . . produced what will likely be remembered as one of the best D.C.-area plays of the year." - Washington City Paper

"Teresa Spencer is terrific in the role of Alice. Her presence and assertion of self make an enormous contribution to the veracity of what transpires." - DC Metro Theater Arts

Alli/Elia in Where Words Once Were, a Kennedy Center Workshop Production

Emily in Our Town with Faction of Fools

"Remarkable . . . An original spellbinder from the opening moments . . . The group discovers nifty jokes--there's one that's far too good to spoil between high-schoolers George and Emily during their famous nervous love scene over ice cream sodas--and the poignancy never misses." - The Washington Post

"Teresa Spencer, as Emily, is particularly effective in growing from the gangly pre-teen, to the self-conscious high schooler, to the nervously courted girlfriend, to an even more nervous bride. Spencer does more emotional duty in the crucial third act with a lovely performance." - DC Theatre Scene

"Do yourself a favor; do what Our Town's sweet, earnest Emily urges from her new-dug grave, and give [this play] a good look before [its] time is past." - Washington City Paper

"Faction of Fools' version of Wilder's Our Town is not just transcendent theater; it is an epiphany." - Shakespeareances.com

Ferdinand and Sebastian in The Tempest with Taffety Punk's Riot Grrrls

"Teresa Spencer is a shockingly good Ferdinand (and Sebastian), her mannerisms so naturally boyish, her romance with Miranda seemed positively heterosexual." - DC Metro Theater Arts

"Teresa Spencer is endearingly boyish as Ferdinand." - The Washington Post

"Teresa Spencer's portrayal of Ferdinand was . . . (dare I say) slightly crush-worthy. So too her portrayal of Sebastian, especially if you prefer the more 'bad boy' edge to your crushes." - MD Theatre Guide

Phebe in As You Like It with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

"Teresa Spencer, as the hot-blooded, short-tempered Phebe, does her best to disengage James Jager, the doting and dimwitted Silvius, from his pursuit of her. The pair plays exceptionally well together, proving that chemistry need not be gushy and romantic to make a scene upon the stage." - DC Metro Theatre Arts

Demetrius in Titus Andronicus with Taffety Punk's Riot Grrrls

"The Riot Grrrls win the argument--is there an argument?--that women can play the range of Shakespearean parts they traditionally don't get to play." - The Washington Post

"Although the entire cast turned in strong performances, several stand out; . . . Chiron and Demetrius as portrayed by Amanda Forstrom and Teresa Spencer, are among the best. The women seemed to be channeling two raucous punksters, their youthful hormones all astir." - Maryland Theatre Guide

"Amanda Forstrom and Teresa Spencer, as Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius, are masterful. They radiate adolescent awkwardness, an eagerness to be cool, and an almost endearing joie de vivre with their slouches, gangsta style, and exuberant high fives--all in poignant counterpoint to their evil acts." - HowlRound

"Amanda Forstrom and Teresa Spencer prove more than adept with the physical demands of the show as they take on the roles of Chiron and Demetrius. They transform into young men who have no qualms about less than fair fighting . . . and have a sense of determination and one-mindedness that's quite captivating." - Broadway World

"Amanda Forstrom and Teresa Spencer take malicious glee in transforming the rapists Chiron and Demetrius into faux-gangsta gutterpunk tweakers." - Washington City Paper

"Also doing nice work are Amanda Forstrom and Teresa Spencer, who as Chiron and Demetrius shrug and cackle like psychopathic hooligan white trash Beavis and Butthead." - DCist.com