“Yes, there is still vodka. Lots of it. One old guy even makes himself a White Russian; director Nathan Motta layers that kind of cheeky, meta detail throughout his wry, wonderful show, a roaring success to kick off the theater’s 60th season.”

– Andrea Simakis, THE PLAIN DEALER (Stupid Fucking Bird)

”Happily, this performance directed by Nathan Motta takes splendid advantage of the witty script, turning the show into the most enjoyable two hours you've spent since you sucked down a CBD gummy and listened to a Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner comedy routine.”

– Christine Howey, CLEVELAND SCENE (Life Sucks)

“…a production of passion and style helmed by Dobama's artistic director Nathan Motta, it's weird, lurid and engrossing all at once.”

– Andrea Simakis, THE PLAIN DEALER (An Octoroon)

”This production directed by Nathan Motta is stellar in all ways.”

– Christine Howey, CLEVELAND SCENE (Superior Donuts)

“Directed with ingenuity and playfulness by Dobama's artistic director Nathan Motta, this prequel to the J.M. Barrie classic explains how a nameless waif came to be called Peter Pan, a boy destined to never grow up, fly without wings and bedevil a certain one-handed pirate… Motta and his crew have created a beguiling piece of theater, one that can bewitch us into believing that shadows cast on a bed sheet are the jaws of a grinning crocodile and yards of blue fabric the roiling waves of the ocean.”

– Andrea Simakis, THE PLAIN DEALER (Peter and the Starcatcher)

“Director Nathan Motta finds all the right beats in the play’s story and creates an effective, inviting cadence for the storytelling.”

– Bob Abelman, CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS (This)

“Annie Baker’s long, leisurely and 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning Off-Broadway ode to small, solitary lives is given the splendid treatment it deserves and we have come to expect from Dobama Theatre.”

– Bob Abelman, CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS (The Flick)

“Motta, a connoisseur of the unrushed moment, makes a comfortable match for [Annie] Baker's vision. When the Fourth finally rolls around, KJ asks Evan if he can light one of the sparklers the kid has brought in that millstone of a backpack. As darkness falls, KJ dances a Pan's ballet with the sizzling stick, sparks flying, leaving tracers in the air. The big man is awkward and yet light on his feet, and it's a mesmerizing and beautiful passage, cut short when the sparkler begins to sputter and then go out. That dying of the light presages a calamity when this trio of misfits is rocked by unexpected tragedy, the suddenness of the event like a sharp intake of breath. With it, everything changes, and the playwright leaves [Samuel] Beckett behind to create a moving, meaningful work all her own.”

– Andrea Simakis, THE PLAIN DEALER (The Aliens)