REVIEWS AND PRESS FOR FUNNYMAN
FUNNYMAN (Arden): Comedy on the brink of tragedy | Phindie | January 2016 | Debra Miller
“Vintage hair-dos and costumes (Alison Roberts), props and furnishings (scenic design by Brian Sidney Bembridge), establish the mid-century style of FUNNYMAN’S transitional era.”
Bruce Graham’s ‘Funnyman’ at the Arden | Broad Street Review | January 2016 | Mark Cofta
“Bruce Graham's new play, The central relationship is between Chick, played by Carl N. Wallnau with a crotchety imperiousness in public and obsessive self-doubt in private, and his daughter Katharine. She is brought to life with spunky sweetness by Emily Krause, who seems born to wear 1950s fashions (the great period costumes are by Alison Roberts).”
‘Funnyman’ at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia | DC Metro Theatre Arts | January 2016 | Tori Mittelman
“… and costumed to perfection by Alison Roberts.”
Funnyman | Talkin' Broadway | January 2016 | Rebecca Rendell
“Alison Roberts' period costume designs are a great asset to the production.”
Recent Critical Acclaim
2014/15 Critics’ Awards: The best in Philadelphia theater
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alison Roberts, The Whale (Theatre Exile)
Reviews and Press for The Whale
Philly designers create 'fat suit' for 600-pound role | PhillyVoice | January 2015 | Brandon Baker
“Alison Roberts, costume supervisor for Arden Theatre Company, has had, as you might imagine, a lot of costume challenges come across her desk over the years -- but none quite like ‘The Whale.’”
Review: Capturing 'The Whale' | Newsworks | February 2015 | Howard Shapiro
“It took designer Alison Roberts about a month to construct the enormous fat-suit costume for Charlie, the grotesque, wheezing 600-pound character bent on destroying himself in the play "The Whale. It takes the all-around actor Scott Greer an hour each time he puts it on, in a hidden dressing room specially constructed on stage because the costume's too big to fit through portals.
It takes only a few scenes, though, to see that "The Whale" by Samuel D. Hunter, currently at Theatre Exile's Studio X in South Philadelphia, is worth all the effort. The unwieldy suit is a perfect fit. So is the play, a story with disparate plot lines that tighten its grip as it moves forward.”
THE WHALE (Theatre Exile): Intelligence and transformation moving under the surface | Phindie | February 2015 | Kathryn Osenlund
“A lesser actor could be upstaged by Alison Roberts’ brilliant and ponderous fat suit, sewn by Jill Keys. But Greer handles it, while taking on the dire physical and psychological extremities of his character’s condition.”
Reviews and Press for true west
TRUE WEST (Theatre Exile): Sibling rivalry and the American dream | Phindie | February 2014 | Debra Miller
"Together they personify the dual natures of both the “true west” and the artistic temperament (in aptly contrasting costumes by Alison Roberts), as they undergo a reversal of fortune..."
Reviews and Press for Any Given Monday
Any Given Monday, Theatre Exile | Talkin' Broadway | February 2010 | Tim Dunleavy
“Special notice should be made of Alison Roberts' costumes, which define the characters perfectly. The difference between Risa's elegant suit in act one and her disheveled robe in act two says as much about the unraveling of her character as her dialogue does.”
Personal Press
Rowan University Alumni Magazine
