KRISTI SCHULTZ
Director - Choreographer
Critics say....
Reviews for 'The Submission'
LA WEEKLY by Lovell Estell
“GO! Kristi Schultz’s direction is brilliant, artfully balancing the physical comedy and adding some stylish directorial touches.”
LA CITYBEAT by DonShirley
‘These plays were the essence of theatrical cool back then and retain that in Kristi Schultz’s inventive revival for Zoo District. [This production] rejects the surface realism that dominates Hollywood and much of mainstream theater. Hipsters want their theatre skewed, shaken, and stirred, they show us how it’s done.”
BACKSTAGE WEST by Jennie Webb
Kristi Schultz and a top-notch cast have given an old absurdist a new, decidedly retro infusion of hipster chic and manic energy. And they've created one swell piece of consistently high style. Under Schultz’s finely tuned direction, the performers carry out her stylish TV-dinner vision and often make it even tastier…Schultz, with designers, have created a topsy-turvy Tomorrowland world well worth taking note of.”
Reviews for 'The Defenders'
LA TIMES CRITIC'S CHOICE - Charlotte Stoudt
“Witty, disciplined and gorgeous to look at, The Defenders deserves a smart audience and long run… There’s a beautiful, deadly villain (the formidable Kristi Schultz, working every abbreviated inch of Johnny Apollo's over-the-top costumes)…Fretté and the Zoo District company demonstrate how deliciously they can pirouette across the deadpan aesthetics of '60s pop style…The secret to The Defenders’ elan is how deftly its elements work together. It's this overall kinetic and visual wit that makes The Defenders such a silly, exhilarating pleasure.”
BACKSTAGE WEST Critic’s Pick - Jennie Webb
Five Garland Award nominations: Scenic Design, Lighting Design, Costume Design, Choreography, and Original Score
“Fretté brings his love of all things disguised as secret weapons - including and especially the human body - to the stage in his splendidly all-consuming send up of the genre (60’s Spy)…Also part of the undercover formula are counterspies Griffin DuLac and the gorgeous Camilla Fairchild (Kristi Schultz, every inch the femme fatale, thanks in part to costumes to die for )… The Defenders is all about style, and kicks into high gear when the characters come out fighting. Fretté's hilariously choreographed battles - from girl-on-girl torture to the carefully aimed blow dart - are fantastic from concept to execution by this skilled and committed cast.
Reviews for 'Destruction of the Fourth World'
EYESPYLA - Mike Buzzelli
“The Destruction of the Fourth World is more than a treatise on Nihilism, but a moving emotional tale of humans trying to cope with their humanity in a complex world bent on destroying itself…The play, masterfully co-directed by Kristi Schultz and Brian Fretté, is seamless…The Destruction of Fourth World blurs the fourth wall. It is experimental theatre at its finest, full of avant-garde fun"
LA TIMES - Kathleen Foley
"Buoyed by innovative design elements, directors Kristi Schultz and Brian Fretté wisely stress the piece’s playfulness…’World’ bristles with raw urgency.”
BACKSTAGE WEST - Jennie Webb
It’s a fascinating study…and a provocative choice, putting two of Murray Mednick’s new, full-length plays in the hands of artists from different companies, with different sensibilities that attack the material from different directions. Essentially wrapped in a stylized end-times package, Directors Kristi Schultz and Brian Frette’ helm this expansive, freewheeling staging, which nicely integrates the other realm occupied by the capricious Coyote…”