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REVIEWS

  "BECOMING DR. RUTH"

Diane Wasnak’s performance as Dr. Ruth Westheimer in “Becoming Dr. Ruth" garnered Diane
outstanding praise from audience members and enormous recognition for Director, Kathy Mulay
and Farmers Alley Theatre. A one woman tour de force, Diane played to sold out audiences at
every performance while an extra weekend of shows was added to meet the demand!
 

 


AUDIENCE COMMENTS



"The show was absolutely wonderful due to the superb acting.”
- Julie C


"I felt like Dr Ruth was really there with us.” - Gloria M


"I absolutely LOVED Dr. Ruth! I wasn't expecting it,
but I was moved to tears at the end.”

"The whole show was very moving and the acting
was a tour-de-force.”
- Kathleen O


"What an incredible performance!” - Ann W


"Do not miss this. She is fantastic!” - Bill W

 




“Wasnak has honed her clown skills to such a degree that she can
define a character or set a scene with a single, clear concise gesture.”
--- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle


 




“Diane Wasnak is my find of this show.
”(in reference to “Busker Alley”, Broadway premiere)
--- Tony Walton, Award WinningDirector and Designer



CRITICS REVIEW "BECOMING DR. RUTH"





 

Energetic, One-Woman Wonder
Truly Embodies Renowned Sex Therapist

Excerpts from Review by Katie Houston


If you like history or grandmothers or sex or even just admire survivors of hard times, chances are you will enjoy the evening of storytelling that is “Becoming Dr. Ruth” at Farmers Alley Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo.

The stories are all true, and though some are harrowing, most are presented with a smile if not a giggle by the tiny Diane Wasnak as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the pioneering radio and television sex therapist active in the 1980s — and still with us at age 94.

Wasnak, based in Louisville, Kentucky, responded to a casting call for the role with a video, and we are lucky she did. She embodies more than portrays Dr. Ruth, keeping us riveted as she moves around and over the set, acting the 10-year old, kicking her feet as she sits on a high box or feigning riding a bike through Jerusalem or pushing a baby carriage through the streets of New York. With a career that includes time as a clown with Cirque du Soleil and stunt double for actress Jada Pinkett Smith, it would be no surprise to hear this might be Wasnak’s dream role.









“Becoming Dr. Ruth” Dives Deep Into
One Fascinating Woman's Life
Revue - West Michigan’s Art & Entertainment Guide

Excerpts from Review by Marin Heinritz

The best storytellers invariably are those who are delighted by the stories they’re telling. This is certainly the case in Farmers Alley’s one-woman show “Becoming
Dr. Ruth,” in which the 20th Century’s preeminent sex therapist and public personality tells a chronological narrative about how she came to be.

Okay, so it’s not the 94 year old herself doing a biographical cabaret show. But you’d be hard pressed to distinguish actor Diane Wasnak from the vivacious,
jovial, matronly yet childlike, smart, impish woman you think of as Dr. Ruth.

But as fascinating as her story is, it’s the way Diane Wasnak embodies her more than anything that makes this show worthwhile. Wasnak has worked on stage and
in film for decades—as a clown and a stunt double as well as in Cirque du Soleil among many other roles. And she brings that wealth of experience to create a surprisingly physical performance of this elderly woman who moves around a
small space while simultaneously creating vivid worlds of imagination, memory,
and history, with only the audience and pre-recorded radio show callers to play off.



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