DIRECTING
"PICT has mounted a first-rate production with clear direction, good casting, and excellent design which will leave you no doubt that you're seeing soemthing special." ~ John Francis Glass, dramaurge.com, review of Doubt (2009)
". . . this production, under Jeffrey Cordell's near-flawless guidance, shows that overexposure hasn't dampened the intensity and the suspense . . . Lucky for him, and for us, too, Cordell found a quartet strong enough and talented enough to generate the crackling power in a war that rages on the most terryifying battelefield there is, the one behind closed doors." ~ Doug Shanaberger, Washington Observer-Reporter, review of Doubt (2009)
"For this clockwork contraption of a script to function, no other playing style could work but naturalism, and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical director Jeffrey M. Cordell has obviously stressed 'acting-free' acting from his strong cast." ~ Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of Doubt (2009)
"Director Cordell certainly has found the right way to make the most and best of the material, never forcing anything, always keeping the roles believable while finding excellent ways to have his artists physically enhance the meaning of what they are saying." ~ Gordon Spencer, WRCT's "The Best of Broadway," review of Private Lives (2007)
"And, really, I can't imagine a finer opportunity for you to see Coward at his best than this pristine production from Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. Thanks to the immaculate, nuanced and achingly precise direction of Jeffrey M. Cordell, this Private Lives seems as natural as breathing and as funny as . . . well, don't get me started on how funny." ~Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of Private Lives (2007)
"Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre has produced the best version of Private Lives Pittsburgh will ever see." ~ Doug Shanaberger, Observer-Reporter, review of Private Lives, (2007)
“Director Cordell paces and stages everything with vigor and color, keeping the action moving so you never feel you are attending a museum piece where people just talk and talk and posture and posture. Rather they live and breathe.” ~ Gordon Spencer, WQED Arts Magazine, review of Boston Marriage (2006)
“Cordell . . . creates an onstage world of unbelievable theatricality, with its eyebrows arched high, the back of its cheeks sucked in, and gliding down the runway in six-inch heels.” ~ Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of Boston Marriage (2006)
“Director Jeffrey Cordell and his student cast have put on a very solid, highly respectable production of this very curious work. . . . and the supporting players, thanks to Cordell’s intelligent and always theatrical vision, show a felicity for Albee’s style.” ~ Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of Everything in the Garden (2003)
“Director and production designer Jeff Cordell’s spare use of furniture and harsh lighting emphasizes LaBute’s characters’ clinical, detached, and dispassionate delivery that makes their recountings even more chilling. Cordell allows his actors little movement, adding emphasis to the disparity between their outer control and their inner turmoil.” ~ Alice T. Carter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, review of bash: latterday plays (2003)
“On a purely theatrical level, however, LaBute’s writing has much to recommend it—clean, sparse and exceedingly precise, which, I’m happy to report, is the exact description of Jeff Cordell’s direction for this barebones production . . . and yes, Cordell’s blocking is simple (the actors hardly ever move from their chairs), but it’s simplicity with purpose and design.” ~ Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of bash: latterday plays (2003)
“The intensity reaches its height in “The Only Jealousy of Emer”, directed by Cordell. . . A doubled chorus whose sides echo each other works beautifully to illuminate the struggle.” ~ Kate Luce Angell, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, review of The Cuchulain Cycle (2004)
PLAYWRITING
“Cordell explores the lifestyles, loves and miscommunications that make
gaydom so very complicated. . . [he] is among a special class of playwrights—the
ones who can make a manifesto interesting.”
~ Robert Isenberg, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, review of “How Gay?
So Gay” as part of 2005 Pittsburgh Pride Theatre Festival
“Of the eight one-act plays, I was especially impressed with the range,
wit and emotion of “How Gay? So Gay” by Jeffrey M. Cordell. Comprised
of three small, emblematic stories—each a play in miniature—with
embracing banter on gay consciousness and dilemma, it was itself an epitome
of the whole festival.”
~ Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, review of “How
Gay? So Gay” as part of 2005 Pittsburgh Pride Theatre Festival
“Cordell renders a relationship that will feel
familiar to many—warm and connected but, perhaps, not able to register
high enough on the commitment-meter. As Joshua, Varian Huddleston gives a lovely,
layered performance, shifting between his drag stage character, his naughty
off-stage self, and the he-man he mocks Timothy for seeming to want. Grant Reinhardt’s
Timothy, though more restrained, is authentic and likeable.”
~ Andy Newman, Pittsburgh City Paper, review of “Defense of Marriage”
as part of 2004 Pittsburgh Pride Theatre Festival