Tina Taylor is an incredible artist, a joy to work with, a force to be reckoned with, a damn smart cookie, and, hell yes, a nasty woman. 10/10 would recommend.

"Tina Taylor... will guide you and let you roll with the words in your own way. She's fantastic to work with--and allows your true self to emerge within Shakespeare's incredible verse and prose. If you've never done Shakespeare, or have done it a lot--you can have a wonderful experience. I highly recommend this class!"

I love working with Tina, and I appreciate the creative risks she asks us to take. Her work is important, and her choices always fall outside of what might be expected. I feel like I have free rein to take risks; and she will always give me honest feedback, in a non-judgmental manner.  She creates a positive space that is full of movement and words, spontaneity and focus, especially on text.  I consider Tina to be a collaborator, and in the time I’ve worked with her, I think I’ve grown immensely as an artist.

Tina Taylor is one of the most insightful and sensitive directors I have had the privilege to work with in the past few years. She is thoughtful and shrewd with her interpretation and understanding of character and plot; yet wise enough to know how to guide her actors into finding and realizing her goals in their own time. As an actor, I always felt respected and excited being directed by Tina

“She is really smart and wants the best for everyone. She taught me a lot about the “we're all in this together" mindset and made me rethink about how online learning doesn’t have to be all alone and isolated like it seems.”

“She was also able to mould our voices and bodies to fit our characters despite not being with us in person. I can’t imagine how productive and good the unit would have been in person.”

“She completely eliminated my stage-fright.”

“Really good for my health, my academic achievement, and most importantly my sanity. I could not have survived this quarantine if we had not done A Midsummer Night's Dream!”

“It was the most fun I’ve had all quarantine because she was the most supportive, fun-loving, and just generally kind person that I’ve ever met.”

“You introduced us to his work patiently and deliberately, and your kindly mentoring and vivid descriptions of the scenes we were enacting really brought the play to life in my mind.”

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“Ms.Taylor is absolutely fabulous, teaching us how to read and speak in the Shakespearean language, and teaching us how to use our faces, voices and bodies to really embrace our characters. She is kind, patient and understands that even during this difficult time, we need to be able to express ourselves and be able to interact with people, even if it is over Zoom.”

“You not only directed us in putting on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but taught us so much about Shakespeare’s writing, and what kinds of techniques he uses. It has become a lot more apparent to me how much of an art form Shakespeare’s writing is, and how thoughtfully he put together his famous plays.”

“She makes sure everyone feels like they have a very important role and makes sure to spend enough time with each person, to make sure they are prepared.”

“Ms. Taylor has taught many young actors, and they will hold on to the advice and teachings that she has done for the rest of their lives.”

“The most important thing I learned from the drama unit was that acting isn’t about all the cool fighting and choreography and special effects, it’s about characters and telling their stories through a play.”

“Something that struck me was you were never too easy or hard; you always had the perfect tone to get your point across without making us feel too overwhelmed.”

“Her manner of teaching was calm and collected, and remembering how successful she was without ever raising her voice or snapping at anyone will help me keep my temper in check when I’m frustrated.”

“It is evident that Ms. Taylor is highly skilled at what she does. Her enthusiasm for Shakespeare and the English language is contagious, and it improved the performances of everyone in the class.”

Tina’s extraordinary performance in the role of Barbara in the Ross Valley Players’ production of PACK OF LIES caught my attention and made me wonder where this actor has been all my life. She brought out every nuance of Barbara’s character, from her kindness, to her fear, to her outrage, and everything else in between. Although I hadn’t seen her perform before, you can bet I’ll see her again — and if I’m lucky, perhaps in something I’ve written.

"Tina Taylor is a director OF TODAY! Fun, feminist, empathic, and visionary. Tina moves art and theatre out of misogynistic realms and into the power of equality."

I had the good fortune of having Tina direct plays which I wrote. While I view myself as being creative and having a clear sense of my work, she brought the words to life in a way that made the plays seem new to me, and much better than I have envisioned.
She is imaginative, inventive, smart, and hard working. Plus she brings high standards to every project she’s involved with.

I love working with Tina.  Her aesthetic of stripping away pretense, and getting text and story down to its bare, raw essentials is invigorating. Tina’s theatre is immediate, engaging, no-nonsense, and brave.  More than anything, she is deeply committed to her actors and infuses them with power and creativity.

Tina Taylor is an insightful and compassionate director. She creates a nurturing, safe, and stimulating rehearsal and performance environment that invites collaboration and exploration. She is first and foremost a teacher, and her willingness to share her knowledge of text, history, and physical theatre, makes every rehearsal an opportunity to learn something new as an actor. Tina has encouraged and supported me to build more daring characters and helped me to be a more committed and confident performer.

Tina focuses on the ensemble and the arc of a play while still eliciting strong individual performances. She pays close attention to the story that she tells and never forgets the audience’s experience of the work. Tina works like a painter. She strips everything down to the essence of the words, utilizes the actor’s individuality and intuitiveness, and then layers on details of physical movement and sound. The result is exhilarating to perform, and from what I’ve heard from audiences and read in reviews, a unique visceral vision of the script.

For me, Tina is everything an actor could want from their director.

Inspiring, patient and kind. These are the words students use to describe Tina Taylor. Students thrive in her classroom—soaking up the knowledge she imparts and the art she models and teaches. Students leave Tina's classroom confident, knowledgable, and better team players. Through a pedagogical approach that is rigorous and challenging, and emotionally and socially supportive, Tina recognizes the diverse strengths and needs of every student, gathers all together, and creates an environment where all strive, not only to do their best, but to support their classmates to do the same. Tina transforms students into confident, kind and delightfully dramatic actors, at ease with Shakespeare's text, and successfully earning the laughter and applause of their audience.

I’ve worked with Tina Taylor. I’ve seen her in action, as an actress, as a director. And she’s one of those. One of those people with true and astonishing talent who is deeply caring and understanding of the humanity of humans and treats them accordingly. They don’t come around that often, ones that have both of these things. I’ve seen Tina go from the kind and warm, real friend to a force of nature on stage with elegance and presence, one of those who changes the air into electricity and magnetism. Unafraid of emotions and deeply sensitive to nuance. Yup, Tina Taylor

I want to thank you... for making the Midsummer Night’s Dream Zoom performance by the 7th graders possible.  I know how challenging it was to execute in the current environment, and I believe that it was the most significant academic accomplishment that I have seen among my children during the shelter period.

In spite of many obstacles - physical isolation, remote (international!) coaching, zoom rehearsals - the performance was integrated, dynamic, thoughtful, and enthusiastically embraced by all involved.

Tina is a brilliant actor and director. We have collaborated on many projects over the years with kids, teens and adults. She is a great teacher and communicator with a wealth of experience which she can draw from to address acting skills, acting issues, production details and even interpersonal issues which may arise in the cast or the production team. She has a particular genius for blocking, movement and improvisation. In working with her I am always clear about what she is after and she has also been very open to suggestion and co-creating with actors and with me. I have written music and have been music director in her teen and adult productions and occasionally acted in her adult productions and she has co-directed with me in my kids musicals. In addition to her personal warmth, she has abounding energy, a keen eye and a sharp wit. I highly recommend Tina.

Tina has the wonderful ability to think outside the box with character development.  She brings every role to life with careful relationship understanding with the other roles.  A lovely person on and off stage.  You will not regret working with her.