"They say you only see twelve great shows in a lifetime. I suspect that may be true. I have seen Chuck Hudson direct three shows that left me in a state of transport, and I do not praise easily."
-Joann Farias , Playwright, recipient of the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights grant.
2007-8
'La Bohème' plays up drama... (CCM-Opera Theatre) Hudson's quest for meaning goes beyond words "to make the invisible visible." --Mary Ellen Hutton, Cincinnati Enquirer
Daring 'Turn of the Screw' thrills with a fine cast: In the Sacramento Opera's deeply engaging and highly provocative production of Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw," sexual awakening is the dramatic fuse that sets the drama on fire...Chuck Hudson's crisp and erotically veiled direction is filled with just the right fervor of caged sexuality. In this production, the housekeeper has unrealized sexual desires of her own that are directed toward the governess. All this seething ethereal erotica makes you wonder what's in the drinking water in this country estate. --Edward Ortiz , Sacramento Bee
Imagine Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" in a spirited, flawless performance, a splendidly cast, convincingly directed, spectacularly sung and played production...(Quint's) ghostly evil character (in Chuck Hudson's self-effacing and clearly communicating direction) received equally deserved bravos and hisses. Director and singer are both special in their ability and willingness to disappear in their work. There is no Regietheater or star in Sacramento, "only" good direction and great performance. --Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice
Sac Opera’s production (of Turn of the Screw) was elegantly staged and shrewdly interpreted by director Chuck Hudson, whose program note rightly observes the Hitchcockian overtones of the material–which “seduces as well as repulses the audience by what is left unsaid.” Highly skilled, increasingly kinky, unabashedly creepy. --Jonathan Kiefer, Sacramento News and Reviews
The Berkshire Opera's first production of Puccini's little masterpiece about love and friendship in the springtime of life succeeds under Chuck Hudson's staging for a simple reason: It seems real, delightfully and painfully so… The accent in Hudson's conceit for this "Bohème" is on realism. One never senses a mere traffic cop moving people around. He is impelling real people who are savoring and suffering life. The Act IV death scene is among the most cogent in memory as this Mimi slowly passes away and each character gradually realizes the tragedy that has occurred in that room. –Richard Houdek, Berkshire Eagle
Director Chuck Hudson did nothing to disturb the traditional setting of 19th-century Paris, nor did he throw the characters -- poor young artists -- off their fated course. –Joseph Dalton, Times Union (Albany)
Here is a jewel-box setting for an intricately cut and excellently mounted gem of a production…Hudson has taken this opera into the plains of reality with strong physical kinships and a sense of realism that sharpened those relationships. He has painted pictures that make sense and that aid in the tugging of our heartstrings. It is beautiful work and this company will be fortunate to have him back in future seasons. -- J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Bright Focus
2006-7
"Piedmont Opera's Così fan tutte: Fresh Insights Amid Tradition. My fulsome praise of stage director Chuck Hudson's splendid achievements in his traditional staging of Mozart's Così fan tutte. Fresh touches abounded throughout this production… An imaginative twist at the end is fully justified by the ambiguity of both Mozart's music and da Ponte's libretto…Hudson' "outside the box" approach was visible during mimed onstage action during the overture…Hudson's staging benefited from a strong cast of young singer-actors who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the spirit of his approach." -William Thomas Walker, Classical Voice of North Carolina
"Powerful Ending: Piedmont Opera gives 'Cosi' some clarity--stage director Chuck Hudson clarifies the less-than-clear conclusion of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Hudson's brilliant take on an opera:…Almost everything the singers do brilliantly illuminates or complements lyrics, instrumental sounds and the emotions they express. Thanks to Hudson, one scene flows smoothly into the next... We enjoy this Cosi for all the right reasons. It makes us laugh, and its music moves us in ways that few other scores can." -Ken Keuffel, Winston-Salem Journal
'Madama Butterfly' soars with simplicity. Stillness has a way of making sudden gestures seem profound. On Saturday, the Shreveport Opera's production of "Madama Butterfly" soared because it made the simplest actions "" either strewing flowers petals or unsheathing a dagger "" overflow with emotion...The production was directed by Chuck Hudson and conducted by Louis Menendez. The staging was exotic without being extravagant, allowing our attention to focus clearly on the deft performances by the cast and the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra...What struck me as most memorable was not the music but rather the calmly composed visions…Arguments were played without grand, distracting gestures. The cast always seemed to float in and out of view, never upstaging the two lovers…By highlighting crucial moments with true spectacle, the creators of this "Madama Butterfly" made sure the evening will not be forgotten soon. The Shreveport Opera deserves the highest marks for their efforts. -Alexander Kent, Shreveport Times
Overall credit must obviously go to a production team, who have worked long and hard to achieve so fluent a production (Le Nozze di Figaro at Cape Town Opera, South Africa), especially one which moves at this pace. Chuck Hudson's direction is a winning combination of textual and historical fidelity, coupled with just enough leeway to ensure a surprising degree of contemporary currency. Hudson's attention to detail in characterisation is exemplary and the result is a set of characters who are believable as fiction, but recognisable types in our own experience. -Deon Irish, Cape Times
Visiting New York stage and opera director Chuck Hudson has led from the top (Le Nozze di Figaro at cape Town Opera, South Africa). He has energised and inspired his disciplined young cast to reach new heights and they have responded. -Fiona Chisolm
It is something of a tour de force to take a perennial pleaser like Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro and give it the freshness of a less familiar work while keeping to traditional staging and costumes with due respect for a sense of period. This is precisely what this co-production between Cape Town Opera and the UCT Opera School offers its audience, and the result is an evening of undiluted pleasure. -Beverly Brommert, Cape Argus
It was an outstanding performance (Le Nozze di Figaro at Cape Town Opera, South Africa)! I’m still smiling this morning. -Erika Bornman, Chief Copy Editor: House and Leisure Magazine, South Africa
"Imagine Boccaccio channeled by Monty Python and you'll have some idea of the hilarity of Wolf Trap Opera Company's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory...The splendid 20-member cast revels in outrageous overacting and onstage wardrobe malfunctions. The set's angles and proportions are all wrong -- which is exactly right. See Le Comte Ory if you can. There's not a wrong note in the whole production." -- Mark J. Estren, Washington Post
"Director Chuck Hudson seized on the silliness (Wolf Trap Opera Company's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory) to create a steady stream of gags that were executed with considerable assurance...Lollipops, a sequined cod piece, self-flagellation, a flying cow, and a unicorn — just some of the diversions that complemented all the confident, stylish music-making." -- Tim Smith, Opera News
Funny, fast-paced 'Ory'. "The Wolf Trap Opera Company launched its impossibly entertaining version of Gioacchino Rossini's Le Comte Ory this past weekend, and it's a must-see...Positively vaudevillian. Director Chuck Hudson picks up the cue, crafting a production that seems, at times, like an outtake from "Spamalot" executed at breakneck speed...making this production a refreshing musical and comedic romp that can be savored by longtime opera fans as well as opera rookies searching for a painless point of entry." --TL Ponick, Washington Times
2005-6
"Massenet has always gone down easy...or at least it did...at the second performance of the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater's perfectly enjoyable production (Cendrillon)...Chuck Hudson, the director, stuck clearly to his story without too much embellishment...there was much to enjoy in this youthful evening. " --Anne Midgette, New York Times
"The Manhattan School has turned out many fine singers of late, and the current crop is in good hands for this show (Cendrillon): those of the increasingly prominent French conductor Laurent Pillot and the experienced, creative director Chuck Hudson." --David Shengold, Time Out NY
"For its spring production, the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater presented a properly enchanting account of Cendrillon (Cinderella)...its score of crystalline elegance led with a suitably light touch by Laurent Pillot, its action imaginatively guided by Chuck Hudson." --Bruce Michael-Gelbert, Opera Magazine (UK), Theatre Scene.net
The first-rate production (Le Donne di Gioccomo Puccini at Opera Santa Barbara / Puccini Festival of Lucca) featured...a terrifically strong cast of five sopranos performing, well, Puccini's greatest hits. Under the able baton of Cal Stewart Kellogg and stage director Chuck Hudson, singers and orchestra indulged in the high drama, emotional power and unforgettable melodies that are the hallmarks of this composer." --Peter Frisch, News-Press Correspondent
"Director Chuck Hudson (Barber of Seville, Sacramento Opera) never veered into slapstick or overextended the joke; he knew when to trust the audience. The sharp comic timing gave the stylized humor a sense of spontaneity." --Rasmi Simhan, Sacramento Bee
2004-5
"The AVA production (of Cosi) came two days later as balm to my ears and to my theatrical preconceptions also...I found it to be a perfectly enchanting evening in the theater...Chuck Hudson’s direction showed a delightfully light yet dramatically insightful touch, and the soloists’ stage presence backed his inspirations up splendidly." -Bernard Jacobson, Music Web UK
"Vibrant singing, acting lift Academy of Vocal Arts' `Cosi Fan Tutte': the comedy... unfolds at a fast pace in Hudson's physical staging. The director demands vivid acting, and the cast provides it... (The singers) both seize - and savor - the opportunities Hudson gives them for physical comedy. " -Robert Baxter, Philadelphia Courier-Post
"Everything about the production (Don Pasquale at San Francisco Opera Center) cohered, from the ingeniously funny staging by director Chuck Hudson to the musical performance, conducted by Dean Williamson and sung with tremendous vivacity by the cast...There wasn't a dull moment in Hudson's staging, which overflowed with running gags, visual puns and physical shtick of every variety. The director set up the laughs, and the cast mined them for all they were worth." -Georgia Rowe, Contra Coasta Times
"Such a meringue of a plot (of Cosi fan tutte at Opera Santa Barbara) requires superb singing and deft comic timing to pull off. This cast succeeds, helped enormously by New York stage director Chuck Hudson, whose stagecraft is impeccable." --Margo Kline, Valley Voice
"Talk about neglected genius! The Wolf Trap Opera Company ( production of Rameau's opera "Dardanus")...compensated for bygone neglect with a sparkling performance, worthy of the historic occasion." -Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post
"Director Chuck Hudson (Rameau's opera "Dardanus") and choreographer Catherine Turocy have effectively re-created that charming mix of martial arts and dance that has been a vital sideshow in French opera since its earliest incarnations. MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS" -
"Judging from Saturday night's opening, this "La Traviata" is anything but a perfunctory reading of an operatic chestnut...Chuck Hudson's direction is refreshingly naturalistic for an opera that could easily slip into false melodrama. The teeming ensemble is impressive in individualizing the many minor characters, even when engaging in the layered, interweaving choral pieces that are a Verdi trademark." --Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
"A crème brûlée of a production...deliciously sweet... directed by Chuck Hudson amid a set reminiscent of a Viennese chocolate box (The Merry Widow) consistently leans upon the twin crowd pleasers of twist-filled comedy and star-crossed lovers...a light and lovely season opener." --Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
"Chuck Hudson's staging (of The Merry Widow), augmented by Michael Matthew Ferrell's cute choreography, showed a light, clever touch...and kept the show moving at a sprightly pace all evening." --Michael Anthony, Star Tribune
"Chuck Hudson, the director (of She Stoops to Conquer), keeps his able cast in almost constant motion on the stage, even through the scene changes. The pace and timing of the performances, essential for farce, is sharp throughout, from pauses to double-takes, and Mr. Hudson patiently lets the humor build on its own rather than trying to rush the laughs with stage business or mugging." -Wilborn Hampton, The New York Times
Actors Equity Presents the Joe A. Callaway Award for Best Actress in a Classical Play
to Celeste Ciulla as Kate Hardcastle in SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER
"That the staging (of Don Pasquale at the Wolf Trap Opera Company) works as well as it does owes much to the cast of flexible young singers and to director Chuck Hudson's well-gauged, highly detailed approach to physical comedy...And all the singers make the most of whatever comic business the director has sent their way." --Joe Bano, The Washington Post
2000-2001
"Risk pays off for opera company: Eugene Opera did an excellent job of bringing this riveting opera (Carlisle Floyd's Susannah) to the stage...the production on Friday night was what any opera should be - a complete musical drama...with Chuck Hudson's fine dramatic direction, the opera set off sparks (as the singers) portrayed their characters with vocal and dramatic insight...This opera production was the best of the season. If "Susannah" is any indication, we should be in for some exciting years ahead." --Marilyn FarwellL, The Register-Guard
“Barber of Seville a witty confection: Barber is a warhorse, but director Chuck Hudson gives it a new patina. His emphasis on physical busyness, including an amazing amount of high-spirited acrobatics, is a model true to the extravagant nature of the piece that also enhances the characters…This is one of Minnesota Opera’s most successful productions of many seasons.” -William Randall Beard, Pioneer Press
20th Century
“…The American theatre abounds in skillful movement teachers, fight choreographers, specialists in mime and modern dance and classical commedia, as it does in stage directors full of novel interpretive ideas. But not one in a hundred possesses, as does Hudson, the ability to infuse movement with intelligence, to make ideas flesh.” -Roger Downey, Seattle Weekly
“Chuck is dedicated and looks into the creative future. May destiny bless him and his company. I wish him a long success full of joy and drama. With love and great confidence always, for Chuck and his Immediate Theatre.” -Marcel Marceau, Open letter to the press
“ Figaro has explosively lively staging by Chuck Hudson…[with] fully believable character[s] whose every gesture worked toward greater expressive depth.” -Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times
“Acting is a whole area that’s been underemphasized in voice training…Their stage Guru? Chuck Hudson [whose] classes have also given [the singers] a safe place in which to make mistakes, learn through them, and to be comfortable… on stage.” -Holly Johnson, "Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program" in Sforzando Magazine
“The director of Così, Chuck Hudson [approached] the piece rather like the current Metropolitan Opera production, [playing] up its comedy with very few dark overtones. The audience loved it, responding with a lot of laughter, applause, and a rousing ovation at the end…I never saw an audience any more enthusiastic or more excited than those who attended Così.” -Speight Jenkins, General Director: Seattle Opera
"A Tempest with vigorous movement...Hudson is a diverse talent." -H. Lee Murphy, Chicago Tribune
"The Tempest is a feast for the ears... a good production of Shakespeare can often be more enlightening than a thousand footnotes, if the actors and director have taken the time to truly digest the meaning of each line and then communicate it clearly to the audience. For this alone, director Chuck Hudson and the Borealis ensemble deserve high marks."-Chicago Sun Times
“Hudson proves surprising: you never know when he’ll spring a back-flip on you. The graceful, pony-tailed actor brings physicality to Petruchio’s machismo with rooster struts and flaps. But he also injects moments of regretful tenderness into his maltreatment of Kate, making that dreaded line ‘I must be cruel to be kind” almost palatable.” -Misha Berson, Seattle Times
“Smooth, yet tightly coiled, Chuck Hudson (Petruchio) remains the centerpiece of this production. Long passages of verse melt on his tongue at the same time as he’s springing into somersaults and handstands, or propelling himself into the air off two straight legs like a tapping cane. And despite his bravura, he’s a team player.” -Jean Lenihan, Seattle Times
“[A Round Game] is staged in the same hyper-stylized presentational aesthetic that made the company famous…With an extremely talented ensemble of local actors, [Hudson’s] work has…been innovative, stunning theater at its most finely tuned.” -Paul Matthews, The Seattle Weekly
“Under the direction of Chuck Hudson, a disciple of mime artist Marcel Marceau, The Immediate Theatre revisits the text [of Woyzeck] in a physically charged… rendering [that] conveys the poetic force and existential pathos of Büchner’s fable.” -Misha Berson, The Seattle Times
“The second Immediate Theatre staging of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, demonstrated that the first [Kafka’s Metamorphosis] was no fluke…Hudson produced a dizzying spectacle of lurid and flamboyant stage pictures to match the disordered visions of Büchner’s poor-murderer hero.”
“Echoes of King Lear--Hudson’s approach (to Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck) is…a legitimate choice, if you have visual and rhythmic imagination to pull it off, and Hudson has imagination to spare.” -Roger Downey, The Seattle Weekly
“…Woyzeck receives a simple but effective Immediate Theatre production…[in which] Director Chuck Hudson sweeps up his ensemble of a dozen actors in a weird, flickering array of tableaux.” -Joe Adcock, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“With extreme stylization of movement and a presentational aesthetic that is crisp and refreshingly powerful, this production (of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck) lives in the limbo somewhere between dance concert, poetry recital, music video, and fashion show…Staging choices are bold and engaging, one striking tableau morphing into the next. It was a pleasure to see smart directorial impulses, impulses that made sense with the text, executed by a cast that, almost without exception, had complete control over their ‘Instruments.’
“I went back and saw this show twice. I suggest that you see it at least once.” -Matthew Richter, The Stranger
“You must see The Metamorphosis, presented by The Immediate Theatre. [It] is about as touching as theater gets…Never have I seen a play so fully bring to life a state of mind.” -N.W. Barcus, The Stranger
"Yushi and the Thunder Dragon is a wonderfully enchanting script brought to life through the use of Bunraku-like puppets and the beauty of the Japanese sets, costumes and music. There is endless creative opportunity..." -M. Colleen Lewis. BYU Children's Book and Play Review
“In every field there are about five guys who know what they are doing—everybody else is more or less faking it. Well, when it comes to movement for the actor—[Chuck Hudson] is one of those five guys.” -Don Fleming, Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre Drama School