Acting

Agnes ∼ Dancing at Lughnasa

Gloucester Stage Company

“Superbly acted by an exceptional ensemble…”   – Mike Hoban, The Theater Mirror  

Winner, Best Play: Midsize Theater, 2019 IRNE Awards

Hermia ∼ Dead Man’s Cell Phone

Lyric Stage Company of Boston

As Gordon’s widow, Hermia, Bryn Austin creates a character who is the human equivalent of a dry martini (she reminded me of Christine Baranski’s Maryann Thorpe in “Cybill’’), yet plausible in her moments of regret at not committing herself more fully to her marriage.
–Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe

Mrs. Cheveley ∼ An Ideal Husband

The Summer Company

But the villainess herself, Bryn Austin, is the one to watch—she can be five ways wicked just sitting in a chair. –Walter Evert, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Governess ∼ The Turn of the Screw

Pitt Repertory Theatre

As both director and actor, Robert CT Steele creates the filigree setting for his jeweled center:  Bryn Austin’s powerhouse performance as the governess.  To fully appreciate her achievement, you have to keep in your head a snapshot of her opening scene—the fluttery, naïve woman applying or the governess job—then throw that up next to her final moments as a consumed, tortured, avenging angel—and then try to figure out how she got from one to the other, in full view, without you even realizing it.  Truly remarkable. –Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper

Ensemble ∼ Love and Information

The Apron Theater, VT

Madame Arcati ∼ Blithe Spirit

Winnipesaukee Playhouse

Of note:   Bryn Austin’s Madame Arcati, who seems to have risen whole from an amalgam of Carol Burnett and Beyond The Fringe sketch comedies. –Michael Curtiss, Caught in the Act

Mrs. Zero ∼ The Adding Machine

Pitt Repertory Theatre

Director Choi has done marvelous work forging an absolute lock-stepped ensemble, harrowing in their detailed, studied performances.  Leading them on is the amazing work of Bryn Austin and Doug Mertz as the Zeros.    Austin opens the play with a completely insane, horrifically fascinating epic monologue and she just doesn’t quit!  Refusing to camp it up, wink at the material or – that dreadful actor nonsense—find “humanity” in her character, she digs down, digs deep and uses all 10 pointed fingernails to do it.  It’s a compliment of the highest order to say that, thanks to her work, this character is appalling. –Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh City Paper

When the lights come up on Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionistic play The Adding Machine, the sound you hear is like a buzz saw going through your brain.  But it’s really only Mrs. Zero, a dysfunctional housewife, who is chattering on and on as she begins her day.  Austin finds the scary maddening qualities of her screechy wife and plays her bullying character to perfection. –Richard Rauh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mrs. Prentice ∼ What the Butler Saw
Pitt Repertory Theatre

The comic style award goes to Bryn Austin, mistress of the double take.  –Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dr. Halbrech ∼ Scotland Road
Winnipesaukee Playhouse

Bryn Austin and Dorothy Piquado both take the stage in strong, convincing ways- Austin as The Woman’s attending physician and Piquado as a superannuated, utterly creepy recluse who also survived the TITANIC sinking.   Yet, of course, neither is quite what they’d have us believe.  As the play progresses, both Austin and Piquado strip away the veneers in which their characters are encased to reveal more conflicted, and far darker, reasons for claiming to be who they are.  Both women grace this play with artful performances.    –Michael Curtiss, Caught in the Act

Algernon ∼ The Importance of Being Earnest
Unseam’d Shakespeare Company

Director Nona Gerard has selected the cream of Pittsburgh’s crop of actors and lets them play off each other in just the right key.  Elena Passarello as Jack/Earnest and Bryn Austin as Algernon imbue their wit and movement with the perfect combination of wiliness and indecision, constantly darting to the side, stepping backward and putting on their most dashing smiles to avoid uncomfortable situations.   –John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Beatrice ∼ Much Ado about Nothing
Pitt Repertory Theatre

The play’s heart is not in its young heroes at all, but its more wearied veterans of the love wars, Beatrice (Bryn Austin) and Benedict (Doug Mertz).  When the story turns dark, Beatrice’s strength finds fit occasion, and it is deeply moving how Benedict finds true love in catastrophe.  In their final dance, they seem a real match.    –Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bryn Austin brings a vibrant, sensible approach to her Beatrice, who’s old enough for caution yet young enough to embrace the possibilities that attachment presents.    –Alice T. Carter, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Desdemona ∼ Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet
Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival / Unseam’d Shakespeare

Bryn Austin as the hell-raising Desdemona turns her tragic heroine into a laugh a minute.  –Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Press

Elsa ∼ The Road to Mecca
24th Street Experiment

The 24^th Street Experiment made its triumphant return with a masterfully wrought production…and a stellar cast.  –Diane Windeler,   San Antonio Express News

Aunt Polly ∼ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Winnipesaukee Playhouse

Ruth ∼ Blithe Spirit
The Summer Company

Bryn Austin nails the smugly self-possessed wife, Ruth.  We relish watching her settled, ordinary life get torn apart by circumstances she can’t control.  –Alice T. Carter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Dotty ∼ Noises Off!
Palace Theater, Manchester NH

Isabella Bird/Nell  ∼ Top Girls
Apron Theater/Next Stage Arts

A wonderful symphony with a superb cast…. to experience this production is to take part in a work that will engage, entertain, and inform.   –Fred Lee, Brattleboro Reformer

Lady Bracknell  ∼ The Importance of Being Earnest
Winnipesaukee Playhouse

Honors

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New Hampshire Theatre Awards:

Finalist, Best Supporting Actress/Professional (2014)

Aunt Polly/Ensemble in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Winnipesaukee Playhouse 

Finalist, Best Supporting Actress/Professional   (2010)

Dr. Halbrech in Scotland Road, Winnipesaukee Playhouse

 *

Alamo Theatre Arts Council GLOBE Awards:

Outstanding Production of a Comedy

Real Women Have Curves   (2009)

 The Clean House (2008) 

Excellence in Direction

As You Like It  (2006), UIW Theatre

Anton in Show Business (2005)

Leading Actress in a Drama

Elsa in The Road to Mecca, 24^th Street Experiment (2006)

*

Year End Review of Theatre, Pittsburgh City Paper:

Named one of “Best Leading Actresses in 2001” for originating the role of Rachel Carson in Silent Spring:  Alarums & Excursions, Pitt Repertory Theatre

Named “Hardest Working Performer in Show Business,” by Ted Hoover, Theatre Critic (2000)

 *

Pittsburgh New Works Festival Award:

Best Actress, (1997)