"I have worked with Donna as an actor in a number of shows she has directed. She is conscientious in individualizing her directing to the skill level and the understanding of each actor. She can use a variety of language, images, and/or techniques to bring that actor to the creative state of character needed by the play.

Before the beginning of the rehearsal period she will have been thorough in her analysis of the play and the development of the plot, the characters and their relationships, and the final resolution. During auditions she looks not only at the individual actors and their abilities, but also at the balance between them and the potential they will bring to the production.

Just as Donna spends preparation time ahead of the rehearsal perioid so it can be used to develop the creative process of the play, she also expects the cast and crew to come to rehearsals prepared and ready to expand this creative process during the rehearsal."

~ Margaret Gudmundsson
Member of Board of Directors
Actors Ensemble of Berkeley

"I was more than dubious when I heard that our church fundraiser would consist of mologues by 22 of our church women, some of whom had never been on stage. But that was before I met Donna Davis, who conceived, directord and produced the show, Women's Voices, in March 2002.

It is an understatement to say that these women worked hard. That they certainly did. They were dedicated. Tey did more than learn their lines. Donna taught them much, much more. She encouraged them to delve inside the characers they played. They learned how their characters lived, their mannerisms, their fears and their loves. During the play, they simply became those characters.

The show was so good, so good that many who saw it asked when the group would next perform. In fact it was so good that I decided to see it all three nights.

I learned what Donna Davis can really do: take a group of intelligent amateurs and meld them into an accomplished performing group, good enough that you want to see them again and again."

~ Karl Ruppenthal

"Donna Davis created a new play from existing sources and titled it 'Women's Voices, Then and Now.' It was produced at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley where I serve as one of the ministers. Donna directed the play, casting twenty-one women who received hours of individual coaching from Donna. Each woman felt herself growing in Donna's presence and from her attention. Each woman stretched to understand every word, feeling, and action of her character. Each woman did more than she ever knew she could. Donna created magic-individual growth, community among the women, and a move-the-audience-to-laughter-tears-and-fresh-insight production!"

- The Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway
U.U.C.B.