praise for Initiative =
“Millennials are, at least for now, the last generation of believers. We grew up wanting to “fix the world” and thinking it could be done… Clara and Riley — with their big hearts and weak armor, untempered by irony, vulnerable to the catastrophes of disillusionment — might as well be our patron saints. These smart, soulful best friends are at the heart of Initiative… Barresi and Cuellar hold each other up with palpable tenderness, each one crafting a long, poignant arc from innocence through the fogs and thorns of experience.” - Sara Holdren for New York Magazine
“Epic D&D campaigns make up a significant portion of the production. Riley plays dungeon master to a group that also includes the anxious overachiever Clara, a moving Olivia Rose Barresi... During these fantastical sequences, the teenagers get to escape into the roles of the resolute heroes they wish they were…” - Raven Snook for Time Out New York
“Arguably at the center of it all are childhood BFFs Riley (Greg Cuellar) and Clara (Olivia Rose Barresi)… Cuellar’s steady presence and comedic timing is the perfect foil for Barresi’s world-weariness. Sometimes fraught, sometimes misguided, but always with a baseline of love…” - Austin Fimmano for New York Theatre Guide
“And the cast… delivers pitch-perfect performances of individuals in a perpetual state of inchoate transition. Barresi finds hidden depths as the straight-arrow Clara…” - Thom Geier for Culture Sauce
“It would be remiss of me to not mention some of the fantastic performances within this company - in particular, Olivia Rose Barresi as Clara - so brilliant…” - Mickey Jo Theatre
Initiative also featured in New York Magazine’s Best Plays and Musicals of 2025
New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix for the week of 11/26/25
Entertainment Weekly’s Must List for the weekend of 11/28/25
New York Times editorial by Douglas Corzine
Variety feature by Jennifer Maas
Polygon feature by Corey Plante
praise for A Midsummer Night’s Dream =
“Two of the performers tower above the rest, so much that the whole show shifts in their direction: Olivia Rose Barresi is hysterical, in both the funny and insane senses of the word, as Helena . . . Barresi makes every line count, from frustration to bemusement.” - The Hartford Courant
“Olivia Rose Barresi gives an excellent performance in the role of the statuesque Helena.” - Rep-Am
praise for Prometheus Bound =
"a young god who threatens and interrogates . . . Olivia Rose Barresi stands out as Hermes, embodying the god of speed’s quick wit and racing thoughts with a novel, urbane mania." - Medium
"Created under constraints, this production invokes the verité mysticism that ancient Greek audiences likely felt; we can tell we are in the cave-like setting of an empty theatre, but we are entranced by the suggestions of the supernatural." - Medium
praise for Female Nude Seated =
“Mainie [Olivia Rose Barresi] struggles nightmarishly with being an artist who has been shown . . . the ‘male gaze’ both on and off the canvas. Her dreams and experiences . . . are both grotesque and completely believable once her subconscious awakens . . .” - Bi-Coastal Babble
“The two actors appear in Zoom boxes side-by-side with plain backgrounds, yet . . . their interactions feel intimate and real.” - Gay City News
“Olivia Rose Barresi as Mainie and Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood as Evie achieve a compelling depth in their characterizations. Performing in static close-ups, they nonetheless give the women a range of emotions that radiate through the screen. Particularly as they begin to realize that this may be more than friendship, their tentative interactions . . . are riveting . . .” - Gay City News
". . . [the actors’] visceral voice-acting . . . was transporting.” - GOMag
“In their faces, I could see the catalytic moment when the two receptacles —character and actor, canvas and frame, language and motion, past and future — merge and become one light.” - GOMag
praise for Socially Unacceptable =
“Olivia Rose Barresi is both warlike and wounded as Elle, a study in precarious balance . . .” - HILOBROW
“One by one the characters’ screens go dark and the corporate mind deletes them. But in telling their stories, Socially Unacceptable has shown us something that we ourselves will not be able to forget.” - HILOBROW
praise for Love, Loss, and What I Wore =
“. . . what made this production so compelling . . . [was] the camaraderie and sisterhood so genuinely displayed on stage . . .” - Broadway World Raleigh
“This story, as told by Sally Struthers, Kim Coles, Joyce Reehling, Olivia Rose Barresi and Ashley Brooke, carries you along and touches the deepest parts of your heart, mind and soul; reminding us how beautifully complicated life can be.” - Sandhills Sentinel
praise for The New Sincerity =
". . . power-hungry young adults nonchalantly struggle with the truth of how they feel towards others, what they are willing to admit. . . all disguised by their vying for the chance to cover what becomes a major news story. The plot is all too real . . .” - Broadway World
“Credit must go to Olivia Rose Barresi, Michael Patrick Trimm, Al Patrick Jo and Jenna Kray for a very entertaining and perfectly constructed performance.” - Broadway World