Charlie Hensley

“The Walnut Street Theatre counts eight productions of Twelfth Night in less than 150 years. I wonder if any has caught so effectively, as this one does, the topsy-turvy world Shakespeare created. Director Charlie Hensley unfurls this comic masterpiece like a flag in a stormy breeze. The actors don't just impersonate their characters. They live them with vigor and intensity... Milton Duke's set - a giant rope lattice set off by ornate columns and a sunburst backdrop - lets the director achieve breathless pacing.” - Robert Baxter

“Hensley, probably the most consistently creative, inventive and daring director working Philadelphia stages... has put together a top-notch production... His direction was both light and firm, a sign of a director who is supremely confident in his material and his cast... I can't praise this production highly enough. It's well-directed, beautifully designed, wonderfully acted and incredibly funny. Kudos and congratulations are in order to Charlie Hensley...” - Gary L. Day

“There is not a bad thing to be said about the play, its cast, the direction, the music or the set. All fit together to make for an evening of theatre [that] seems to fly by in an instant. Directed by Charlie Hensley, the performance held the audience spellbound.” - Judy Baca

“Charlie Hensley has put this together with intelligence and affection.. Hensley's style here is a cross between a lilt and a twinkle... The utter absence of declamation gives the production a delicious naturalness, and the players look happy as larks about it.” - Nels Nelson

“Pay no attention to the groundhogs! With the Virginia Stage Company's exuberant and thoroughly elegant production of Twelfth Night, spring is officially here. Housed amid garden walks winding through greenery, this familiar Shakespearean comedy of drunken revelry and gender-bending romance is given a merry, and quite comfortable, outing... the cast seems to be comfortable enough with its art to romp. And the emphasis is put exactly where it belongs - on the language... Leave Twelfth Night alone and let it breathe, and all the laughs are there. That, delightfully, is exactly what happens with this production. Charlie Hensley's direction has effectively tied together the many disparate facets of this production into a cajoling whole. The production moves sprightly, but is never rushed. The use of the language is crisp and clear. There is no reason that every line of this Twelfth Night cannot be easily digested. ...VSC scores a triumph here.” - Mal Vincent

“It is lively, pretty and sexy... director Charlie Hensley has successfully milked it for every bit of lascivious innuendo. Hensley, who chose a beautiful 18th century garden for his setting, cast the show perfectly... Shows like this one will make Shakespeare lovers of us all.” - Jim Roberts