Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...If director Andrea J. Dymond's scorching revival of "Sweat" that inaugurated Paramount Theatre's Bold Series at the newly remodeled Copley Theatre is any indication of productions to come, audiences are in for a treat."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Lynn Nottage's gripping drama Sweat launches a new direction for Aurora's Paramount Theater, a 1,000-plus seat, 87-year-old Versailles-on-acid space known for award-winning musicals. Directed by Andrea J. Dymond, Sweat is the first production in the new Copley Theatre, a minimalist steel-and-glass black box across the street from the larger venue. Dymond's airtight ensemble makes the most of the gleaming new space, delivering an all-too-familiar look at the violent intersection of racism and recession."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...Sweat's morality is subjugated by generations of white privilege and membership, looking after its rewards and preventing majorities and immigrants from reaping any benefits. Sweat deals with these privileged and unprivileged workers detailing how living with or without privileges can, without warning, alter and change our lives. It is through flashbacks' SWEAT' unfolds and tells the story of how friends end up as enemies caught up in the economic demise of deindustrialization at its worst!"
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...If one truly pays attention to the words of Ms Nottage, one will see how important what she wrote is. We are looking at a play that could easily be seen in any small town that depends on one industry or factory for its existence. I recall many years ago when Rinso closed their factory in Whiting Indiana, the number of people who left the community and the foreclosures that took place. The contents of this play are important to see and the story is very real ( and often scary because it is happening)."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...In this exciting, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Lynn Nottage shows why she's earned the title of one of the finest living contemporary playwrights in America. Staged with empathy and energy by master director, Andrea J Dymond, this talented cast reminds audiences of how our blue collar population continues to struggle to survive, while constantly being slighted. In this play, we have names and faces to go with all the statistics that inform us that this country's economics have changed...and not for the better."
PicksInSix - Recommended
"...Director Andrea J Dymond 's edgy production, delivers on the promise that Copley Theatre, the highly anticipated, second jewel in Paramount Theatre's crown, will be a dynamic new performance destination in Aurora's revitalized and surging downtown cultural district. The space has been transformed into a thrust stage configuration providing a superb, unobstructed stage perspective, along with exceptional sound and light systems, to create an incomparable audience experience."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...It’s just splendid. It’s the sort of provocative and thoughtful theatre you usually have to go into town for, or to New York. But it’s right in downtown Aurora, where there’s plenty of parking and easy access. You should take advantage of this exceptional production and go at once."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...The current production, Sweat (the 2017 Pulitzer prize-winning play written by Lynn Nottage under the emotional and heart stopping direction of Andrea J. Dymond) grabs your brain, heart and soul from the first scene. You know something is going down and now you will see the process."
