The Pudding...?
Tessa is a wonderful resource. Her energy, enthusiasm, and intelligence is reflected in everything she does. She would be a wonderful asset to any writer - whether what's needed is dramaturgical help, setting deadlines, organizing thoughts, researching and brainstorming, or simply staying motivated. Tessa leads with warmth and a profound love of what she does. She's a true gift to playwrights everywhere! - Bess Wohl, Writer
Tessa is an invaluable resource as I develop my plays. She gives comprehensive and insightful feedback at all stages. She never tries to *fix* my plays - rather, she leads me back to my own impulses, probing the text with inspiring questions and intelligent responses. She's a gift. - Tanya Barfield, Playwright
Tessa is a stand-alone force in the American theater. She has a tremendous wealth of knowledge in the world of new play development and has her fingertips on all writers - emerging and established. Her dramaturgical work is smart, incisive, collaborative, and encouraging. Playwrights take to her ideas, because she complements them. Unselfishly, she champions playwrights, connecting them to theaters, agents, institutions, and even finding them jobs. It's rare to find an individual like Tessa, who has done so much to pave the way for writers. - Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director of Primary Stages
Getting to work with Tessa at Seven Devils was like a master class in confidence. As an emerging playwright (though this is probably true of any writer at any stage), my biggest enemy was self-doubt - which also happened to be my longest and most intimate companion. Tessa knows how to locate and service the beating heart that lives in the center of a play. It was her command of how much that heart could take that gave me the courage to push the boundaries of where that play lived, the space its heart occupied, and where I should be gentle with it and not pump it too hard. Left to my own devices, I wouldn't have had the same type of courage to see how far it could go or the patience and restraint to know when I needed to be gentle. Tessa found the questions to give me that understanding. I go back to those experiential lessons every time I start a new scene. - K. Frithjof Peterson, Writer
I love her. She's smart and insightful. One of the best dramaturgs you could hope to work with. But moreover, a good person with a good heart and a thrilling wealth of information - theatrical and otherwise - at her fingertips. - Brooke Berman, Writer
I had the most wonderful time working with Tessa at the National Playwrights Conference. She quickly grasped my personality as a playwright, adapted her energy in the room so as to best complement how I work, and therefore helped bring out my best qualities as a writer in a workshop setting. Even more than that, she helped awaken in me a more acute emotional attention to the moment-to-moment lives of my characters in that play. - Martin Zimmerman, Writer
Tessa is committed to new plays and new play development, and she enables artists to do their best work. She is not only a terrific dramaturg, but she is an idea facilitator. She is dedicated, energetic, smart, and committed to her work. A valuable resource to any artist, I consider myself lucky to have worked with her many times over my career. - Leigh Silverman, Director
Her playful, sly tone draws you in and makes you want to be a part of whatever she is creating. Everything that I have seen that she has produced over the years has been extremely well-attended and curated. There is no doubt in my mind that she is primed to be a major player in the development of new plays in New York and beyond. - Cusi Cram, Writer
Tessa is an invaluable resource as I develop my plays. She gives comprehensive and insightful feedback at all stages. She never tries to *fix* my plays - rather, she leads me back to my own impulses, probing the text with inspiring questions and intelligent responses. She's a gift. - Tanya Barfield, Playwright
Tessa is a stand-alone force in the American theater. She has a tremendous wealth of knowledge in the world of new play development and has her fingertips on all writers - emerging and established. Her dramaturgical work is smart, incisive, collaborative, and encouraging. Playwrights take to her ideas, because she complements them. Unselfishly, she champions playwrights, connecting them to theaters, agents, institutions, and even finding them jobs. It's rare to find an individual like Tessa, who has done so much to pave the way for writers. - Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director of Primary Stages
Getting to work with Tessa at Seven Devils was like a master class in confidence. As an emerging playwright (though this is probably true of any writer at any stage), my biggest enemy was self-doubt - which also happened to be my longest and most intimate companion. Tessa knows how to locate and service the beating heart that lives in the center of a play. It was her command of how much that heart could take that gave me the courage to push the boundaries of where that play lived, the space its heart occupied, and where I should be gentle with it and not pump it too hard. Left to my own devices, I wouldn't have had the same type of courage to see how far it could go or the patience and restraint to know when I needed to be gentle. Tessa found the questions to give me that understanding. I go back to those experiential lessons every time I start a new scene. - K. Frithjof Peterson, Writer
I love her. She's smart and insightful. One of the best dramaturgs you could hope to work with. But moreover, a good person with a good heart and a thrilling wealth of information - theatrical and otherwise - at her fingertips. - Brooke Berman, Writer
I had the most wonderful time working with Tessa at the National Playwrights Conference. She quickly grasped my personality as a playwright, adapted her energy in the room so as to best complement how I work, and therefore helped bring out my best qualities as a writer in a workshop setting. Even more than that, she helped awaken in me a more acute emotional attention to the moment-to-moment lives of my characters in that play. - Martin Zimmerman, Writer
Tessa is committed to new plays and new play development, and she enables artists to do their best work. She is not only a terrific dramaturg, but she is an idea facilitator. She is dedicated, energetic, smart, and committed to her work. A valuable resource to any artist, I consider myself lucky to have worked with her many times over my career. - Leigh Silverman, Director
Her playful, sly tone draws you in and makes you want to be a part of whatever she is creating. Everything that I have seen that she has produced over the years has been extremely well-attended and curated. There is no doubt in my mind that she is primed to be a major player in the development of new plays in New York and beyond. - Cusi Cram, Writer