what critics say about THE LA WEEKLY - 8/2/2002 Chaiken's beautiful writing strategically proffers up pieces of bone and tooth in a scintillating anthropological dig. — Steven Leigh Morris BACKSTAGE WEST - 8/7/2002 ... Her journey is an exquisitely painful and very personal excursion through the changes (of religion, lifestyle, habits, dress, and hair color) brought about by her feeling of disconnection from her past. The impression is not of the too-often boring self-obsession that overtakes so many solo pieces; rather it is of a revealing X-ray, in living color, seasoned by laughter and tears, of a young lifetime devoted to an absorbing search for truth. — Madeleine Shaner THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - 8/14/2000 Writer/solo performer Stacie Chaiken's Looking for Louie, in its world premiere is shrewd, wry and absorbing. Chaiken is a talented, likable, energetic storyteller with lots of stage savvy and moxie.... Chaiken expertly mixes reality and fantasy, a sort of upbeat poetic realism, as she attempts to uncover the truth about Louie. — Ed Kaufman THE LA TIMES - 8/18/2000 A self-described second-generation Russian Jewish American redhead stranded in a world of "no-nose straight-haired blondes," Stacie Chaiken explores rootlessness and alienation via personal history in "Looking for Louie," her solo performance piece at Pacific Resident Theatre. Teetering precariously between drama and documentary, Chaiken traces links among Jewish folklore, family skeletons and her own nomadic lifestyle, which all converge in the mysterious figure of her immigrant great-grandfather, who disappeared in 1907 and was never spoken of again. Chaiken's principal challenge is getting an audience not only to understand but share her private resonance with this shadowy black sheep, and the holes in her psyche he came to represent. By the time she plays a home video showing her grandfather's tortured confession about his father's unforgivable sin, the piece packs an emotional wallop. A particularly elegant finale transcends personal boundaries to embrace an ancient Hebrew remedy to heal the rent fabric of relationships caused by others' transgressions. — Philip Brandes DAILY VARIETY - August 25, 2000 Actress/writer Stacie Chaiken has mined the dark labyrinth of her Russian Jewish family's nearly 100-year history in America to solve the mystery behind the veil of silence that prevented any mention of Louie, her great grandfather, the patriarch that brought her relatives out of Russia to England and eventually to the U.S. Chaiken's amalgamation of her own ... life and the deeply tragic schism that exorcised Louie from the family makes for fascinating storytelling. — Julio Martinez THE JEWISH FORWARD, New York, NY - 11/24/2000 A very attractive performer, ... Ms. Chaiken... attempted to rewrite her family history through herself, employing the stitch of forgiveness. Growing up in Covina, Calif., as the "alien child of alien parents, always in flight" "chaiken," she explained, means "bird'' in Russian she felt emotionally and culturally cut off from her inheritance, which brought her to her own private Idaho: the Norfolk Street address of her ancestors... — Stanley Mieses THE JEWISH JOURNAL, Los Angeles - 8/18/2000 "A search for identity leads to a monologue about assimilation" The whole time Stacie Chaiken was growing up, nobody discussed her great-grandfather, Louie. "My Grandpa Irving refused to speak about his father. Ever," says Chaiken, whose monologue, Looking for Louie, is premiering at Pacific Resident Theatre... — Naomi Pfefferman THE JEWISH JOURNAL. Los Angeles - 9/13/2002 Louie, Louie ... Oh No. A new play discusses secrets and forgiveness. — Stacie Chaiken THE JEWISH EXPONENT - 11/9/2000 Looking for Louie looks to be a winner for Stacie Chaiken, whose one-woman play is an I've Got a Secret with a Jewish accent... — Michael Elkin THE VILLAGER - 11/15/2000 The germ of Looking for Louie, by writer/actor Stacie Chaiken, was an autobiographical piece she wrote in 1997 about her grandfather's tools... — Davida Singer PLAYBILL ONLINE - 11/8/2000 West Coast actress-writer Stacie Chaiken brings her warm, humorous solo show, Looking for Louie, about "a second-generation Russian Jewish American redhead" who goes in search of the mysterious great-grandfather, to New York City's Tenement Theatre in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. — Kenneth Jones LA%20weekly.htmlbackstage.htmlhollywood%20reporter.htmlLA%20times.htmlvariety.htmlthe%20forward.htmljewish%20journal%201.htmljewish%20journal%202.htmlexponent.htmlvillager.htmlhttp://www.haaretz.com/shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5shapeimage_1_link_6shapeimage_1_link_7shapeimage_1_link_8shapeimage_1_link_9