PRESS
GINNY, CULT OF LOVE (BERKELEY REP)
Theatrestorm, Charles Krug
[Playwright Leslye] Headland is not afraid to confront complex themes of religion and love and existential challenges and politics in ways that surprise, move, and enlighten…. This complex play is brought off to perfection by an amazing company of actors who have been directed like a fine symphony orchestra.
PAM, HURRICANE DIANE (AURORA THEATRE)
S.F. Chronicle, Steven Winn
"Luisa Sermol, in a knockout company debut as Pam, is New Jersey personified, “Sopranos”-vintage, from her accent and tart tongue to her hands-on-hips swagger and neurotic need to be prepared, with flashlights, extra cell phones and an armament of halogen lanterns. Pam, too, has a garden of delights in her mind’s eye — one just like the kitschy Italian palazzo scene painted on the wall at her beloved local deli. It’s one of the core assets of George’s script that her characters all take on a touching empathic dimension, like the autographed “soft goods and fragile breakables” Pam used to sell on the internet."
MYRA, MYRA'S STORY (CORRIB THEATRE)
Broadway World, Krista Garver
"Myra's life is and has been hard, but she tells her story without sentimentality or self-pity, and with a good deal of humor. Sermol's performance captures the audience from the beginning, leading us on the journey through tears and laughter, while also forcing us to fully consider and comprehend the reality of life on streets."
Willamette Weekly, Morgan Shaunette
By the same token, Sermol is eminently watchable as Myra. She switches gears from impersonating quirky characters to reliving the worst moments of her life to trying to scrounge up enough coins for a cheap bottle of vodka without ever missing a beat.
There’s a vibrant immediacy to her performance, which hammers home the idea that although Myra herself is fictional, there’s an immutable truth to her story. Ultimately, it’s Myra’s humanity, encompassing all the joys and pains of her life, that makes the show sing.
PAOLA, IN EVERY GENERATION (THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY)
San Francisco Chronicle, Lily Janiak
"Sermol astonishes as Paola, both as a brash, brusque grandmother but especially in her recently immigrated youth, where everything she says might presage tears, but of what sort? So tremulous does she make Paola’s new life that joy, confusion, grief, exasperation, fear and earnest curiosity all commingle all the time. If she stretches out one feeling from that ball, she keeps it elastic, like a master baker kneading dough, so that she can morph it into something else in a blink or a breath." SF Chronicle—Lily Janiak 1/22/23
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY)
Broadway World, Jim Munson
The two actors who make the strongest impressions are Phil Wong and Luisa Sermol, both playing a mind-boggling array of minor characters with an abundance of skill and artistry and absolutely no fuss. Wong kicks off the show as unctuous radio emcee Freddie Fillmore ...Sermol shows perhaps an even greater range, from her deliciously batty Zuzu carefully plunking out notes on the family piano to her ultra-saucy Violet to her Mrs. Bailey, all grandmotherly warmth and stalwart decency. Is there anything these two actors can't do?
HELENA, THEY PROMISED HER THE MOON (THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY)
Theatrius, Patricia L. Morin
".. dutiful, comical, pie-making mom Helena (charming Luisa Sermol) tries to instill 1950s “domestic” values into stubborn Jerrie."
SLADJANA, ARCHDUKE (THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY)
Mercury News, Joanne Engelhardt
"...the hilariously surly cook (Luisa Sermol)"
DOTTIE, NOISES OFF (HILLBARN THEATRE)
Regarding Arts, John Orr
"Luisa Sermol.. is very, very funny as Dotty."
DEIRDRE, THE HUMANS (ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE)
Oregon Artswatch, Bobby Bermea
"While a scene is happening on the floor below, she just stands there … and even so, it takes an act of will to tear your eyes away from her. Much of The Humans is artfully choreographed chaos — but not this. Sermol comes to a stop and time stops with her. Though you know next to nothing about this Deirdre Blake’s life, on a visceral level you feel everything that has brought this character to this moment. You feel the weight of her life, the joys long past, the choices made, the brokenness, the frustrations, the boundless love. It’s a moment that not all actors have in them. There is nothing to do. You just have to be. And few actors do that better than Luisa Sermol…..Her hallmark is being able to dig down to the depths of her soul and leave it all on the stage."
DEBORAH, THE SIEGEL (CITY LIGHTS)
Talkin' Broadway, Eddie Reynolds
"Luisa Sermol especially seems ready to step out and take over the show as a stand-up comic."
ELIZABETH, SAN MERCI (BADASS THEATRE)
Willamette Weekly, Rebecca Jacobsen
“The better exchanges are those between Sermol and Tidd that explore the perversity of grief: how we wish we could wear our misery like a scar across our face, forcing everyone to see it; or how we're stubbornly glad when the pain refuses to fade. In the production's most lived-in and affecting performance, Sermol chatters from nervousness and keens in agony.”
ELIZABETH, SAN MERCI (BADASS THEATRE)
Oregon Artswatch-A.L. Adams
“Sermol is a vessel capable of holding oceans of dramatic tension before spilling over…which is exactly what Sans Merci demands. Wait for the flood. Wait for it.”
MARY STUART, MARY STUART (CYGNET/NW CLASSICAL)
The Oregonian-Holly Johnson
"Most valuable performer: A highly unfair distinction in a cast full of fine actors, but Sermol earns the honor. She is luminous as Mary Stuart, sensual yet with the carriage of a queen, playful one moment, angry the next. She's both regal and down-to-earth, full of energy even when at rest.”
ENSEMBLE/CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (SHAKING THE TREE)
Oregon ArtsWatch, Bob Hicks
"There is fine work across the cast: …Luisa Sermol (her creakily chirping Granny testifying to the judge brings down the house)."
HEATHER RAFFO'S NINE PARTS OF DESIRE (CYGNET/COHO PRODUCTIONS)
The Oregonian-Barry Johnson
“Over the years, Luisa Sermol has built a well-deserved reputation as one of Portland's finest actresses, tackling complex roles like Maria Callas in Master Class and the tortured mom in Sideman.
She has reached an entirely new level with her superb, nuanced performance in 9 Parts of Desire.…"
“And yet love is at the core of each of the nine women in Desire, and Sermol makes you feel every bit of their passion in the play's heart-wrenching climax. “
HEATHER RAFFO'S NINE PARTS OF DESIRE (CYGNET/COHO PRODUCTIONS)
Portland Mercury-Temple Lentz
"Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire is one of the most compelling pieces of solo theater you will ever see on a Portland stage...
Sermol convincingly and completely inhabits each of these characters, transitioning from one to another with a flick of her hair, a drape of fabric, and nuanced changes in posture and voice."
JOANNE, COMPANY (BROADWAY ROSE)
Broadway World, Krista Garver
"Finally, Luisa Sermol. It takes a special kind of performer to fill shoes that were once worn by both Elaine Stritch and Patti LuPone. Sermol does this with ease. Her "Ladies Who Lunch" well deserved a standing ovation."
Westside Art Review, Tina Arth
"Among the rest of the cast (three girlfriends and five couples) there are several really stunning moments, both in solo and ensemble work. Most memorable for me are Luisa Sermol (“Joanne”), Joel Walker (“Peter”), and Justine Davis (“April’). Sermol’s inebriated, strident, sardonic “The Ladies Who Lunch” is the ultimate anthem to a generation of cultured, educated, intelligent women wasted by a society. that lionized their empty lives. By the end, when she repeatedly cries “Rise!” I was hard pressed to stay in my seat."
DONA MILLA/OLD FLORA, BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED (MILAGRO THEATRE)
Oregon Artswatch, Bob Hicks
"It’s a cat-clawing, resigned, bedeviled, betraying, tortuous knot of a marriage that Sermol and Schulz reveal to be also somehow deeply affectionate and enduring… Watching Sermol rise to a passion you understand that age is a trickster and a mystery, and that good acting can give us glimpses of its depths.”