Reviews...both official and decidedly un.
Forever Never Comes at Crowded Fire Theater, directed by Mary Guzman
"The first time we see the young lovers in Enrique Urueta's "Forever Never Comes," they're on the run from small-town Virginia to San Francisco. Small wonder. Dylan (Kathryn Zdan), at the wheel, is a transgender youth fleeing a community that wants to keep him pigeonholed as Deborah. Sandra (Marilet Martinez) is torn between leaving and going back - oh, and by the results of a deal with the devil. Things are more complicated than they first appear in Urueta's messy, gripping and continually surprising new play…Zdan's touching portrayal of lesbian love in transgender transition is amplified by Dylan's conflicts in Zdan's appealingly awkward-adolescent portrait.”
--by Robert Hurwit, Chronicle Theater Critic
"...Dylan, born Deborah and compellingly played by Kathryn Zdan, is planning to move to San Francisco and get sex reassignment surgery. It’s something that she hasn’t had the heart to tell her very conventional and very Southern mom."
--by Sam Hurwitt for The Idiolect
Oliver! at Berkeley Playhouse, directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb
"Boasting a cast of nearly 50, this show covers the stage with action, making the eye dance to catch it all… Kathryn Zdan gives a standout performance as Nancy, a prostitute hopelessly in love with the heartless Sykes. Zdan's movingly stalwart solo "As Long as He Needs Me" is one of the musical highlights of the show. Her determined love for a man she knows to be beyond redemption lends a much needed emotional depth to the plot."
--by Gwen Kingston
Cabaret at CenterREP, directed by Mindy Cooper
"To produce Cabaret that is forever associated with Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli must be a daunting undertaking, and if any local theatre company could come out a winner, it is Walnut Creeks’ Center Repertory Theatre…Kathryn Zdan is absolutely perfect in the role of Fraulein Kost who “entertains” the sailors."
--by Kedar K. Adour, MD (Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com)
This World In A Woman's Hands at Shotgun Players, directed by Aaron Davidman
"…Marcus Gardley’s This World in a Woman’s Hands, commissioned and produced by Shotgun Players, a kind of lyrical epic of the women of all colors, from all over the country, who built the Liberty and Victory ships launched from Richmond during the Second World War, Rosie the Riveters of legend…with two unusual performances by Dena Martinez…and Kathryn Zdan, playing at one point the brash young boyfriend of a married coworker with panache."
--by Ken Bullock
The Pitmen Painters at Theatreworks, directed by Leslie Martinson
"...Kathryn Zdan not only delivered her lines well as a life model, she strips pure nekkid for a moment, just long enough to show [Jackson] Davis' hilarious, gape-mouthed shock before the lights go down..."
--by John Orr
"There is a hilarious scene with the prudish miners discovering that a model (Kathryn Zdan) is about to remove her clothes for a life-drawing class, as the culture clashes between the painters and their highbrow tutor are delightfully caught… Kathryn Zdan inoculates a note of working class radicalism in the underwritten role of the artist's model."
--by Richard Connema
Richard The First: 1, 2 &3 at CentralWorks, directed by Jan Zvaifler
"...Kathryn Zdan has a grim and affecting role in the play as Rachel, a Jewish Cockney girl whose whole family was slaughtered in the London massacre that followed Richard’s coronation. The story she tells in the first play is chilling and heartbreaking, but she really comes into her own as a character in the second play, when she’s followed Richard to Palestine and insinuated herself into his retinue as his chronicler, disguised as a boy for an extra bit of Shakespearean resonance (if a trilogy of kingly history plays isn’t enough)."
--by Sam Hurwitt for The Idiolect
And now for the "decidedly un" part
"I can't think of anyone else who could, with the utmost skill and grace, have a convincing seizure on stage while singing Gospel pop music. Every night."
--by Steve Yockey, ridiculously talented playwright (http://www.redkingdreaming.com/)
"Whenever Kat Zdan steps out on stage let out a sigh of relief because I trust her to take me on whatever journey she's about to go through!"
--by Armando McClain, absurdly talented actor
"Kat Zdan is one of the most talented artists of our time and I am not just saying that because she is my best friend...she will make you laugh and cry whether she is a vixen or a creepy creature with no eyes from an alternate universe. I would even fly to Santa Fe for the opportunity to see her in a new rockopera. Cast her in your show and be a part of theatre magic."
--by Casi Maggio, former castmate, former roomie and forever best friend.
Kat's incredible grounded presence, and smart text work are the basis of her wildly broad range. With Crowded Fire Theater she will have originated two vastly different roles in world permieres between 2009 and 2013, a transgender man in love, and a sassy Southern beauty queen.
--by Marissa Wolf, Director and Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater http://www.crowdedfire.org/
“Kat is one of my favorite people on planet earth. Although, I sometimes wonder if she’s from another planet where everyone is effortlessly creative, playful, kind, and loving.”
by James Wagner, actor
"Kat Zdan never ceases to amaze me with her versatility as an actress. She's also a highly committed, smart and all-around lovely person that you just want to have in the room when creating something."
--by Kimberly Dooley, Director, Choreographer, Teaching Artist
"Kat Zdan makes me write beauty queen soul singers who may or may not be evil geniuses but definitely dress in drag as ex-presidents. So. Yeah. She is gorgeous and brilliant and silly. Triple threat!"
--by Lauren Gunderson, who is the Next Big Thing www.LaurenGunderson.com
"Kathryn Zdan is the best acrobatic stage sex partner I have ever known!"
--Con Amore, Il Stupendo, Tito Merelli (a.k.a. Miles Gaston Villanueva, fellow actor in Livermore Shakes' 2011 production of Lend Me A Tenor)
"Kat Zdan is one of the most transformative actors I know. She's physical, deft, charming, and just plain gifted. Simply put--she's got the goods. If you're serious about making a play, you want her in your rehearsal room."
--by Desdemona Chiang, Director
"Kat Zdan is a lovely, kind, and extremely talented lady. I am always so excited to learn that we are in a show together or that she is performing because I know it will be an extraordinary experience."
--by Marissa Keltie, who is also a lovely, kind, and extremely talented lady
"Kat is not only a pro on stage, but she is the funnest dressing roommate ever!"
--By Marcia Pizzo, actor
"Kat Zdan is the only actor I know that can make me laugh at the same joke 20 times in a row."
--by Reggie D. White, actor
"Kathryn Zdan is the best actor in the whole wide world, living or dead. And we appreciate her hard work."
--by Kathryn Zdan's Mom