Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Young actress rises to occasion in Acacia Theatre’s ‘Opal'”
July 15, 2015
“[Kleefisch gives] a performance that transcends cute to embody what one character tells Opal late in the show: Looking upon such a child, one sees the face of God…A blind woman (a plaintive Magdelyn Monahan) recalls a younger self who could still see. A tongue-tied lumberjack (a winning Zach Horne) tries to find his voice so he can sing his love for an equally shy singleton (a yearning, mellifluous Alicia York). A Scottish washerwoman (an earthy Dawn Kimsey Purpura) misses her deceased husband and wishes she’d had a child. It is Opal who spurs these characters to give voice to who they are through song…But while Kleefisch can sing, I was even more taken by how credibly she straddles the line between innocence and experience — true to William Blake’s “The Lamb,” a poem Opal sings that captures both her guileless love for the natural world and her profound, semiconscious understanding of mysteries involving this tender being as symbol and sign of divine grace.” To read more, click here.