Press

On Stage Journal - Dr. Goddess - April 10, 2006
I almost called her a performance artist, but I'm wary of that term, which is falling into disrepute or at least pretentiousness. Having just yesterday been to Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre to see Kim's one-dynamo show, "Dr. Goddess," sub-titled for the occasion, "a homegirl's homecoming," I can testify that she's an authentic hip-hop poet, impersonator, dancer, actor and certified stage presence . . . However she's done it, she's a force. The quality I like best is her quick turn from one character to another. She has the mimic's gift for the sudden detail that summons character, and the physical plasticity to bring it off. I especially like the moments when her carefully planned performance seems to crack open and to show an improvisatory energy.

'Dr. Goddess' Delivers Diagnosis in Insightful One-Woman Show - April 12, 2006
Through the portrayal of a wide swath of characters, from a well-intentioned and relatively progressive Southern belle to a high-minded incarcerated father, from a gospel rendition that calls for the audience to join hands, to a scathing—and beat-boxed—critique of materialistic consumerism and thuggish posturing, Ellis manages to hit upon the hopes, dreams and struggles of black womanhood in resonant and entertaining fashion.

Diary of a Baaaaad Black Woman - April 13, 2006
Fifteen minutes into opening night of Kim Ellis' Dr. Goddess!: [A One Woman Show], at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater, the lights went out due to heavy thunderstorms pounding just outside the windows. Those inside the theater couldn't tell whether the rumbling, rolling bass was emanating from the gods in the sky or the Goddess before their eyes . . . Dr. Goddess, directed by Kuntu Repertory Theater's Eileen Morris, is Ellis' one-woman, spoken-word, coming-of-age tale of how a young inner-city girl reconciles her community consciousness with her later academic neurosis. But the themes ring much larger, speaking more of an entire generation — a hip-hop generation — caught in the nappy entanglements of its pre-black and post-black identities. At one end there is Ellis, in her "King Solomon's Mind" sketch, portraying an impressionable student captivated by a quite Etheridge, very Eldridge poet espousing revolution and penis supremacy within the same stanza. By the play's end, Ellis' everywoman character has blossomed into a vociferous voice taking on domestic violence, Smokey Robinson's denunciation of the "African American" and America's obsessive consumer disorders . . . Ellis is among a cadre of women including Joan Morgan ( When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost) and Maori K. Holmes (The Scene Not Heard) who've shown that hip hop, feminism and racial upliftment can co-exist. Dr. Goddess is a promising and fulfilling new recipe for black theater's future.

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