ACTor
"Friend is the torchbearer….an award-winning actor who carries the story from start to passionate end…."
Ethelyn Friend is an award-winning actor and vocalist with two decades of work in regional theatre and original solo performance. From work with Meredith Monk to leading roles at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and premieres of new contemporary work with Tectonic Theatre Project, her versatility is expressed in both classical dramatic text, contemporary comedy and original devised work. Lifelong study of the singing voice make her a unique vocalist, working in many musical styles.
Ethelyn Friend's Acting Channel
Press
Theater Reviews
HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES Arvada Center For the Arts
Denver Post review
"Ethelyn Friend’s Bananas will leave fingerprints on your dreams."
FUDDY MEERS Curious Theatre Company
*Denver Post, Winner Best Actress in A Comedy
"With her bug eyes and impish smile, Friend has a perfect face for comedy. But it was her sense of loss and longing that gave this absurd comedy its resonance."
BRIGHT IDEAS Curious Theatre Company
Westword, Denver
*Winner Best Supporting Actress
"You can’t take your eyes of Friend’s loathsome, snake-like Denise, yet Friend is equally convincing in the second act as a timid, rabbit-eyed teacher. And even playing dead, Friend kept raking in the laughs."
CALAMITY! Rock n Soul Cafe
Westword, Denver
*Best Actress in a One Woman Show
"Ethelyn Friend was unstoppable in the role of Calamity: singing, staggering, insulting her musician and the audience, cradling her bottle, and filling the small theater with gust after gust of insane energy."
ROMEO & JULIET Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Westword, Denver
"You couldn’t look away from Friend’s Nurse…. spiky, eccentric, bossy, sometimes mildly kind and so horny she at one point kisses the startled Romeo bang on the mouth."
WIT Theatreworks
Denver Post
"Friend is the torchbearer….an award-winning actor who carries the story from start to passionate end…"
MY SHIP, or The Rise & Fall Of Pirate Jenny, A Kurt Weill Cabaret Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, prod. Judy Hussie-Taylor
Boulder Daily Camera
"Friend’s command of her marvelous instrument is one great joy of seeing this show. Weill’s music is perfect for Friend, who performs it with complete assurance. Vocally, her range amazes: she can scream at high C, lapse into sprechstimme or sing at a whisper, belt or yell with no sign of strain."
Colorado Daily
"Friend is outstanding in voice and presence…whimsically bawdy one moment, tender and vulnerable the next…"
SONGS MY GRANDMOTHERS TAUGHT ME Colorado Shakespeare Festival, New Works Series
*Winner: Top Ten Shows of Decade
Boulder Camera
“a finely crafted little miracle”
“Ethelyn Friend is an actress with razor-sharp comic timing, possessing the unfettered emotional range of an unrepressed child, emanating from an intuitive intelligence that allows particularly keen insights into human behavior. And, she can sing…..In one 15 second span, Friend took her audience from feasting on a fit of giggles to blinking back true tears…..
Westword
"…resonates with simple clarity…Friend holds her audience spellbound…her performance illustrates how eloquent, flexible, and expressive a voice can be."