The Oregon Trail by Bekah Brunstetter (Fault Line Theatre at WP Theatre)
"In Ms. Vaynberg’s expressive hands, contemporary Jane’s sly humor and cringing embarrassment feel wonderfully real and raw, horrible and funny, as in her woeful description of the onset of menarche: 'It’s like when your body starts to tell you the truth about your life.' Her encounter with Billy (Juan Arturo), a sweaty devil-may-care soccer player, is a wincing delight."
-New York Times
"...the winsome Now Jane, which Vaynberg painfully and accurately captures, particularly the teenage awkwardness of being uncomfortable in your own body. Even as she grows into an adult, her constant shuffling and slouching bears this mark. In one moment when things finally seem to be going her away, she casts off the gray and beams. It’s subtle work and Vaynberg navigates it well."
-Village Voice
"As 'Now Jane,' Vaynberg skillfully captures that ineffable melancholy that comes with such an illness."
-TheaterMania
"[Vaynberg] rose to the challenge of portraying the needier younger sister beautifully, portraying the struggle that comes with simultaneous love, frustration, a need for guidance, and a desire to please corrupted by an inability to follow through."
-StageBuddy
The Gett (Rattlestick)
"She is immediately likeable as Ida; it's impossible not to root for her... you might not believe in religion, and rituals might not be your thing, but you will leave the theater believing in Vaynberg."
-This Week In New York
"Vaynberg's Ida is a funny, smart, likeable character offering a maybe too honest perspective on her life and experiences... her bittersweet listing of all the contradictory things she wants in life, as she sits across from her happily married divorce lawyer, is a highlight... Vaynberg is clearly a smart, funny and talented writer-performer with a strong voice and perspective."
-Stage & Cinema
"A commanding presence onstage, radiating undeniable charm."
-Lighting & Sound America
"Vaynberg strikes me as a real talent, both as writer and performer. For those of us who felt cruelly deprived when Wendy Wasserstein was abruptly taken from this world, Vaynberg has some of Wasserstein's strengths ... a similar wit and grudging affection for the people she satirizes."
-Chasing Stories
"Playwright/actor Liba Vaynberg has talent to spare."
-New York Stage Review
"Anchored by standout performances from all four actors in the cast ... Liba Vaynberg has her hands on something really magical here."
-TV & City
Round Table (59E59)
Named Times Square Chronicles' Best of 2019:
"Liba Vaynberg’s Round Table, at Fault Line Theatre at 59E59 Theaters, was a look at how we deal with illness and the avoidance of what in this case will be a devastating outcome. What seemed like a chick flick version of this subject, has stayed with me and I realize it was deeper than I thought."
“Heartful and rueful, written and performed with surprising tact and restraint. […] expertly stylized performances and cunningly structured script. A gratifyingly touching light entertainment, Round Table should serve as a gilt-edged calling card for some very talented young artists.”
-David Barbour, Lighting & Sound America
“Clever and captivating. Round Table, written by Liba Vaynberg and directed by Geordie Broadwater is a one of a kind show. [...] Vaynberg's tale is humorous, touching, and very honest.”
-Marina Kennedy, BroadwayWorld
"She has the confidence to play Laura, giving an understated, sensitive performance as a slightly nerdy woman in a relationship with a slightly nerdier guy. As the interlocutor between the audience and stage Vaynberg is thoughtful and translucent. She also has great comic timing. [...] Round Table is terrific. Liba Vaynberg boasts an impressive gift with language, structure and character. Brandishing whimsy and emotional gravitas with equal vigor, she deftly manages the confluence of fluid worlds to draft a narrative that coheres with near seamless effect."
-Front Row Center
“Vaynberg's dialogue is funny and engaging, and she is a writer I want to hear more from. She is also a likable presence onstage and her character's yearning for romance is relatable."
-Theasy
"Laura's final monologue and her description of the process by which she imagines coming to write her own, new myth are stand-outs [...] Round Table is by turns hilarious, poetic, psychologically acute, and poignant without being sentimental."
-Thinking Theater NYC
"My greatest praise is reserved for Liba Vaynberg who not only wrote the play but starred in it brilliantly as Laura, the Druid Laurel, and Queen Guinevere. By writing the play and then starring in it herself she provided the perfect meta-example of what LARP, self-identification, and the fine line between fantasy and reality are all about."
-A Seat On The Aisle
“If Vaynberg is actually playing a variation on herself, she’s certainly good at it, especially in a LARP section where she’s attempting to keep up with characters already sufficiently skilled at live-action role-playing. There’s a good joke here, too, since acting itself is no more nor less than live-action role-playing."
-David Finkle, New York Stage Review
The Golem of Havana (Miami New Drama)
"The haunting truths in the opening words of Hausman's magnificent play, as uttered by the young narrator Rebecca Frankel (Liba Vaynberg). 'What can you take with you when you can't take anything with you? Only your stories. This one is mine.' Words that give me the chills every time I think of them. The miniskirted, sweet-voiced Rebecca sang the story of the Golem of Prague to a Yiddish melody [...] Special kudos to all, especially [...] Liba Vaynberg's compelling innocence."
-Huffington Post
"Daughter Rebecca Frankel (Liba Vaynberg) is an aspiring writer-artist who also serves as the show’s narrator [...] Among the most memorable musical moments are Yemayá, in which Rebecca and Teo kneel by a strip of ocean to ask the orisha goddess for help [...] her slender, smart Rebecca is a compelling narrator and character."
-Christine Dolen, Miami Herald
"Liba Vaynberg creates a Rebecca who is delightfully on the cusp of adulthood, but not quite there. She nails the sense of a misfit creative soul (a Jewish Jo March) whose naiveté is the persistence of pure humanity, compassion and imagination."
-Bill Hirschman, Florida Theater On Stage
"It would all fall apart without Liba Vaynberg. She isn’t simply adorkable, though she is that too. She plays the girl young, but wise and empathetic and compassionate. She holds on to her ideals even though the situation the family finds themselves in is impossibly complex. Ms. Vaynberg doesn’t stop being caring even when her circumstances are tortuous. And this is without melodrama. She doesn’t try to make us feel for her. We do it because we see her soul in pain and we empathize."
-Is It Any Good
"Then, a strikingly pretty young girl, narrator Rebecca Frankel (Liba Vaynberg) uttered the first sentence of Hausmann’s magnificent manuscript: “When you can’t take anything with you, you take along your stories,” a stunning, unforgettable, chilling eternal truth."
-Theater Pizzazz
The Russian & The Jew, co-written with Emily Louise Perkins (The Tank)
"The brainchild of actor/writers Emily Louise Perkins and Liba Vaynberg, this play is filled with all the romance, plot twists, and personal conflict that make up any great contemporary drama. Rotating back and forth between the late 1960s and occasionally 1992 after the collapse of the USSR, this play may be a period piece, but the themes that it deals with – from misogyny to anti-Semitic bigotry – are ones that are still very much relevant today, and thus is bound to be a very compelling drama that audiences for their 20s to their 80s are bound to be drawn into and appreciate. With the help of a very talented ensemble of actors, these characters and their individual story lines are almost impossible to take your eyes off of."
-On Stage Blog
We All Fall Down (Huntington Theatre Company)
"Moreover, the performances are both delightfully comic and palpably human. [...] Liba Vaynberg makes of Sammi a strong but sensitive woman, too long buffeted by — but hardly immune to — the family drama."
-NPR
"The chemistry [Reissa] shares with Vaynberg and Stern crackles with Jewish mother energy and they respond with appropriate annoyance or appreciation, depending on the situation. [...] Vaynberg and Stern create a genuine sibling relationship, their characters alternately helping or hurting each other, but they are believable, especially when they join forces to take on their parents."
-Talkin' Broadway
On acting: Feature in Theatre Talk Boston
Ether Dome (La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company)
"Distinguished performances [from] Liba Vaynberg [...] Quite good as 'Lizzie' Whitman, the Farmington heiress who becomes Morton’s wife, who maintains her devotion and support even after she obtains some detrimental information about her husband’s past baggage."
-The Examiner
"Among the capable actors: Liba Vaynberg a likely partner as [William Morton's] cheerily amoral wife."
-WBUR (National Public Radio)
"Morton's wife Lizzie is a different sort of woman, ostensibly a bit ditzy and one accustomed to being taken care of, but Liba Vaynberg lets us see her internal mettle when the chips are down."
-Broadway World (Boston)
WE ARE PUSSY RIOT (Contemporary American Theatre Festival)
"The Agit-Prop style allows her to bring in the real life testimonies of Rioters Nadya, Masha, and Katya, played with wonderful punk variety by Libby Matthews, Liba Vaynberg, and Katya Stepanov."
-DC Metro Theater Arts
"Libby Matthews as Nadya, Liba Vaynberg as Masha and Katya Stepanov as Katya, the three members of Pussy Riot on trial for the protest, each did a spectacular job in performances ripe with passion and purpose."
-BroadwayWorld (WV)
"Let me, in parting, tip the hat to Libby Matthews, Liba Vaynberg, and Katya Stepanov, pictured left to right above, for their fine portrayals of the heroines Nadya, Masha, and Katya, respectively. They astutely captured and shared the good cheer, determination, and sheer guts of the women they portrayed."
-BroadwayWorld (Baltimore)
The Golem of Havana (La MaMa, ETC)
"The multitalented Vaynberg does a notably good job carrying the story — a success that is particularly impressive because she is playing a child character."
-TheaterMania
"Liba Vaynberg in the leading role was powerful, and if the world is just, she won’t need a day job for long."
-Marion's Blog
As You Like It (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
"Helen Cespedes’ Rosalind and Liba Vaynberg’s Celia were fabulous."
-Molly's Musings