"Plum, an award-winning actress herself, knows the only way to make Harling’s Hallmark card lines work is to cast actresses who can inhabit this crowd of Southern belles and make them their own. 'Steel Magnolias’' is a cliche, but Plum and company find the essential bonds that connect these women."
-Terry Byrne
“'Out of Sterno,' which strode the Gloucester stage last summer, was helmed with just the right light hand by local diva and director Paula Plum. Plum, again mistress of ceremonies, likewise balances disparate elements in “The Last Schwartz,” which is less whimsical and more earthbound than 'Sterno.'
…But where 'The Last Schwartz' shines is not as philosophy or prophecy but as screwball clan comedy with a serious underlayment. And as such, it is done up to the Freudian, Feydeau-ian nines in Plum’s staging…
This may be 'The Last Schwartz,' but let’s hope it’s not the last we hear from the team of Laufer and Plum."
-Carolyn Clay
"The Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of the play, staged at the Multicultural Arts Center through May 8, is a delight. Expertly acted, and fluidly directed by Paula Plum like a series of ballroom dances that occasionally burst into breakdancing, this centuries-old material becomes a bracing crowd-pleaser.
Plum and her actors cram the piece with funny business, finding moments to ham it up without detracting from the forward momentum."
-Jeremy D. Goodwin
"Laufer’s comic fable ventures into some tricky tonal territory, requiring a guide who is in synch with the playwright’s intriguingly off-kilter sensibility. Director Paula Plum proves to be just that, skillfully helming a Gloucester Stage Company production of 'Out of Sterno' that delivers on the play’s farcical humor and its deeper resonance."
-Don Aucoin