“Extremely talented…the masks are present, the painstaking movement, the elaborate costumes”---New York Theatre.com

“There is a spell cast by Noh drama that first slows then condenses time, so that as the plot progresses (usually a romance), the heart opens to it like a lotus or, in the case of the Fringe production of The Blue Rocks, like an American rose. Written, directed, designed, masked, and costumed by Izumi Ashizawa, this stylized story of seduction and abandonment jumbles the senses as in a dream, intensified by the bewitching and original score by Simos Papanas, as mixed by Sabrina McGuigan and finished by Matthew Daline (think John Cage in Japan).”---Backstage

“It is the clearness, the patience and the motivation that justify her work as a director, making you start searching her plays as if they were healing water.”---Man In Fest Magazine

 “Izumi Ashizawa’s The Blue Rocks…told the ancient Greek myth of Jason and the clashing rocks through a moody variation of the Japanese Noh acting style…masks, evocative movement and an excellent sound design made this a worthwhile rethinking of an age-old yarn of adventure and betrayal”---New Haven Advocate

“Ashizawa’s direction have the same kind of ritualistic beauty that one might find in a Japanese tea ceremony”---AmericanTheatre Web 

"Gilgamesh is a powerful epic story combined with the visionary choreography of Izumi Ashizawa. Add to that multi-talented dancer/actors who show an incredible amount of spiritual dedication to the performance and a set which functions as a separate character, and you have an evening of transformational theatre"--- Brand Tampa