I was lucky enough to watch a reading of this as part of the 2024 Rockford New Words in Rockford, IL. It was incredible to sense the audience hanging on playwright Sickles' every twist and turn in this dark tale about emotional and physical vampires. Scary, unexpected, original and expertly crafted, A More Beautiful Reflection will have you reflecting on Charlie and Quinn's relationship long after the last moment. Read and produce!

Vampires started out as monsters and then somewhere along the line became romanticized. A deluge of vampire stories wherein the monster who feeds off of everyone else falls hopelessly in love with the protagonist began to emerge. Scott Sickles reminds us that vampires are monsters and there are no happy endings dealing with such people in this tense, effective short horror story. Well done!

Sickles writes a chilling commentary on abusive relationships in A MORE BEAUTIFUL REFLECTION. There is a great use of symbolism that Scott Sickles uses to display an abusive and narcissistic former partner. This ten minute has rich dialogue, palpable tension, and devastating outcomes which we learn from the relationship between Charlie and Quinn.