←The Depot for New Play Readings

Joan carries a suitcase of a purse, a sign of her well-organized “stuff,” yet somehow in the last year she’s lost contact with her son Matt. After Matt seemingly wills himself to death and donates all his organs, Joan searches the ICU for the recipients to find answers, to find the question, to find Matt. Alex Dremann’s “The Cure” aims to make us laugh and break our hearts at the same time. With naturalistic dialog, a simple set, and unforgettable characters, “The Cure” trades easy answers for mystery and lyricism. A powerful play. Highly recommended.

In Stephen Kaplan’s “Un Hombre,” a widowed mother, Rebecca Wolfson, and her son, Josh, are frozen in grief. While Josh struggles to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, Rebecca hides in her basement studio where she unintentionally sculpts a golem. The new heart in a wounded family, the golem communicates in Hebrew, Spanish, and English and sings licks of musical theater, both to console Rebecca and Josh and to help them reconnect to each other and to living. Poetic and theatrical, “Un Hombre” examines timeless philosophical questions with humor and tenderness. The final scene will break your heart. Highly recommended.

Mary and Bill have been married for twenty-four years, and Bill wants to celebrate with a game of “H-O-R-S-E.” Good-humored but competitive, Bill attempts to teach Mary, an unathletic librarian, how to shoot a basket, and with each pass of the baskektball, the dynamics of their marriage emerge with ever-increasing clarity. That we love this wife and husband is testament to Kathleen Cahill’s comedic writing; “H-O-R-S-E” is a wildly entertaining riff on the adage that we can know someone for decades and still have more to learn. A swish through the hoop never sounded so good. Strongly recommended.

The Mackinac Bridge, infamous for length and height, provides a comedic setting for Maripat Allen’s delightful “Five Miles Long, Two Hundred Feet High.” Jennifer must cross the bridge, but terrified by stories of cars having been blown over the bridge’s side, she pays someone to drive her and meets Jason, a veteran who understands fear. With Aristotelian unity of time and place, Allen’s play entertains us through every minute of the journey, one in which Jennifer and Jason cross more than the Great Lakes below them. Strongly recommended.

In Glenn Alterman’s “Unheard,” awkward silences punctuate the conversation of an estranged father and son, between whom incommunication has been a primary characteristic. Ironically, then, offstage sounds (hospital bells, a commanding voice over an intercom), move the action forward to an unexpected revelation. The result is a piercing meditation on the mysteries of filial attachment and the silence of death. A powerful ten-minute play, “Unheard” can be produced either in an audio format or in a fully staged production. Strongly recommended.

In ten episodes of a Survivor-like contest, Greg Lam’s “Treachery Island” elicits plenty of laughs, as a group of predictable types—the scheming contestant, cynical showrunner, and dumb jock—manage the multiple crises of an unexplained global catastrophe. Reimaging the reality genre as a workplace drama, Lam gives us three-dimensional characters off-script and off-camera, whose actual survival we care about. With multiple plot twists in every episode, the play delivers a fast-paced, brilliant satire of both reality television and the tropes of apocalyptic literature. Ideal for multiple formats: radio, stage, or screen as a limited television series. Highly recommended.

In Donna Hoke’s “Mabel Talks,” the silent film star Mabel Normand addresses the producers and directors who shaped and stymied her career. While this engrossing one-woman show introduces audiences to a brilliant comedian who has been forgotten, in Hoke’s deft treatment, the play delivers more than a biography. By letting Mabel speak for herself, Hoke depicts Normand as a strong-willed artist, at turns funny, flirtatious, and combative, and so richly imagined, she charms us with the charisma that made her one of the first film celebrities of the 20th century. A gem for actors. Highly recommended.

In “The Equivalent of Sensation,” Arianna Rose uses simple props and witty repartee to take the audience on a furious journey from staid Baltimore to the avant-garde salons of Paris, evoking ocean liners, trolleys, WWI ambulances, bats and dogs and cannabis-laced brownies along the way. Reminiscent of Harpo Marx’s comedy, Rose’s imaginative staging focuses on Etta Cone, an early 20th-century art collector. Called back from death, Etta has one night to review her life and discover whether she ever truly lived. The play is both fun and poignant, and a great vehicle for older women actors. Strongly recommended.

In “Faith, Trust and …” Rachel Feeny-Williams creates a vivid Neverland with characters from J. M. Barrie’s "Peter Pan" transported to a metropolis overrun by underworld bosses and organized crime. Bodies pile up, and suspense tightens. Audience surprise at all the plot’s twists testifies to Feeny-Williams’ mastery in upending expectations, and yet the play observes the classic noir convention of addressing injustice. At first comic, then tragic, “Faith, Trust and…” is a blast for actors. Set designers will love it. Some roles can be double cast, and the play can be adapted for radio. Very highly recommended.

In “The Guys,” Lori M. Myers imagines a speed dating event attended by conjoined twins. In less masterful hands, the situation could devolve into cheap laughs at the expense of the differently abled, but Myers creates characters, not types, and we get to know them. Larry and Barry bicker and feud, and their zingers are truly funny, but Honey, a compassionate woman, helps the brothers reconcile. She also gets a date. “The Guys” is a great choice for short play festivals, especially if romance and dating are themes. Highly recommended.