←Recommendations of Johnny 10 Beers' Daughter

A deft and tightly-written two-hander, this is one of my favorite Formby plays. For me, it is a bittersweet story of an estranged father & daughter, and an indictment of legacy enlistment in the military. The dialogue is unique and specific to the world of the play, the relationships are complicated yet familiar, and the story is so wholly American. The structure, although perhaps lulling the audience into counting the scenes (1 beer per scene), is wonderfully disrupted by flashbacks and a reveal at the end that will rip your heart out. At least, it did mine.

This play is an absolute knockout- devastating and subtle. It could be a hit nationwide, and it deserves to be. Yes, it has the tiny cast and the topical subject matter, but more importantly it is written like a bomb that will explode in the hearts of your audience.

It is my pleasure to recommend Johnny 10 Beers' Daughter by Dana Lynn Formby. I had the opportunity to see a reading of the play at Chicago Dramatists as a representative of the 2016 National Playwrights Conference. This is a gentle and heartbreaking piece that examines veterans, warfare, and regret in an intimate post-War on Terror landscape. It is subtle in a masterful way and invites the audience to share in an emotional, human trauma. I am looking forward to seeing this play produced many times over.

It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Dana Formby and their play Johnny 10 Beers' Daughters as a finalist for our 2016 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one of 54 finalists out of more than 1,450 submissions, the strength of its writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process. Our readers especially appreciated the way the deft structure and nuanced, intimate writing combined in this compelling, original examination of the effects of war.

A vividly specific story of an Iraq War Marine whose daughter becomes a Marine in the same war. The play resonates with emotional devastation in the aftermath of combat. The snapshots of their years together beside a flowing river are haunting and prickly and human. That she grows into an honorable soldier who can defend herself and others makes the story's end all the more heartbreaking. A beautiful and wrenching play.

This play is heartbreaking, honest, awkward and very intriguing on the page. I love that this is a play about war, but not in the way you'd expect. It's such an intimate, painful little play that actors could really dig into.