←Recommendations of Heartland

A wonderful and nuanced piece that is so full of surprising revelation, tension, and character evolution, but all of this is done with incredibly deft brushstrokes and a light hand. Gabriel Jason Dean both illuminates a complex historical truth that asks questions of culpability and incitement of violence, while also telling a story of forgiveness, family, and identity. I'd love to see this intimate piece onstage, as it so wisely uses bold theatrical devices to heighten the storytelling.

A powerful play that rips you open and teaches you a history you never knew. A story of forgiveness, understanding and love. Great work.

This is a masterful, heart wrenching piece that manages to create a narrative that challenges, amuses, and quietly guides the audience within one act and three characters.

A stunner. Difficult truths presented in uncompromising language are dovetailed gracefully into a heartbreakingly tender story of love, loyalty, guilt, understanding, and a form of forgiveness; beautifully written, and it's encomiums are well-deserved. I am looking forward to seeing this produced again soon – it deserves a long, long life on stages everywhere.

A reviting play on family bonds and tragedy, legacy and loss, shattered illusions and forgiveness. It's an eye-opener on a part of American history that most people don't know about, but it never feels like a chalkboard history lesson because the playwright shows us the effects of history and war on the personal life of three people. And the playwright achieves that while tansitioning from past to present, Afghanistan to Nebraska, and incorporating English and Dari language. And a lot of humor. Check it out!

Heartland by Gabriel Jason Dean received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Geva Theatre Center (Rochester), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), The VORTEX (Austin), and InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia).

Gabriel creates three powerful characters and sets them free to draw their stories from each other. No good guys and bad guys, just humans doing their best and fucking up terribly and beautifully.

Gabriel Jason Dean's play has brought forth a great feat of wonder and astonishment. The context and language of this play is eye-opening and worth bringing forth to the world.

Put this one on your reading list today. I cried reading an early draft. From that draft to this one, the play has grown even stronger. Gorgeously drawn characters, firmly rooted in their own truth, trying to move forward in a socially progressive way but always - as all of us are - heartbreakingly constrained by our life experiences. However, there is a huge power in the striving for love, for understanding, for forgiveness, for a better world for all people - and Gabe brings all of that passion and power to the stage. A beautiful new play!

This play asks powerful questions about how our actions affect those closest to us and those on the other side of the planet. It's a play about education, literature, family and how we pay our debts to one another, told with Gabe's signature blend of compassionate, poetic realism.