←Recommendations of A One-Minute Monologue

A shattering, impactful body blow delivered with so much succinct care that Rachel Luann Strayer lets the audience do all fo the work with a few deft touches. Impactful, affecting, and shocking. She's set this up as an audition or competition piece, and I can only imagine the incredible impact this piece would have in those environments. Wow.

The revision from the two-minute version still packs a wallop. It is a clear telling of this incredibly difficult moment. It's difficult to feel either like an intruder or a friend, perhaps even a therapist. Well-done.

Incredibly powerful, this monologue showcases a bitter truth about the reality of too many. An important piece, artfully handled.

Weaponized lightness. That’s what Strayer uses here. There’s a matter-of-factness accompanied by the glib festiveness one takes on when looking through a photo album. Why shouldn’t the speaker in the monologue be glib and matter of fact? She’s an adult now and spending family occasions together and documenting them in photographs is normal for most people, just like spending and documenting those occasions with her rapist in the photo is normal for her. So what defense does she have? She has her tone. Her memory. What she survived and that she survived it. Brave, staggering work!

Brilliant in its simplicity and sadly, its universality. Delicate and painful.

Chilling. Heartbreaking. Close to home. A hard play to read, but a necessary one.

I was stunned at how this hit. Mixing the festive with the horrific and then the REAL hit happens. That it all goes unnoticed by those closest. This is maddening and breathtaking at the same time. I've read this over 5 times in the last 5 minutes and it has power every single time.

As a rape victim, this stunning play hit hard and fast. Should be produced constantly.

You will not forget this moment, and you should not.

A gut punch in one minute. Heartbreaking. Sad. Infuriating.