←Recommendations of AFFINITY LUNCH MINUTES

Affinity Lunch Minutes is a sharp look at the way predominantly white institutions - even/especially those that espouse liberal values - recapitulate supremacist structures. The brilliance of the play lies in the way it shows us how systemic failures impact the lives and choices of the individuals involved. Ben's wrestling with his connection to the institution and its goals is powerful and, at times, heartbreaking. The personal and political mirror each other, pulling us deeply into the individual and structural issues. Great, complex roles, and exciting design challenges in the interludes.

This play is so incredibly tight in its writing. I’m still thinking about the ways in which family backgrounds, identities, and institutional roles come into play as the characters in this play interact with each other. And that last scene is just… really, really effective in driving the play home. Great visual/digital design opportunities! Plus the fact that it’s a play with four great roles makes it’s a no-brainer—produce this play!

Holy moly. Not an inch of page is wasted here. Malakhow's brutal examination of identity and respectability politics reinforces their sheer mastery of the craft. I can't say anything anyone else hasn't said, just contributing to the chorus singing the praises of this fantastic play.

Affinity Lunch Minutes is an excellent play that portrays the struggles that BIPOC people face when we find access into predominantly white institutions. The play asks important questions about whether institutions can be changed from within, about the power and role of teachers in the fight for justice, about the responsibility of bystanders, about respectability politics, and about the value (or lack thereof) of discourse about oppression. This play is a nuanced and beautiful manifestation of today's racial dynamics in the U.S. and it needs to be widely produced!

Your theater should fight to be the first to produce this incisive, heartfelt, and important play, which was performed at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference this year. This small-cast play is a look at an incredibly complex and crucial relationship between two teachers of color who are both trying to do their best for their students and themselves. The play both skewers educational PWIs and offers a genuine glimpse into a teacher's journey to fully claim their own identity. It is layered and powerful, and your audiences need to see it.

I had the honor of hearing this piece twice at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. It's a hopeful and heartbreaking look at how even the most progressive institutions so often fail BIPOC folks. It's a fascinating setting and the story unfolds effortlessly. Would love to see this produced! Great work, Nick!

The dichotomy that Nick Malakhow balances between activism in PWIs and the intoxicating near-bystander effect that we're conditioned into as allies, victims, and seekers of justice is propulsive, dynamic and deeply powerful. The chain is broken in this play, and both the tension between and healing process for Jasmine and Ben's friendship is nuanced and thoroughly engaging-- I could not stop reading once I had started. I absolutely loved this play.

Nick Malakhow does it again everyone! Affinity Lunch Minutes has everything - dialogue fraught with tension, tenacity and tenderness, characters brimming with contradictions and inner calamities, and scenes that made me scream AHHHH! in response to what was being discussed (the second Ben and Cal scene *insert Kermit the Frog flailing in front of a red curtain GIF here) either out of laughter or anger or more likely both. I mean the eviscerating examinations on race, white supremacy, and systemic oppression in this are staggering and strong and so need to be seen on a stage ASAP!

I am shaking after reading this play. This play is infuriating and hopeful. This is the play we need today. Fuck all the productions of Ragtime and American Son that PWIs are planning on producing to show they're "listening." Quit being a coward and PRODUCE THIS PLAY!! Let these words wash over you and let them inspire real change in your organizations built on white supremacy.

100 words isn't enough to truly express how electrifying Malakhow's play is. This script FLOORED me. It is fraught with dread, tension, hope, and change. I saw a reading of it through The Garden and literally could not sit still, as multiple moments every scene inspired visceral reactions. An amazing, deeply layered examination of living in a society that is struggling to combat and navigate white supremacy and systemic oppression, and how often we still put teachers at the vanguard of the battle. This is a masterful work. Highly recommend.