←Recommendations of The Reservoir

This is a very special play. It manages to balance so many big themes: sobriety, aging, family, faith, and making amends, but it's just a joyful journey through them all. It is funny and cleverly theatrical. Every character is a delight, and the time we spend with them earns the deeply personal and tender moments of this script.

I love this play. I love the writer. The two cannot be separated. Jake is a charismatic star. He is a fantastic performer - singer and writer. In the reservoir he masters many traditional genres: family, greek chorus and the forever redemption story. He does this in a way you wouldn't know that he is literally also a master musical theatre writer. I don't know how he does it.

I saw the ATLANTIC production. Gorgeous!

Wow wow wow. This play is like a piece of gooey hot fudge. I wanted to live in this world that Brasch has created forever. It is sunny, dreamy, and bright. Also, There were genuine tears rolling down my face at the end. An unapologetically gay, Jewish, funny, and loving play.

My favorite works are often the ones that can make you both laugh and cry - this is a prime example. This beautiful, heartbreaking, authentic, warm-hearted play should speak to anyone who’s ever gotten wisdom from a grandparent or elder. It’s a play about love when it’s hard and the power of our families. And you’ll learn some neuroscience along the way!

What a stunner. The depth and breadth of feeling that was captured in this play was so vast - across time, generations, religions, temperaments, and terrain - that I came up out of the reading startled to have not literally travelled. It was a gift to visit with all of the grandparents in the play, dazzling in their imperfect humanity, and reflect on my own lost four. Congratulations to you, Jake. I hope it has a long, vibrant life in productions around the world.

I treasure this play! The Reservoir is funny and sad and brave. Baruch Hashem for queer Jewish plays and playwrights <3

I've not cried in months, but Jake got me pretty good. This play is tragic and beautiful and heartwarming and really very good. The style of writing is really engaging; I would love to see it put up (somewhere near me)!

What a ride. Overlapping themes of addiction/recovery with dementia is just as thematically effective as theatrically satisfying. Shrimpy is a character I never knew I needed until I read "The Reservoir". Timely and genuine, left me breathless from focus - and from laughter.

Josh is such an interesting character that you can't help but root for. This is a beautiful play about the lengths we go to to help others as our own lives fall apart.

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize “The Reservoir” by Jake Brasch as a Semi-Finalist for the 2023 Premiere Play Festival. “The Reservoir” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 40 Semi-Finalists out of 701 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by Josh’s flawed earnestness fueling his desire to hold onto things, as well as the balanced laugh-out-loud comedy and serious reflections. Our congratulations and thanks to Jake.