←Recommendations of CHANGELING

Generally, when fairies steal your baby, you don’t get it back. You get some crotchety agent of chaos replacing your adorable agent of chaos. But Cross’s LostMother is getting a one-time exception!

If only she’d read the fine print.

Cross’s easy-to-speak verse flawlessly combines old-timey formality with an earthy wit, as characters negotiate between maternal expectation and grounded magical reality. Children grow up faster when parents aren’t looking. They won’t want what you want for them, regardless. The circumstances and backstory keep you guessing. The result is heartfelt, suspenseful, and utterly enchanting!

I was treated to a reading of CHANGELING, and within pages I felt transported by Monica Cross’s timeless, storybook-plucked verse dialogue. There’s something marvelous and heartfelt about the conversation between LostMother and ForestChild, which manages to be grounded and relatable while also feeling firmly planted in the realm of faefolk and Grimmsian parables. There’s a lot to glean from this piece, and I’m excited to see theater audiences fall in love with it.

How I would love to see this on a stage; there is so much that would make "Changeling" a fun endeavor for a director, set designer and two actors.

That said, reading the text on the page — imagining the verse spoken in my head — was an amazing experience in itself. "Changeling" is a beautifully lyrical and compelling play. Cross expertly builds this fantasy world that draws us in and keeps us there with the all-too-real theme of what parents want vs. who their child becomes.

Excellent work!

A beautiful short play that works equally well as a drama and as a fantasy. The characters feel so real and the dialogue is compelling. I especially like how I was able to get drawn into this world that Monica Cross created so effectively and quickly. Excellent job!