←Recommendations of Right Field of Dreams

Aw! This is a sweet story of growing up and a parent and child learning about and accepting each other. Plus a little bit of ghostly fun. Lots of laughs and hands to hearts with this play.

Heartfelt and fantastic, this wonderfully concise work explores an intimate world in which a young boy, in a moment of clarity, experiences the world as he wants to see it. Is this fantasy or it is reality? That question is what makes this play so powerful. Beautiful writing.

I was lucky enough to see this brilliantly crafted, hilarious and heartfelt play in Boston Theater Company's Queer Voices fest. It was the perfect way to end the evening--with joy, love, hope, and more than a little magic. Kaplan gives us a young player unsure of his position in the field and in his family who, because of the generosity of an unexpected figure from baseball history, is able to let his mom/coach know which team he's playing for. It's a short play that hits for the cycle.

Whether you're a baseball fan or not, RIGHT FIELD OF DREAMS by Stephen Kaplan will both inspire and uplift. And what's especially dynamic about this play is the way it's written with such clarity about being a gay youth while also so natural in its dialogue. I have such hope for these characters after the play ends and it's that feeling that also makes this play shine.

A hilarious short piece that takes you on a heartfelt journey at the same time. Kaplan aptly explores Tim's journey of how to declare his self-expression to the one that matters most through baseball references theatre goers will adore. A home run in every sense.

That baseball is a metaphor for life and growing up is not a new idea, and yet I love the way storytellers come up with new ways to make it seem as fresh and real as if we're discovering it for the first time. Stephen Kaplan's short and loving play combines several stories -- from "Angels in the Outfield" to "Field of Dreams" and even a bit of "Damn Yankees" and "A League of Their Own" -- to show how Tim grows up and out in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded. It's a grand slam.

When I finished reading this piece, after a moment, a certain sadness hit me, and I can't quite place it. This isn't a sad show by any means. It's a pleasant moment of a boy slowly coming-of-age, of asserting himself and being scared of how others view him. He has his passions and he just wants to love and talk about them. Already he feels the burden of expectation. The expectations of masculinity, of sports, of heteronormativity. And we see here at least some of the burden lift. And maybe that lift is what brought the melancholy. To see hope.

Every kid should have a Dad/Mom like that who finally gets the picture. Tim is an endearing character who finally says what he thinks. Lovely piece about being able to be yourself.

Lovely, touching, insightful play. My heart jumped up with the last crack of the bat! A relatable and evocative play.

There's two places today where magic happens on a daily basis; theater and a baseball field (at least during the season). Stephen Kaplan brings us the best of both worlds. A play about baseball and the magic that can happen. This was a charmer from page one. As a former right fielder (and bookworm in a family of athletes, including a dad who was coach), I SO connected to Tim. And like Tim, I stuck with it even though I wanted to be reading my books and watching monster movies. The magic in this play held me here. Just terrific.