←Recommendations of Special Extra Treatment

I don’t know how many time my attention has shifted from the inane dialogue of lead characters and I started imagining what the background characters were discussing in plays and movies. The idea that they have an interesting story of their own often arises just from our not knowing what the heck they are talking about, and suddenly they are important. I love this concept of how the author and director’s focus may not be what we really want to know. Fantastic play on many comedic levels!

At its core, "Special Extra Treatment" is a commentary on identity, class, and the quest for significance in a world that often reduces individuals to mere background noise.

Set in a restaurant, the play follows a seemingly ordinary couple as they confront their lack of significance in the grand scheme of things, only to discover unexpected truths about themselves and each other.

I love everything about this play! I highly recommend it for an evening of laughter, contemplation, and perhaps a newfound appreciation for the complexities of human existence.

Laugh out loud hysterical! Perfect timing and a hell of a rip on the Extras trope. The amount of humor in its brisk pages is staggering. Defiantly worth the read, if not a full blown productions.

A fun concept, well-executed. This would have worked perfectly well as a skit and seems headed that way, but the last three pages do a great job of defying expectations (as well as being quite hilarious in and of themselves!) and creating a wholly unexpected narrative arc. Well worth the read and would be great on stage as well.

Mandryk's delightful short will make you smile throughout. The jokes land well and you can't help but grin as the unexpected unfolds.

We are, all of us, the stars of our own lives, but what happens when you discover you're actually just the backup player in someone else's story? A delightfully meta play about taking center stage!

Two extras blossom into full-fledge characters in this hysterical and very meta comedy. Mandryk skewers actor warm-ups and soap opera plots with equal relish. This is truly one of the funniest plays I've read in quite some time. A real gem.

I hope Greg doesn't mind that when I describe my looks I'll say I'm "attractive in a CW network sort of way". What a downright funny piece! It's so random and unique, but that's what makes it fun! I love the meta approach to this play, it makes it extra charming and so engaging. Would LOVE to see this staged!

There are no small roles, only small writers who don't realize the potential gift of making ALL the characters fully-formed ones. Luckily, Greg Mandryk is no small writer and this piece proves it. Not one to waste background characters who, ironically enough, are not only supposed to be seated upstage from the "leads", but manage (with a quick bit of thinking on their part,) to completely upstage the more important characters to delightful effect. This would be a big hit with both audience members AND those eternal ensemble actors who deserve their own time in the spotlight.

Well-placed melodrama at its best. This has a Kristen Wiig quality to it in its inane yet smart humor. No one wants scene hog extras like these on their set, but you'll want these extras-turned-main-characters on your stage.