←Recommendations of The Wonderful Out There

THIS IS SO GOOD!!! IT'S GIVING Coraline, Amazing Digital Circus, The Promised Neverland (3 of my VERY favorites!!!!). Dialogue is fire. Character development is detailed and heartbreaking. The pacing is PERFECTION.

Thanks you, Dave, for the work you do.

Was lucky to catch the streamed staged reading of The Wonderful Out There, and I find that days later it has stayed with me. The subject matter is dark, but the pervasive sense of mystery and deep sadness that underpin these characters' efforts to understand why they are where they are make the play compelling, and Osmundsen deftly and strategically intersperses moments of levity along with engaging details about these characters' unique obsessions, so that one can't help but bear witness.

Had the pleasure of taking in this play through the Epiphanies festival at Wild Imaginings. Osmundsen has the incredible ability to command empathy for his characters from just seconds of seeing them on stage. The reveal of what is "out there" is devastating, but there is a beautiful thread of hope for these characters throughout, and I'm beyond excited to take in more of this playwrights' work to seek more of wonderful emotional layering like that.

A great deal of both pleasure and insight is gained from witnessing the dynamics between Daryl, Jennifer, Larry, Bethany, and Carly in Dave Osmundsen's 'The Wonderful Out There', a play about neurodivergent children growing into and grasping their surroundings, their relationship to their environment. It is about achieving communication in face of the looming failure of it. The play renders a paced but rhythmic naturalism that gently sidles its way into your heart, despite its mystery framework.

I don’t think I’ve read a play that has dredged up more emotion, elicited a harder sob out of me than The Wonderful Out There by Dave Osmundsen. It is a marvel, a heartbreaking tribute, a eulogy, a call to action. I saw myself most in Daryl, but I also saw so many loved ones, kids I went to school with, kids I taught, people I know and have known. This play will stay with me for a long time.

THE WONDERFUL OUT THERE is a hard hitting play beautifully executed with love and compassion. Dave Osmundsen gives us a story about a group of kids whose searching and longing is so powerful it transcends life and death. This piece highlights the abuse faced by many neurodivergent children.

This is a captivating story that will make for a heartfelt evening of theatre, but it is also a memorial and a call to action that deserves a spotlight center stage.

This play wrecked me. The theatrical imagery, the well-constructed mystery, the tenderly drawn adolescent characters—and most of all, the unflinching way it confronts the discrimination and cruelty faced by autistic/ND children.

Osmundsen’s parable resonates on a universal level—is the joy of life worth the potential, inevitable pain?—but his perspective as a neurodivergent playwright brings an extra layer of meaning and specificity to this devastatingly beautiful play.

I’m the parent of an autistic child; I read TWOT with him in my arms, shedding more than a few tears and promising to protect him. Powerful piece.

This play is tragic and heartbreaking and harrowing and hopeful. This play raises awareness of an all to frequent issue in the neurodivergent community, and gives voice to children whose voices were taken from them. Powerful, moving, and hopefully motivating to do better for neurotypical audiences.

Parts Cuckoo's nest, Peter Pan, and Sarte; The Wonderful Out There tends to its characters' unique needs and tendencies with utmost care in the face of unthinkable tragedy. We see these kids thrive in their respective elements as the story reveals the circumstances that threatens to dim what makes them shine. perhaps forever.
It's a decision they'll have to make for themselves.

This play is beautiful in a painful way. That said, it does not inspire despair but rather it challenges one to love deeper in ways both radical and necessary.

My favorite Dave Osmundsen play yet.

Harrowing and beautiful, this play is Osmundsen turning his characteristic compassion towards unthinkable darkness and trying to find a light, any light, within it. The result is haunting and profound. Won't be forgetting this one any time soon.