Recommended by Hallie Palladino

Saw a fantastic workshop at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, sharp, scathing, complex, challenging and necessary. As we speed across centuries Harris unpacks the complex relationships between performance, exploitation, power and agency. He employs movement, clowning, music and animatronic robots to examine artifice and artistry. He brilliantly dramatizes the dissonance August Wilson famously described, "There are and have always been two distinct and parallel traditions in black art: that is, art that is conceived and designed to entertain white society, and art that feeds the spirit and celebrates the life of black America by designing its strategies for survival and prosperity."

I just saw the world premiere of this play at Cloudgate in Chicago. This play couldn't be more timely. Sheriff Teeny shines her flashlight on systems designed to protect the guilty, coerce the innocent, obfuscate truth and prey on the vulnerable. It also manages to connect unnatural horrors with the abuse of nature. This play is so much more than a simple detective story. It touches on rape culture, climate change, capital punishment, racism and our unjust immigration policy. And there is so much more below the surface of that lake.

A powerful and bold, unexpected exploration of the psychological and sociological complexities of rape and its aftermath. There are no easy answers here. Ricki’s steadfast deflection of Hunter’s self-loathing and desire to be punished pushes him to recognize what a path toward justice would mean—and what he must sacrifice. He naively thinks he can be released through some hardcore role play, but boy is he wrong! Flipping the power dynamic isn’t just something you can pretend at, nor is culpability a private matter.

Serious Adverse Effects blends history with science fiction condemning the way black women have been exploited by the medical community, both historically, and specifically within the world of this play. An epidemic that stems from the perfect storm of stressors, including grief, triggers the onset of physiological and psychic disintegration. As Dr. Vye atones for her involvement in grievously unethical trials, she battles a system that wants to suppress her miraculous discovery. A character driven tale of violence, science and a quest for redemption exploring big questions about the substance of the spirit the nature of being.

This dark comedy takes on the commercialization and corporatization of storytelling (especially the way Disney has co-opted, appropriated and regurgitated some of our most fundamental human narratives), but more than that, Leff & Leno address the epidemic of hate-based domestic terrorism by showing us our predicament in miniature, reminding us we're all trapped together on this small spinning world facing our shared mortality. As to how we choose to act in the fleeting moments we are granted, we always have a choice. This zany and terrifying play argues it is imperative to choose radical compassion.

Just got a sneak peak of this play at a table read. Kander tells the story of how tricky it is to put together a viable sexual assault case by showing us what the power differential between accuser and accused means in terms of access to representation, and burden of proof. A play with some mystery and plenty of surprises.

I had the honor of attending a workshop of this play at Prop Thtr in Chicago with a packed house and it was a uniquely magical experience. This incredibly smart, engaging play dramatizes inequality in a way that is dynamic and dangerous. But it goes beyond merely the logical conclusion of the Amazonification of America, commenting not only on the conventions of performance, specifically performance in the context of teaching, but also on the agreements, both implicit and explicit between performer and audience. A story of people heroically resisting the extreme commodification of their individual selves including their own resistance.

This clever play mixes comedy, drama and romance to great effect. As we shift between the 1970s and today we piece together the story of exactly what happened between Tilly and Katherine. RiChard makes important connections and comparisons between second and third wave feminism, exposing the failure of both to address the specific needs of black women. But the true gift of this play is a beautiful and unexpected love story that deals with desire, plus aging, motherhood, loyalty and grief. It's a play about embracing your loved ones flaws and giving them second chances. Elegantly plotted, hopeful and poignant.

Cardboard examines toxic masculinity and bro culture in the context of exclusively male spaces. It explicates the growing pains of five men trying to keep up with changing social expectations of male behavior. There is tension and conflict in this group as they reexamine their shared youth through the lens of a certain brand of post-Trump, post-Metoo nascent wokeness. Some of their past behavior is merely cringy, some is deeply troubling. At its heart this play explores the social barriers to male emotional intimacy when avenues of expression are constricted to the old stalwarts of drink-fueled competition and aggression.

This story of very private moments in the life of a very public woman highlights the disconnect between the public narrative and the person. This play is an examination and condemnation of how we define women by their sexual relationships with men, especially when they are connected with a powerful man, however briefly. The Monica in this play is an woman who is trying to move on and do good work in the world and forge meaningful, intimate relationships, but she's hindered by the weight of her name. Nora interrogates our society's collective fear and loathing of female sexual agency.