Recommended by Greg Hovanesian

The Opioid Crisis in America has destroyed families as ruthlessly as it has killed individuals. In ‘The High Ground’, Jackie Martin uses the conversation between a mother and son to demonstrate how damaging and painful it is for a family to lose someone to opioids. The words between the two are harsh at times, but the dialogue is filled with love throughout. This is a very moving play about a very serious problem.

At first glance this seems to be simply an enjoyable romantic comedy, but there is something much more profound at work beneath the surface: what is desire? What is happiness? Who are we, really? This play is not only fun, it’s incredibly thought-provoking.

Queen of Sad Mischance is a beautiful play that leads the viewer/reader down a path that is at once very sad and very human. The disintegration of one’s thoughts and mind, whether through Alzheimer’s or another cognitive disease, is something that many people deal with, but Minigan has portrayed it in a way that shows how the intersection of care and selfishness often clash in unexpected ways. The realness of this play is startling, and the choices and decisions made are, in ways, simultaneously terrible and pragmatic, resulting in a moving, thought-provoking play.

This play is incredibly moving and powerful. While addressing many issues in a short amount of time, at its core it’s about the love between a father and son, and the ways in which each try to help the other to survive in a “rigged” world. Ultimately, each man rejects the other’s offer of help, out of necessity more than anything else. It’s a heartbreaking look at the world we live in.

Death of a Driver is truly mesmerizing. The people who inhabit its pages seem so real that it’s as if the reader can smell the dirt on their shoes, can taste the beer they’re drinking. It touches on so many subjects, and addresses so many issues, and yet, at its heart this play is about relationships, friendship, and people. It’s beautifully moving, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for several hours after I finished reading it.

For anyone who appreciates the work of Poe, this play is a must-read. Hageman has expertly captured the voice of the narrator from Poe’s epic poem, but even more interestingly she’s created a voice for the Raven: the bird who once only said “Nevermore” is now able to open up to the world with a plethora of wisecracks and supreme knowledge. This play was so much fun to read! And as an avid Poe fan, it was satisfying to read something inspired by a famous piece and written in such a loving way.

Zaffarano’s play Kentucky Lemonade feels so real that it’s as if the reader is placed into the room where the story takes place: one almost feels as if they’re leaning on a counter unseen, listening in to the wonderful dialogue that sparkles throughout this play. This is a wonderful story about the difficulties of being a part of a family.

We live in two worlds: the adult world, and the child world. The adult world is rational, logical, safe. The child world is terrifying, filled with monsters and danger. Most plays stay in the adult world, and for most of this play Bohannon keeps us there, creating a sad and moving atmosphere. But with startling speed the play shifts worlds, leading the viewer/reader to a scary, irrational place that’s difficult to make sense of. This play is delightfully terrifying: it scares us in the most visceral way, bringing us back to forgotten places.

EGG IN SPOON moves from fun and entertaining to absolutely terrifying in the span of minutes. The reader/viewer has the chance to enjoy some wonderful banter between the four women on stage before things suddenly become very dark and scary. Carnes has delivered a play that expertly shows how the erosion of rights that would seem to be universal not only can disappear, but can disappear with a whimper, without anyone seeming to care. In 2018, as we watch and listen to what’s happening to our world, this is an incredibly important and powerful play.

When one thinks of Bible passages and Cotton Mather sermons, images of Puritan New England often come to mind. And in this play, THE WICKED LIFE OF PATIENCE BOSTON, that is certainly true. But there’s a certain electricity to this play that transcends the puritanical rigidity of the setting: Stubbles has written a play that brings to life the rampant sexism and peonage of the time with the ferocity of a hallucinogenic drug wedging itself into someone’s psyche during a family dinner gone bad. It should be read and hopefully will be heard.