Recommended by Greg Hovanesian

For anyone who has acted, particularly on film, and has been to auditions, sometimes feeling more like a number than a person, BURGERS is a monologue that should resonate. Sapio has written a wonderful piece that illustrates how people are turned into commodities by their professions, losing their human-ness in order to further the goals of others. It also shows just how wasteful some aspects of our society are. Any actor who has had bad experiences at auditions should read this piece: there’s a lot of room to turn up the emotional heat and seek revenge through performance.

For millions of people across the world, racism, whether overt or aversive, is the cause of hardship. In CHASE, the racism on the surface is blatant: two white high school students taunting two teammates, one African-American and one Hispanic. But for Jerome, the play’s protagonist, the bigger obstacle is the institutional racism of the world he lives in. Imani Alyse Redman demonstrates just how difficult the struggle is for people of color in America, and how hard one must fight to overcome the traps laid out by our society.

It’s always fun to meet fictional characters in real-life situations. Zietler has given us a wonderfully fun and enjoyable play where monsters such as Dracula, the Wolfman, and Banshee all try to come to terms with the challenges they face in today’s society. But there’s more than a touch of sadness beneath the comedy: as the world around us changes, some relics, both alive and dead, are ultimately left behind. We laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, but in the end we should feel a little sad as well.

Human beings are emotional creatures, so it’s only natural that throughout their history romantic relationships have often lead to pain, distrust, anger, and violence. But human beings have also made themselves more dangerous through the invention of weapons: from the stone to the bomb, we have created a plethora of ways to harm. In Protect the Plate, Lawing shows us just how terrifying our use of weapons can be; how a piece of technology can turn us from an emotional, wounded animal to a lethal instrument of destruction. In 2018, the importance of this message cannot be understated.

In the space of 9 pages, Pack Rats goes from being intriguingly funny to downright scary. The mood shifts quickly as the audience realizes what’s happening, and in the end it seems there’s only one thing that can save the day: the love between two people. This is a powerful play with an uplifting message.

Unspoken is a monologue that grows in power as it moves forward, as the audience slowly comes to know this man who speaks, who goes by different names depending on who speaks to him. His message is clear and terrifying, told through the voice of someone who has experienced racism and homophobia firsthand, whose words carry the weight of pain and knowledge. This piece is moving and scary, and should make us think about what ‘humanity’ really is.

When adults visit a zoo, it is hard for them not to feel pangs of sadness. Unlike children, adults understand that a zoo is an approximation of a real world, a world built into the confines of an exhibit. But in The Gorilla, O’Grady makes us wonder: is our world as ‘real’ as we think? Is the love we experience ‘real’, or do we change ourselves to make it ‘real’? And do ‘real’ wild places still exist in the confines of our world, surrounded by guns and poachers? This play asks difficult questions, yet remains heart-warming and hopeful.

If a person is absolutely against racism, and has experienced discrimination in their lifetimes, can they still be racist without realizing it? The answer, of course, is yes, and Chore Monkeys makes this crystal clear to anyone unsure or undecided. Gabridge has written a play that is fun and accessible, and yet confronts the audience with a number of situations that should make us think: why is this happening? And why does it seem so normal?

Unhelpful helpers helped by unhelpful bosses. 500 page novels where the font is what really matters. Abrasive customers who don’t know how insanely offensive they are. And Gremlins! It’s obvious upon reading Copy Center of Doom that this copy center is located somewhere in Hell. But what’s really surprising is how fun Hell can be, as Stubbles shows us in this enjoyable portrayal of some of humanity's lower points.

Don Ponzo is a man filled with bravado: a postal worker at a Renaissance Faire letting loose emotionally, filling the air around him with loud exclamations of feeling as he releases himself completely. But he’s much more than just some loud guy on vacation: the viewer/reader discovers that there’s much sadness locked inside him, waiting to escape. This monologue is an equally sad and funny look into the soul of a man who has lost something special, and is trying to keep things the same, despite the pain he feels.