Recommended by John Minigan

  • The Elusive Pursuit of Maximum Bliss
    25 Feb. 2021
    Like all the best science fiction, "The Elusive Pursuit..." grabs your attention first with a clear and compelling concept, then brings you into a deeper journey into powerful human issues: how our choices determine our happiness, regrets about paths not taken, the longing for happiness. And fate, in this case, provides a heartfelt and deeply satisfying path forward for its characters. Even when we haven't yet achieved maximum bliss, there's still hope.
  • Clare
    21 Feb. 2021
    J.Lois Diamond's Clare manages to be both sparklingly witty and darkly compelling. It paints a portrait of Clare Hollingworth through an interview with a young journalism student, and the portrait not only shows the facts of Hollingworth's remarkable career and life, but also poses questions of ethics in journalism, the legacy of colonialism, and the question of both professional and personal legacy. Great roles for the performers--would love to see this staged!
  • The Making of Medea's Medea (shorter one-act version)
    27 Jan. 2021
    What an intriguing, funny, surprising, ride-within-a-ride! Belov uses the mockumentary form to pull apart and examine our understanding not just of Medea (the character and the dramas) but our understanding of how we frame and accept stories. Who has the right to tell and shape a story? What do ownership and appropriation mean? What is the nature of jealousy for romantic partners and for writers and what might that jealousy lead to? All of these questions--and lots of laughter and thoroughly engaging, quick-cut storytelling along the way
  • Christmas Crime Scene
    9 Dec. 2020
    David Beardsley has packed twelve days of plot twists into ten hilarious minutes. With a dead Santa, merry mayhem, a revolving door string of Santas, and even a sketchy lawyer named Rudy, this is a noir holiday comedy wrapped with a bow. Pour an eggnog and enjoy, kid.
  • Fresh Paint
    23 Nov. 2020
    A brilliant short piece that captures the complexity of life for Indian-Americans after 9/11 (and the over-simplicity and racism of white America's response to that event). It's a piece that, unfortunately, resonates today as much as it did then.
  • The Chevalier
    19 Oct. 2020
    This is an astonishing work about a too-little-known musical genius, presenting the life and accomplishments of Joseph Bologne with wit, detail, clarity, and an epic sweep. There is great ambition in the writing--not just to tell the unknown story but to reimagine the connection between theater and music, between the artistic and the political. That great ambition is met by great craft to make for a brilliantly conceived and executed creation. Here's a revolution we need.
  • The Improv Class
    19 Aug. 2020
    A beautifully wrought piece that moves us from improv to real life and moves us from laughs to deep recognition. As Player really learns to play, to give up control, and enter his "Scene Partner's" reality, they move to genuine empathy and care. Funny, surprising, and heart-rending.
  • Uncovering
    19 Aug. 2020
    A very tightly written and chilling piece about the moment when love and devotion turn into control and the surrender of individuality. Powerful and frightening.
  • Love and the Fear of it All
    19 Aug. 2020
    "Love and the Fear of it All" manages to be both explosively joyful and tender, and all while acknowledging the chaos and terror of the world around us. Romantic love and family love are powerful in the piece, and maybe they are what will save us from the times we live in.
  • INTERMOLECULAR FORCES
    16 Aug. 2020
    This play captures so many aspects of what we've been through in the first months of the pandemic. The "before we knew," the "what will this mean," and the heartbreak of what we now know it's done to so many. Funny, dark, and ultimately heartbreaking.

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