Recommended by John Minigan

  • 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.
  • Hot Gecko Space Love Action (Based on a true story): A Ten-Minute Play
    6 Aug. 2020
    I got to see this piece in a short play festival in 2019, it was the standout of the evening. Surprising, risque, lizard-tongue in cheek, and over-the-top hilarious. As the late Justice Stewart might have said, "I'm not sure how to define hilarious Hot Gecko Space Love Action, but I know it when I see it. And this is it." Read this and program it in your short play festival!
  • AGATHE
    2 Aug. 2020
    This is a richly conceived, harrowing, compelling play. More than a clear portrait of a courageous woman--though it is certainly that--it creates a sense that, even in the worst of times, there can be a possibility of goodness and nobility.
  • The Good Deli
    25 Jul. 2020
    The Good Deli is a funny, beautiful, hopeful play that resonates powerfully for anyone who has struggled to redefine their relationships with parents who are aging and/or in ill health. It's unusual to find a play in which so many kinds of love and fragility coexist with witty dialogue and an such sly humor. Great roles in this, particularly "Jules," navigating a new relationship, possible loss of a father, connections with a step-mother, all with the sharp insights of a stand-up comic.

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