Recommended by Samantha Cooper

Osorio weaves a beautiful interplay of grief and memory here. With the majority of the story told by the main character (Faith) through memory, it's clear that she's coming to terms with a grief for what she had but also being confronted by grief for something she might lose. Faith speaks largely in the third person which is a painful and affecting, allowing the audience to feel both how close and simultaneously how far away grief, loneliness, and hope are for her. Overall, this play is a really thoughtful exploration of difficult subject matter.

There is a certain fluidity to history, a certain way that events happen and then are told, written, and rewritten based on the changing sensibilities of time. This is something I think Carns captures wonderfully in this play. Noting that the scenes can be rearranged only further highlights this idea. The dialogue is thoughtful and the pacing is beautiful, rooting the audience in realism which allows the play's movement through time to be that much more magical. At once, a very specific world while also being open enough for creative theatricality and staging of any performance group.

"The Jutland Boy" deftly examines the excitement and difficulties of being a woman in a fields from which women were/are historically excluded. Stout crafts a wonderful through-line by focusing at two very specific women in two different time periods, while also allowing the scope of the plot to be as expansive as the world. This play does a great job of exploring the power of storytelling, what we can learn from it, and the danger that comes from refusing to listen to the stories.

An absurd farce of epic proportions! If you like/love Chopped, the troupes will be delightfully familiar. If you don't know Chopped, this is a really fun place to start. This play has a great use of and great opportunity for mixed media. You never know what's going to happen next and that's definitely the fun of it.

With verse and song and poetry, this play smartly uses and dismantles the tropes of a Golden Age classic. Delightfully modernized, the themes that this work explores are clear so that the audience both understands their origin and their place in current context. It's funny and unique and poignant with a bevy of great and well-defined characters that would be a real joy to watch.

This play is a lovely and, at times, devastating exploration of long-term friendship and how mental illness can build a wall between even the tightest of friends. Using realistic dialogue, visual symbolism, and evocative movement, the audience can really feel how the tinge of a psychological problem can build into something messy and unruly. It is also a heartfelt look of how friends strive to help each other in the face of uncertainty and how sometimes, it all becomes too much.

Tis play is a wonderful exploration of how important camaraderie is during some of the most private and difficult moments in life. Every character has a different experience and each experience is treated with equal weight which makes it easy to find many things to connect with throughout the story. With both laugh-out loud and beautifully heartbreaking moments, this story a wonderful arc, great parts of actors, and a surprise visit from Blood Mary.

Equal parts funny, poignant, uncomfortably real, McClain's play is a smart and high-speed look at what it takes to work behind the scenes as Congressional staffers. The ups and downs of June and Craig's individual career paths as well as their relationship mirrors the explorations of integrity, efficacy, and the cogs that turn the governmental wheels inherent in the work. A witty two-hander that is great for actors and audiences alike.

A heartfelt look at depth of sibling connection, this play deftly explores the want to stay and the need to go and how every choice is a little haunted. The family dynamics of the twins and their mother are well developed and easy to connect to. Characters that are not physically present are richly created and textured, adding layers to every conversation the family has. It is a story that anyone could connect to.

This play starts out on a pretty humorous notes and only gets funnier from there. Balconies has all the hallmarks of a wonderful farce: misunderstandings, mistaken identity, physical comedy, witty dialogue, and oh so many doors! It's would be a really fun play for an audience to watch and, with so many great parts, an equally fun time for performers.