Recommended by Shaun Leisher

Audrey Lang has such a gift for writing plays about kids who don't get to just be kids. Kids that have to grow up so much faster than they should either through familial dynamics or their own ambition. Lang also capture so well the way girls can be cruel to each other due to the pressures that are forced upon them. These are the plays that need to be performed in high school theatre programs.

If we are learning anything about our current times it is about our relationships to screens and how we can foster relationships through them. I love how gonzales explores that while also looking at issues in the world of sex work. Endless dialogue will come from this play about the new ground it breaks with both form and content.

I love how the playwright explores the use of space here. The way the locations blend together in each scene perfectly captures Sam's uncertainty around how they live in their body. I also think this play perfectly captures what it's like being a teen on the cusp of adulthood. Wow!! This play is gorgeous and I'm so glad it exists.

A gut wrenching love story that also serves as an urgent commentary on current immigration issues. Esmaeli has a written a gift to actors with this piece that runs the gamut of human emotions and is so much about the things we leave unsaid to those we care most about.

I can not wait to see 2 brilliant actors sink their teeth into this stunning 2-hander. This meeting between father and daughter is told in real time and covers topics ranging from the Iranian Revolution and what living in America was like for Middle Eastern people post-9/11. It never gets too focused on any of these big issues though because at it's heart it is simply a story about 2 people that have been longing to know each other for so long connecting for the first time. Please someone produce this.

I absolutely loved this short play. Such a unique take on the world of kink. Elizabeth is full-dimensional character that I wouldn't mind seeing a whole play about but McMorran has given us a perfectly satisfying snapshot into her life with this piece.

A gorgeous meditation on death. I really feel like you don't see stories about the technology people leave behind when we look at the grieving process. Love that this is an online play that makes no mention of COVID to insure it's timelessness.

In the end, I feel like we know what happens to the friendship between these girls but I so admire Garrison resisting big dramatic moments to get us there. This is a play about all the things that add up to make things change and shift. Changes that are inevitable and that we just have to let happen. This is such a beautiful, quiet play that I will be pondering on for a long time to come.

I went into this play expecting to be intrigued by the idea of how it would be performed with so little scenery and only 4 actors. After reading this I came to the realization that this might be the best Little Women adaptation I've ever come across both on stage and screen. By cutting out characters and scenes, Chrisler is able to really focus on the states of mind of the March sisters. We are able to hear conversations that we miss when the story is bogged down with period aesthetic. This is the Little Women I hope becomes canon.

Such an intense play that feels even more urgent since it was first produced. Minnicino has written roles for women where they get to be unpredictable and it feels so authentic. There is a beautifuly rhythm to this dialogue that I can't wait to hear in person one day.