Recommended by Nick Malakhow

An incredibly moving and beautifully told story! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this at Company One in Boston. Jung creates her own glorious theatrical world utilizing some creative conventions that, in the wrong hands, could be gimmicky. On the contrary, her use of a puppet to represent the child achieves a masterful storytelling sleight of hand--it makes it possible for us as an audience to witness the trauma he goes through without subjecting a child actor to it, while not losing any of the emotional potency of the character's arc. I hope this play has a long life!

HONORS STUDENTS is a terrifying, funny, heightened, truthful piece that examines female friendship and adolescence, and all of the volatility and power dynamic shifting that comes with the territory. Kora, Minnie, and Megan are all believable and sympathetic characters, and I remain invested in each even as some shocking events unfold. MacCarthy also uses double-casting here to good effect to highlight the unsettling presence in men in these young women's lives. A dark, dry sense of humor pervades the text--these girls have deftly rendered teen voices that equally illustrate their fierce intelligence, well-trained defense mechanisms, and adolescent vulnerability.

This is a hilarious, offbeat, sweet play about identity, coming of age...and Satan! Stevens establishes an eclectic cast of characters to define this dynamic theatrical world. Each character speaks with distinct cadences and rhythms, and the "human, but heightened" style of dialogue made for a brisk and entertaining read. The play explores a familiar question through Louis--how do you grow up nourishing your queer identity when your rigid and close-minded parent sees who you are as wrong and devilish--in a creative fashion. I'd love to see all of the theatrical magic described in stage directions realized!

I really enjoyed this tightly written and well-structured script. Hehir mines the minutiae of day to day work to explore human relationships and the everyday desire to be a fulfilled, happy, and upstanding individual (and how all those things interact with one another). Each character is well-drawn, believable, and able to evoke humor and pathos. This is an excellent example of a piece that examines little seismic shifts between people and that accurately captures all the glory, frustration, and awkwardness of coworkers. I'd love to see this real-time play on its feet.

What a beautiful, poignant, funny play. Mendoza gives us much to think about here with regards to caretaking, grief, family, and escaping cycles of behavior. What he does so brilliantly is utilize an exploration of AI and mechanical sentience to do so. All characters large and small are well-rendered and distinctly human. I appreciate how Jorge and Gabriel's Latinx identities, and Anita's Indian identity help us see the intersectional complexities of the human relationships being represented onstage--the kinds of relationships/plays we often see labelled as "universal" but coded as white. This play is universal yet intersectionally rich.

This definitely falls into my favorite category of plays--the "making me shamelessly weep on public transportation" genre. In all seriousness, Ian August has crafted a short but potent piece of theatrical magic here. In different hands, the conceit of the video taping could off as gimmicky, but in BRISE it allows for August to use brilliant theatrical "showing vs. telling" to illustrate Paul's deterioration. While the play does have Paul's crisis at the center, it also explores larger themes of caretaking, the fracturing and reforming of family relationships, and what makes up one's identity. I'd love to see this staged!

PIONEERS is a funny, unique, and offbeat exploration of the ways that technology can both enhance and detract from our well-being. In Maia, Rachael Carnes has crafted a perfect extended metaphor for human dependence on social media and tech for decision making, the relationship-level commitment one needs to make to keep up with technology, and contemporary tech-driven loneliness. The humor is derived both from the bizarre and increasingly intense relationship between Rory and Maia, as well as from some cleverly observed and hilariously strange threads of dialogue. I'd love to see how this looks on its feet.

As an English teacher who taught ANTIGONE for years and a playwright, I truly admired this play. Each character is a uniquely rendered individual. The circumstances of the school mimic the stakes and weight of tragedy itself. The action from start to end feels inevitable but not stale--it poignantly and tragically comments on the larger social forces standing in the way of girls and women. In a contemporary twist on tragic structure, the end feels hopeful--what happens in the play is a travesty and tragedy, but the final moment foreshadows the idea that change can come through resistance.

What a glorious, hilarious, genre-bending piece! Finocchiaro explores urban isolation and alienation utilizing horror/thriller tropes that become more and more fantastical as the piece progresses. Todd's descent into paranoia over the rising body count provides some pretty consistent laughs along with a healthy dose of the existential dread that comes with the loneliness of city living. Dissonant aesthetic styles blend seamlessly together into a cohesive theatrical world. Like I have with all of Finocchiaro's plays I've read, I breezed through his spare yet hyper-specific dialogue in one sitting. I'd love to see this theatrical, entertaining piece realized onstage.

A beautiful, tender short play with dialogue that moves briskly and is both spare and profound. Stevens explores loneliness, connection, and grief in this humorous and poignant piece. Kitt, Audrey, and Avery's arcs are satisfying and surprising. This was a truly unique read that I'd love to see in production--its theatricality begs to be brought to life onstage.