Recommended by Nick Malakhow

LAWNPEOPLE is a powerful play with vividly rendered characters and a briskly moving and consistently engaging plot. The Catch-22 that Solymar is caught within as an undocumented immigrant is potent, and the pressure she faces from all sides--Felix, the specter of her still-living daughter, her own hope at a better life--make for a compelling arc. The intersectional complexities of Hal and Adora's class and race add several new layers to the piece. I love how they read both as antagonists and sympathetic characters throughout. The dialogue is spare but often beautiful. Hope to follow this play's development journey!

HOLD STEADY captures the fears and realities--economic and personal--of millennials with an astutely drawn collection of diverse characters. The room for gender flexibility among the characters is also very well done! Many plays marked as "identity neutral" are still coded as cis-het-white. In this play, however, Palmquist has created genuinely flexible characters whose interactions and relationships would take on believable, fascinating, and nuanced layers depending on casting. The easy to read dialogue is also funny and human.

A brief, moving play about grief, the loved ones that shape us, and moving on from insecurities and baggage. In Deray's heartfelt piece, Asher goes on an engaging journey of self-discovery. As is the case in real life, he learns about himself and grows based on the ways he copes with tragedy and life's trials. Any actor would be thrilled to embody any of the complex roles in the piece. I look forward to following its developmental path.

A prescient, kind of terrifyingly-plausible piece of speculative fiction! Marina and Lucia are both characters with potent goals, with engrossing mystery surrounding their circumstances, and in a strangely wide-open-yet-claustrophobic environment. The tension mounts consistently throughout the piece until it reaches a fever pitch in the final third of the play. While climate science is the topic of this piece, I found the conversations about and the exploration of moral/ethical compromise and survival in an oppressive socio-political context applicable to any number of issues. I hope this play has a long life! It's a powerful and necessary warning.

WAKE is a unique piece that explores weighty thematic material in a specifically told and compelling story. The specter of the AIDs crisis hangs over the present day issues of alienation, belonging, and a queer couple's search for normalcy in an ever-symbolic but never overbearing way. Esme's podcast interjections punctuate the multi-character scenes beautifully and provide a contemplative framework for Eric and Dan's narrative arc. Toss in some unsettling and spooky moments, and you've got yourself a genre-defying play that consistently surprises and enthralls.

In this engaging and relevant historical play, Beardsley explores the ways in which women have been time and again forced to carve out power in male dominated spaces through sacrifice and negotiation. "Holy and Unruly" successfully poses the question--is it worth the disempowering and limiting compromises that result? All of the characters in this play are distinctive and speak with clear and unique voices. The dialogue manages to feel of a different era but briskly-paced and cleverly worded. I would love to see the Unborn and Dudley realized with full theatricality onstage! I hope to track this play's development.

I loved how this play was epic in scope and ambition in its themes and theatrical chutzpah, while tight and super specific in its focus. The specificity of the world actually furthered the universal and currently relevant themes explored--the festering roots of hatred, racism, misogyny, and bigotry; white feminism; bystandership. I also love a play that provides a richly rendered world within the play, but also prompts outside research and consideration of its cultural context. Straightforward dialogue sits parallel to some beautiful poetry and there is much room for designers and directors one production team to leave their mark.

What an amazingly observed and rendered portrait of two compelling characters. Ching's refracted chronology is expertly pieced together so as to always keep one wanting to know what happens next but never frustrated by what they don't know. In fact, I was delighted that we were provided a solid foundation for Diana and Max's relationship before we learn some of the central tensions and traumatic events within it. It was a humbling treat to read such well-crafted, natural, and hilarious dialogue. Its humanness made the sad bits hurt more, while also feel strangely healing--much like real and messy friendship.

This is a tenderly written portrait of Andrew's external and internal self, as well as of the family that is doing their best to reconfigure their relationships with Andrew. Each character is written with nuance and a distinct voice, and each has their own set of potent goals and motivations. Cabrera renders the familial dynamics with deftly placed humor, lightening the mood at times and highlighting some of the more poignant and sobering realizations all of the characters face about their strengths and limitations. Cabrera also makes good use of theatricality to externalize Andrew's internal life. Beautiful!

Part ghost story and part intrigue-filled mystery, HEARTS OF STONE is propelled by a compelling and sympathetic protagonist and populated by an eclectic cast of well-drawn characters. I appreciated the subtle foreshadowing of revelations to come throughout, and the pace at which major plot points were revealed. Hoke uses Lydia's motivation to uncover the mystery behind those haunting her as a skillful way to explore and flesh out Lydia's own issues with grief, mental health, and her anxieties of falling into unhealthy familial patterns. A warm sense of humor woven through the piece provides needed levity between urgent discovery.