Recommended by Nick Malakhow

A complex family drama that gets to the heart of huge socio-political issues and divisions in the US in a comprehensive way by employing specificity. While we're looking at a specific moment in time (2014 in the aftermath of Eric Garner's murder) and at one particular family, the thorny conversations and boiling tensions of this specific situation reverberate and resonate greatly with large national conversations. I also appreciated the queerness of the two young main characters being a defining, important element of who they were without us having to focus on just coming out, homophobic violence, or romance.

What a funny, deeply human, and honest exploration of adolescence and coming of age, and the role friendship and intimacy play in those teen years. As a bonus, there is a lot of incisive content on the state of education in the US and how the socio-cultural and socio-political landscape of our world impacts kids' schooling and lives outside of school. Our two central characters have all of the vulnerability and bravado of adolescence and their interactions are alternatingly touching, hilarious, profane, and heartbreaking. I'm eager to follow the developmental trajectory of the play. I'd love to see it staged!

This is both a striking, intimate exploration of a relationship as well as a meditation on grief, life and death, and the life-sustaining power of connection with another person. The scenes are spare and elegantly written, and there is so much to play with here visually and auditorally for directors and designers. I'd love to see this staged!

What a beautiful, tender play filled with so much humor and humanity. Angelo and Mila are compelling characters with urgent needs and wants and you can't help but feel so deeply for both. The conflict between the two characters manages to be skillfully and compellingly drawn, and the struggles they face are not shied away from, but Rodriguez never loses the sense of gentleness and love for and between them. The mix of naturalistic, organic dialogue and the world of lyrical poetry is also amazing as well. I hope this continues to get produced far and wide.

A wholly unique and distinctly theatrical piece comprised of several fascinating characters that discusses large social and cultural issues related to intersections of identity, gender, sports, and science. I loved the three different pairings of people centered here (Jo+MJ, Rodgers+Lefferts, Jay +Ray) and the ways their stories and realities intersected. Jo is a compelling nucleus to this stellar ensemble piece and the balance of head and heart in the way gender identity and socially ingrained binaries are explored and exploded kept me so thoroughly engaged throughout! I would love to see this on its feet and performed!

A dark, conversation starting comedy that uses razor sharp satire to explore extremism, intersectionality within social justice movements, and an example liberal sub-factions imploding or cannibalizing one another and fracturing rather than uniting potentially like-minded folks. Like any good satire, the moments that make you say "hey!" or recoil in defensiveness are often the most illuminating of our current political climate--refracted, indeed, through a fun house mirror that is both distorted and too close, at times, to the truth.

Keiko combines a truthful exploration of adolescent social dynamics, female friendship, and the politics and toxic structures of theater with gloriously heightened theatricality and a potent, powerful ending. The high school theater child within me loved the eclectic and recognizable students rendered here, as well as small structural details that amplified that lens (i.e. defining the passage of time by productions, auditions, etc.). I'd love to see this staged! Great show for schools.

A highly original, compassionate play about motherhood, infertility, faith, and how those things weave together with intersectional identity. Rachel is a wonderful nucleus for us to follow and her and Eve's parallel journeys related to womanhood, motherhood, science, and religion were compelling to watch. I appreciated how urgent the needs and wants of all of the characters were, while Brake-Silla always kept sight of the love and compassion within and between them. A play of big ideas and explorations as well as fine-tuned and intimate character work.

A thought-provoking play that manages to be both a heady piece of ideas and a study of a complex, very human relationship between mother and daughter. Using subtle world building and a deftly drawn speculative future, Caronna explores the ethics and politics of genetic modification through a long conversation in which Miranda reconciles her own origin with her desire to be a mother and reevaluates her relationship with her parents. This stands alone as a powerful narrative by itself, but also serves as a potent extended metaphor for family traumas and betrayals and moving on from those.

A surprising and compelling play about fanaticism, belonging, faith, religion, connection/friendship, and the ways those things intersect with isolated, lonely city living. Even though Ruth's enigmatic past is never fully illuminated, I found myself drawn into her story and her as a character and found that open-endedness an opportunity to draw universal conclusions about isolation and loneliness and how it can be both a source of empowerment and humanity and how it might drive someone else to fill that void with something potentially harmful. Ruth's parallels with Claire and Joan were powerfully explored! I'd love to see this staged.