Recommended by Nick Malakhow

Wow! This astounding piece totally took me by surprise. Rincon develops an exquisitely specific, well-defined, and fantastical theatrical world and language here. Microscopically-observed naturalism is placed beside profound lyrical poetry to excellent effect! Rincon illuminates the reasons we hold ourselves and each other back from love using both lush visual and verbal metaphor and realistic intimate scenes. I was laughing through a great deal of this and then pretty shamelessly tearing up on public transit in the final 20 pages. I sincerely hope to see this produced someday! What a privilege it would be.

A tenderly written and beautifully observed small piece about recovery, connection, and modern relationships. This play says some profound things about what it means to be a teacher, an adult, a support system, and a teenager. All of the characters are delightfully flawed and realistically guarded. Like "Joan's Arc," Hageman uses a large and traumatic event as the pressure-cooker in which we see the characters' humanity emerge. By centering her story around the aftermath rather than the a procedural about the event itself, Hageman centers voices that need to be heard and successfully avoids exploiting victims and their trauma.

An insightful exploration of young people (and a couple of adults) coping with and healing from trauma. In focusing not necessarily on the tragic event itself, but one student's quest for truth about a wholly different matter afterward, Hageman says much more about how we heal and move on in a poignant fashion than I believe would be the case if the play simply clung to the gory details. Wonderfully theatrical--I can see the powerful images leap off the page in my "director-mind." Additionally, young actors are -served by these complex, funny, human, and naturally rendered characters.

As a queer Bostonian, this piece resonates on many levels. On a broader scale, this piece illuminates and explores generational divides and the dangers and inevitability of intra-group tensions and conflict within marginalized communities. I appreciate how each character is rendered with dimensionality, and how the piece rejects identifying any one character as a hero. A deeply intersectional look at the LGBTQ+ community and at steps we must take to evolve. I hope to see this developed further and on its feet in the near future!

An amazingly theatrical and conceptually lush exploration of motherhood, white feminism, and coping with rage and fear in our current socio-political context in the US. A wonderful representation of how the political becomes personal and how larger social forces can inform, influence, and poison smaller personal relationships as well as one's own sense of self. The visual and aural world conjured by the stage directions is surreal, unique, and so clearly rendered that I would so very much love to see this brought alive onstage!

Fantastically bizarre, creepy, and delightful! Steve Yockey has an incredible knack for developing off-kilter and compelling theatrical worlds that use elements of horror, fantasy, and magical realism to shine a light on contemporary relationships. I'd love to see this supremely theatrical piece staged!

The most wholly original and unique representation of body image and disordered eating I've read about onstage. Through highly theatrical scenes and conventions, Wardally illuminates these concerns with both absurd hilarity, gutting realism, and poignant poetry. The world of this play is defined, unique, and a much greater and more fantastical thing than the sum of its parts!

A wholly unique and, ultimately, heartwarming piece. This is the kind of queer theater that needs to be produced--plays that go beyond coming out narratives and hopeless tragedies, and transcend into intriguing and nuanced pieces that dissect complex topics like internalized homophobia, misogyny, and self-hatred. Double casting is also used to great effect here with Francis and Quinn. I sincerely hope to see this play developed and produced!

A beautiful piece that vacillates between absurd hilarity (see: "wall of dicks" mentioned in the synopsis) and poignant heartbreak. Like the best plays about death, this piece explores warts and all the irregularities and idiosyncrasies of impending death. The meta narrator is used as a surprisingly effective device, and the remaining characters are vividly drawn and nuanced. I'd love to see this highly theatrical piece on its feet in a full production!

A perfectly rendered exploration of friendship, girlhood, youth, and adolescence filtered through the world of online culture. Windy and Marti are two awesome characters who traverse complex and satisfying arcs as their friendship evolves as they both chafe against and at times cling to the constraints and "safety" of childhood. I was exposed to this play via Fresh Ink, and it was a treat to see these characters come alive on their feet. I hope this gets produced far and wide soon!