Recommended by Nick Malakhow

A beautifully told story that winds itself back and forth through time, SAFE examines the intersection of faith and living your truest life. Sam and Aubrey's ever evolving relationship is consistently compelling and I was excited to see new layers revealed which complicated and made me reevaluate the scenes that had come before. I would love to see this on stage!

This play presents one of the most compelling theatrical representations of depression that I've had the privilege to read. Anna is an extremely well drawn and realistic character whose personified mental illness offers great insights into the mechanisms haunting and informing her relationships and sabotaging her road to recovery. Funny, heartbreaking, and poignant, "She's Not There" would make for an amazing evening of theater!

Part thriller and part engaging and heady piece on academia, thought policing, and PC culture, "Theory" is a gripping read from beginning to end! I found myself both cringing at some of Isabelle's actions and also fully understanding where she was coming from and applauding the ideas behind her tactics. The transitions between scenes were theatrical and created interesting contrasts, and the eclectically sized scenes themselves kept me engaged and on my toes. I'd love to see this staged!

A well-paced, taut, intimate drama. Snider's eye towards the intersectionally challenging dynamics at play here--race, ethnicity, sexuality--make for complex and meaty scenes. This plugs along at an always engrossing simmer until reaching a sudden (and well-earned) boiling point.

A haunting, beautiful, and uniquely funny piece. Loneliness, connection, and grief in our contemporary world is interpreted and refracted through these strange, creepy, sexy vignettes. The last two scenes stayed with me long after I finished the script! I hope that a production of this pops up in my world sometime soon. I look forward to reading the rest of Yockey's work that's on NPX!

Super hilarious, cringey, and poignant all at once! Cox skillfully packs some potent revelations and character shifts into a mere 10 minutes and captures something about the intriguing minefield that is coming of age and entering the adult dating world as a queer teen.

What a beautiful, intimate story. In focusing on just a few compelling characters connected to one another like an intriguing Venn diagram, Sickles tackles themes of grief, moving past trauma, and what traps us in and liberates us from unhealthy relationships. "Composure" is funny, poignant, and human--a slice of life story removed from the solely heteronormative world! I'd love to see this staged.

A beautiful play that wanders between the present and past. A piece rooted in effectively told history, "Barcelo..." also proves itself to be a compelling family drama that illustrates the intersecting lines between personal and political. Nino and his sons' fractured relationship is plausible and heartbreaking as we see Nino's history come to life, and the way they find themselves brought together in the end is poignant and well earned. Glad to see that this has been produced, and I hope to see a production some day!

A beautifully rendered, spare apocalyptic-yet-eerily-familiar world is captured wonderfully here in this tightly focused piece. This reads both like a cautionary parable and a tense two-hander. Rote and Julia are compelling characters individually, and their interactions are very human and darkly comic. I'm so very impressed by how a play with such a limited focus can be evocative of a hypothetical (and plausible) future. I'd love to see this staged!

A beautiful, poignantly told, small story that is grounded in a very specifically rendered time and place. "Viewing" grapples with identity, feeling trapped, and forging one's own path
Rodriguez infuses each character with a nuanced dose of humanity, and makes clear each character's desires and need to look for approval from others and, ultimately, acceptance of themselves. I'd love to see this produced and on its feet!