Recommended by Nick Malakhow

  • @Playaz
    18 Jun. 2019
    This play is hi-larious! So fast-paced, I actually couldn't stop reading until I finished. The scenes are tightly written and the piece as a whole impeccably structured. These four characters are all incredibly distinct, unique, and rendered with such nuance and panache. I was also surprised by the disarming tenderness that came through particularly in Joy and Aiden's interactions, as well as some of the moments between Aiden and Charlie. This piece feels highly theatrical, and it would be a treat to see it onstage. I hope I get the opportunity to do so soon.
  • Arbor Falls
    18 Jun. 2019
    Lyrical, lush poetry meets spare conversational dialogue. Both of these modes serve to characterize the Preacher and the intriguing landscape of the remainder of the town quite well. I always love creative visual clues in texts to help unpack a text, and the way lines in the two-character exchanges are grouped together quickly and effectively guided my reading of the scenes. I loved how fleshed out the world and town were by just these simple duologues and monologues. Well-drawn themes of compassion and community made this feel like an important and, as others have stated, timeless parable.
  • Joseph Cook
    17 Jun. 2019
    What a specific and beautifully drawn portrait of two siblings and their complicated relationships to one another and their dying father. The emotions surrounding how to return to and interact with a hometown that feels farther and farther away from who you are currently is absolutely on point, and the town itself comes alive through strategically chosen supporting characters. New information slowly revealed from the past propels us forward, though even just the sibling's interactions in the present are enthralling. The piece is surprising and disarming even as it reaches its inevitable conclusion.
  • Footprint
    16 Jun. 2019
    I love the contemplative, irregular pacing and rhythm of this piece. The transitions between scenes are elegant, theatrical, and wonderfully incorporated into the action. The world is so distinct and established so well with just a few key characters! I also love the universal contemplation of grief, legacy, and moving forward in the digital age.
  • THE STORYTELLER
    15 Jun. 2019
    This is a briskly moving, beautiful piece. I love how the rules and expectations are set up right from the start and, slowly but surely, many of our initial guesses or preconceived notions are subverted. Highly theatrical and oftentimes surprising.
  • Everything All at Once
    7 Jun. 2019
    A complex and really compelling portrait of grief, shared trauma, the results of that trauma, and of people living at intriguing identity intersections. I love how this piece feels at once reflective of the larger city in which it's set, while being relatively confined to a few closed in spaces. Additionally, the transitions between and use of space are highly theatrical and would make for an exciting night of theater. I hope to see this piece produced in the near future!
  • Pidor and the Wolf
    5 Jun. 2019
    Haunting, beautiful, and exquisitely theatrical. The startling choice to have characters narrate in third person at times is used more brilliantly here than I've seen it used before to communicate their inner turmoil. The visual and aural landscape is so clear from reading this piece, and I can only imagine the number of powerful ways a production team could realize this all. Spare and taut at moments and intensely lyrical in others, every word in this piece counts.
  • Alma Baya
    31 May. 2019
    Briskly moving and clever sci-fi parable. Darkly humorous and keeps you engaged with progressive surprises and well-timed expository information. The specificity and uniqueness of the characters combined with the open-endedness of their symbolic weight and meaning makes this a really intriguing piece for a director get their hands on! I hope to see this onstage some time soon!
  • Alond(R)a
    29 May. 2019
    What a beautiful play that is both tender with and fair to its nuanced teenage characters. Gloriously hilarious at certain points, heartbreaking at others, it is unpretentiously yet consistently profound in scope! The highly theatrical world of wrestling is also seamlessly integrated and so crucial to the piece. I can't wait to see an awesome production of this some day!
  • The Goodbye Levee
    22 May. 2019
    What I found most impressive about this wonderful piece was the way in which Mike Solomonson was able to make Celeste's disconnected, hallucinatory, hilarious, heartbreaking, and terrifying journey feel like a powerful and cohesive character arc and work of art. This reads as amazingly theatrical and would be an absorbing and entirely engaging experience as an audience member!

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