Recommended by Nick Malakhow

A super compelling piece that explores the ways we use relationships--intentionally and not--to fill voids that need to be better addressed with self-reflection, healing, friendship, and honesty. Kam is a dynamic protagonist whose growing pains are well illustrated throughout. I loved the potential for impactful double casting of all of her lovers, exes, and friends. The thematic intersection of celebrity, queer identity and mental health, and the story being told through the lens of an entirely Asian and Asian American cast make for a complex and nuanced play. I'm eager to follow this piece's trajectory!

"Erastes" is a compelling collage that examines intergenerational relationships in queer cis male culture. Osorio does a great job of exploring the unique tensions and lines between friend, mentor, and sexual and romantic partner that are characteristics of such relationships. Using a mixture of mythology, archetype, and contemporary and specific humanity, he captures the distinct loneliness of these intersections and the frustrations of wanting to connect but justified wariness of young queer men trying to navigate actualization as adults in this harried and complex culture and environment.

A dynamic and funny ensemble piece that marries emotionally rich and human characters with ever so slightly heightened, sharp dialogue. Thomson explores, with an eye towards race and intersectionality, the ways women in sports are commodified, objectified, unhealthily idealized, and pitted against one another. To see examples of the teammates both overcoming these socio-cultural obstacles and falling down at their hand gives us a dose of warmth well-balanced with difficult truths.

This is a lovely, poignant, and humanly funny two-hander with two excellently rendered characters at its center. While the mystery about what drove Jordan to leave her hometown kept me engaged throughout, the heart of this piece was watching Jordan and Emily's relationship expand and contract in these neat, subtle ways as they battled grief, mental health struggles, and self-doubt. To use an urban legend like the Mothman as an extended metaphor for the aching, searching, evolving entity that is grief was a wonderful choice! Bonus points for the normalcy of queerness and open relationships.

I loved this unsettling and inventive piece and the contrasts it straddles--the dark/light balance in tone; the human and specific and complex characters living at a slightly heightened and above naturalistic pitch; the intimate, small story/setting capturing larger themes of being stuck in places, cycles, relationships. The mystery unraveled at an engaging pace and I was always compelled to keep reading and to see revelations unfold. As it drives towards its ending and stretches farther from reality, there were also a few unforgettable theatrical grand gestures that I'd so love to see fully realized onstage.

A beautiful, funny, human, and theatrically bold exploration of the intersection of ancestry, racial identity, and contemporary relationships. At its core, it examines with such beautiful truth and vulnerability this complex and specific interracial relationship, while also utilizing super compelling stage imagery, movement, comedy, and fantastical elements to tell that central story. How does one grapple with internalized racism and biases and external stressors and expectations in an interracial relationship? How do you separate those larger forces from the love you have for this specific individual? Hope to see the right companies produce this far and wide.

Bethany explores thorny issues and complex characters in this tense and packed four hander. The titular Leviathan, an unseen and troubling monster that haunts these humans, feels like an elegant extended metaphor for the examination of addiction and the internal impulses that drive it and the external forces that make it untenable. Greer and Heather's circumstances are a potent setup and Dillon's entrance as a destabilizing force propels the action forward in a subtle but driving fashion. I also appreciated the intersectional richness of these characters, whose sexuality, faith, and worldviews colored the play in fascinating ways.

A boldly theatrical piece with unforgettable stage imagery and an excellent use of bodies in space in intriguing ways to tell this story. Chisholm brought together disparate aesthetic ideas into a new, creative whole. I appreciated the multitudinous ways Black masculinity was explored--through the differing personas of Flood and Tavis themselves, the Blaxploitation elements, Tavis' stand up, the thread of Bill Cosby--and juxtaposed against various versions of white femininity--as victim, "sexpot," complicit in the harm of others, and more. It illustrated the complexity and nuances of these socially constructed images and disrupted preconceived notions about them.

A subtle and nuanced workplace comedy with a keen eye towards the intersectional identities of its characters. Perez did an excellent job of selecting a cross section of people whose needs and wants conflicted with one another in a compelling fashion. His exploration of class, capitalism, and the mnanner in which citizens of the US so tie their identities with their jobs in ways that help and harm was thorough and interesting! I loved that it remained comedic throughout while still hitting clear and palpable gut punches of truth that stung.

This is a disarming and effective piece that explores the intersection of adolescent identity formation and the digital age. Yes, there is the requisite "cringe" of seeing/hearing gloriously awkward "teenagerdom" relived. The viewer comments interspersed throughout, however, are poignant, deeply unsettling at times, and funny at alternating turns. It shows how young queer boys are sexualized, silenced, and made ashamed. What is really represented here with such clarity is the vocally "assured" shutdown of queer sexual identity as a teen juxtaposed with a rueful, regretful reality that lies beneath the facade. Inventive in both form and content!