Recommended by Nick Malakhow

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.

I loved the way this piece smashed genre-lines and tackled huge themes in an almost parable-like fashion with contemporary and recognizable characters. The way it straddles surreality and naturalism is so fascinating and would be a meaty challenge for actors, designers, and audiences alike. There are many unforgettable stage images and sonic details that I'd so love to see fully realized onstage.

Such an inventive, beautiful, and infinitely theatrical play. Charly Evon Simpson has built a glorious use of physical space, movement, and design elements into her script, while leaving room for each individual production team to put their mark on the piece. Simpson's language is straightforward and human while also immensely lyrical. The ending moments are cathartic and cautious and delicate--both giving folks a chance to appreciate the connections between these folks that have deepened throughout, while always reminding us of the external forces, oppressors, and circumstances that have and will continue to stand in their ways.

An inventive, highly theatrical play that so incisively explores rape culture and misogyny (both internal and external) in comedy and the world as a whole, white feminism, intersectional identity, and the fine line between comedy tackling/excusing/perpetuating problematic issues and behaviors. The conflict between Lily and Erin is so loaded throughout, and the shifts both large and small within them and between them are compelling to see unfold. It's structurally inventive and also dissects the anatomy of stand up in a clever way. It manages to be so darkly hilarious and a gut punch all at once. Spectacular!

A compact, witty, sad portrait of office life, detailing all of the small and seismic shifts and power dynamics that make such environments complicated, maddening, and harmful. I appreciated the subtle but palpable tensions that arose in the long build up to the "event" reveal itself. It was a clever tool of writing that helped forecast and illustrate that the central dramatics in the piece were more about the existential dread of work, capitalism, relationships/loneliness, and the impacts of these things on mental health than they were about the so-called "major incident" everyone was discussing in world.