Recommended by Nick Malakhow

A powerful piece that explores dark truths about children who are forced to confront the ways those who ostensibly cared about them ultimately betrayed or failed them. To reveal more plotwise is to ruin a great bit of the play's impact. I will just share that the characters are all amazingly unique and impeccably drawn and the fantastical/dreamlike/surreal elements help tackle the subject matter in a fitting, poignant manner. Amazing world building and I loved the meditative pacing!

This play is beautifully structured and contains wonderfully rendered characters. Stacey Isom Campbell captures a lot about the reevaluation of artistic work in the wake of the #MeToo movement and poses huge, excellent questions for audiences to chew on while zeroing in on a specific, nuanced set of characters/relationships. Structurally, the revelations that came in the present day timeline and the winding chronology back and forth from '99 to 2019 served as potent counterpoints to one another.

I loved reading this as a former high school fencer! The coach-athlete relationship on display here illustrates the the fine lines between many dualities--pushing someone in a positive way or harming them; love/joy of a sport and ambition; mentorship vs unhealthy projection. I'd love to see all of the fencing fully realized onstage. Additionally, the last few pages of the play provides an impactful revelation that casts an exciting lens on the fest of the play.

A "so funny, you'll laugh so you don't cry" dark comedy about elder fraud. Amy Tofte here has created a boldly theatrical world that is as tragic as it is entertaining. At the core of it is a nuanced, complex, and very real relationship between mother and daughter, Martha and Erica. The farcical, uber theatrical storm created by the fraudster "leeches" around them serves to highlight how disorienting evolving family relationships and elder care can be. I'd love to see this fully produced!

This is a beautiful, nuanced two hander about family and gentrification that begins unassumingly and ends with a beautifully imagined big theatrical gambit that I'd love to see realized onstage! Jenny and Poh Poh are such well rendered characters and the gradual movement from small, generational divides to a face off about Poh Poh's stubbornness in the face of needing support and care and an advocate as she contends with the impending loss of her home is moving and executed with subtlety.

A funny, heartbreaking, and nuanced play about young adult masculinity, sexuality, identity, and athletics. Kyle Smith pairs these dexterously written/orchestrated group scenes that juggle a huge amount of characters with Titus' very compelling sweet, sad, and profound arc in which they begin to truly understand various aspects of their identity. The play doesn't shy away from the many pitfalls/negative impacts of masculinity while treating each character with humanity.

I loved reading this! Graham explores "work friendship," boundaries, the reasons we put up walls with others, and modern loneliness with a deft hand here...she renders lovingly drawn, delightfully imperfect characters who I'm rooting for and kind of watching through my hands over my eyes waiting for things to go wrong. The play looks at friendship broadly, but I've never seen anyone capture that tentative, awkward, intense relationship that can form between two unknown coworkers so quickly.

A clever piece of satirical horror that examines where we are culturally speaking in a broad sense and, specifically in the context of secondary education. Using a supremely clever extended metaphor, Guerzon explores the ways students, teachers, and administrators alike are impacted by the specter of culture wars, socio-political strife, civil discourse (and the lack of it) in schools. The horror elements are threaded in subtly at first until they reach a grandly theatrical climax!

A nuanced, complex, character-driven piece with a truly engaging non-linear structure. David manages to both look at the immediate and collateral damage that mental illness can cause. Each of the characters' stories are peeled back like an onion as the play progresses, and each comes to a point where the audience understands and feels for them, even characters who seemed unsympathetic from the outset. The way small details--turns of phrase that Matt and Alan share, baggage they discuss, relationship details between Matt, Louise, and Sarabeth--reveal themselves feels organic all throughout.

A gentle and thorough exploration of these two men that, for all of the subtlety it finds in their everyday existences, manages to be monumentally adventurous in form and thematically profound. I loved how reading this conjured imagery of an exciting movement-based theatrical evening in my mind, but that I could also tell how it could change so much depending on which creative production team tackles it. I'd love to see this on its feet someday soon! A narrative that explores male intimacy and friendship with such tenderness is a precious rarity.