Recommended by Nick Malakhow

Beautiful piece that explores an underrepresented historical event, refracts it through theatrical devices, and discusses it in conversation with contemporary dialogues within the queer community. The use of double/triple/quadruple/etc. casting is genius, as is requiring this story to not simply live in the bodies of cis white gay men. Billy is a fantastic role in general, but it would be a treat to be any part of the incredibly used ensemble. The theatricality of the piece also makes it a glorious challenge for a whole production team--directors, designers, movement coordinators, etc. alike. Funny, moving, sad, important!

Joshua's arc in this play is so beautifully illuminated and Kearns very profoundly explores the complex intersection between Joshua's Christianity and trans identity. His role as a pastor and the parallels and juxtapositions between Joshua in that space vs. the bar serve as an apt extended metaphor for the distinction between faith/Christianity and the church as its own separate entity. Shorter, potent, punctuating scenes are interspersed with longer, ruminating exchanges. The visual and aural landscape Kearns creates is also dynamic, aesthetically distinct, and leaves lots of room for designers and directors to interpret. Beautiful work!

An amazingly rendered portrait of two women with a masterful use of theatrical devices--direct address, malleable chronology--to tell the story. Levitsky-Weitz tackles so much here--the intricacies of female friendship; the ways society can both pit women against one another and hold them back individually; the artistic and creative process; how men can have a leech-like, deleterious effect on women working hard to self-actualize exert their personal and professional power; friendship and the passage of time. I very much was in awe of all the little seismic relationship shifts communicated here that amounted to a wholly engrossing, subtle narrative.

A well-written and well-structured play that explores power dynamics and a generational changing of the guard. Seidel looks at the tensions between coworkers of various ages and genders and uses the characters' individual identities to comment on power, progress, obsolescence, and pride. He also illuminates how change can often be an illusion--that old toxic patterns of living and working appear to change on the surface when the same old systems and structures remain festering underneath. The characters are so multi-dimensional and vividly rendered. The setting is claustrophobic and compelling.

I appreciated the way that this story explored the very specific ways struggles with miscarriage, pregnancy, and fertility, can impact a whole constellation of people connected to the unborn/stillborn child. All of the characters are plausibly written and I feel for them and understand their actions, even when they are truly hurting one another. I also appreciated the messy, realistic ending that provided not a map for moving forward, but at least possibility and hope that relationships could realign and restructure in healthy ways for all involved.

An expansive, wrenching, creative piece that incorporates poetry, rap, song, naturalism, and plenty of room for creative movement direction. Eric Serrano's exploration of identity, masculinity, and both living out and breaking cycles of inherited family trauma is so thoroughly explored with a nuanced hand. The themes combined with the heightened language and song that punctuates naturalistic scenes echoes the theatricality and structure of classical tragedies while presenting us with an innovative new form entirely. The text is so strong, but this begs to be staged (inventively!), and I look forward to keeping track of this piece's trajectory.

An expansive, exquisite piece that explores how masculinity both thrives from and perpetuates loneliness, alienation, and violence. The juxtaposition of college wrestling with real-life war is beautifully nuanced and filtered through both Karina's storytelling to the audience and Bradford's humanities class interjections. King looks at an intersectionally rich swath of people and succeeds in addressing the ways masculinity interacts with so many different parts of a person's identity. Simultaneously microscopically focused and very human, while also being profound and far-reaching. The combination of lyricism, movement, sport, and intimate naturalism creates an eclectic aesthetically fascinating whole!

Whew! An entirely human, unsettling, and profound piece. A couple of presumptions I make as a liberal reader/writer/human is that (1) conservatism feels like it is unified around hatred of perceived threats to power and (2) that liberal movements cannibalize themselves with fractious opinions. Here Will Arbery so fully and humanely illustrates a microcosm of intra-movement tensions within various swaths of conservative populations, capturing these humans' fear, pride, anger, hubris, and sadness. So very much an illuminating piece of the exact moment and one that looks ahead to forboding times that need to confronted and disrupted now.

An exquisite piece! It is full of everyday poetry--both beautifully natural speech and spare lyricism. I loved the use of distance and proximity to explore relationships, and just like her dialogue, Mohlman's staging combines high theatricality (with wonderful potential for movement and design) with really intimately and specifically drawn scenes. The nuanced queer identities on display here provide some much needed representation that I wholeheartedly appreciated and felt kinship with. The folding in of faith into these character's intersectional identities was impactful as well. I hope to see this piece onstage in the near future!

What an exquisite play that will haunt me for quite some time! The economy of language is just so incredible. Huang's dialogue is lyrical, yet straightforward; everyday and profound all at once. The symmetry and recurring themes, characters, and concepts between each scene is all just so brilliantly put together. Its grounding in three time periods allows Huang to create very distinct moments and characters while also expansively exploring immigration, existential concerns about the future, family, identity, race, and so much more. I'd love to see this vivid theatrical world rendered onstage.