Recommended by Nick Malakhow

I loved the steady, propulsive progression of this piece from intersectionally-engaged ensemble drama to heightened political comedy to bombastic, unsettling, theatrical tragi-satire. Each of these characters was a totally recognizable human being and together they created a microcosm of queer culture that explored deep fractions and divisions within communities that should, ostensibly, be affinity spaces. While McCarthy utilizes some of the overall idea of "Boys in the Band" as a starting place, they subvert and reinvent that narrative into an affecting, contemporary, urgent new whole. I also loved the chronologically shifting interludes which helped load the present-day events.

This highly theatrical, open, and honest piece was a delight to read. It beautifully incorporates sharp satire and coming-of-age tropes into an eclectic and chaotically-coherent aesthetic. Kim so specifically and, with the keenest intersectional eye, explores the complexities of growing up and then being an adult as a multi-racial Asian-American gay man. At the same time, his story felt so relatable to anyone living in interlocking Venn diagrams of frequently marginalized identities. He tackles internalized and externalized racism and homophobia and how they intersect with desire, family--found and blood, and manages to end it all with hope. Gorgeous, hilarious!

It's hard to find good theatrical horror, and this piece delivers in atmosphere and visuals! I loved the potential for creative design elements and movement coordination/choreography. I also enjoyed how the story was simultaneously a straightforward ghost story and an extended metaphor for this couple's tensions and disintegrating relationship.

A clever and fast-paced satire that explores the intersection between sensationalism, media, politics, power structures of all kinds, and the movie industry. Gill looks at American interventionism in foreign affairs in a multi-faceted manner that packages the narrative in an entertaining and witty wrapping with vividly rendered characters. I loved how the shifting alliances and power dynamics of Alisa and Magda's story served as a microcosm for geopolitical overreach. I also appreciated the quick scenes which seemed to intentionally straddle the line between the theatrical and cinematic.

This is a beautiful, surprising, and delicately written piece with a keen eye towards its character's important intersectional identities. This ensemble cast has a bunch of amazing roles for teens of various backgrounds. It treats all of these characters with the respect they deserve and is a piece that is important and very appropriate for teens to read, see, perform, and interact with in any number of ways. It looks at queerness, betweenness, "otherness," and a whole host of important issues while focusing on relationships and positivity rather than trauma. So wonderful to see characters' queerness be matter-of-fact truth.

A tightly written, haunting piece that explores a distinct socio-political moment from a very human lens by focusing in on these two specific characters. The spare, desolate environment is somehow established by dialogue--really echoed in the lyrical, direct language. That said, there's also a whole lot of amazing design work that could be incorporated in this piece as well. Unsettling, darkly humorous at times, poignant, and, ultimately, heartbreaking. Quite the exploration of both personal and collective grief in the wake of social upheaval that provides no easy answers.

This is a moving, sharp, theatrical piece that powerfully juxtaposes the crack epidemic with the present opioid epidemic, and the racial implications and complexities of how each have been/are being handled. With a keenly intersectional eye on race and gender, Candrice Jones also explores the ways disenfranchised folks are pitted against once another in our country. Emarytus' narrative interjections heighten the theatrical artifice and simultaneously make us empathize with her. The piece also plays with chronology, comments on Reagan's weaponizing of drug enforcement over Black folks, and spins a poignant and unflinching examination of Emarytus' family.

Strafford straddles a beautifully balanced line between comedy and gutting drama here. In tackling huge themes like addiction, sexual abuse, and family trauma with these particular characters who cling to their use of humor like armor, Strafford succeeds in putting forth an extraordinarily human and important story in a way that doesn't exploit or sensationalize those serious topics. The tightly written piece is so well structured while still maintaining the naturalistic irregularities of human speech. I'd love to see this character-driven actors' dream of a piece in production.

I loved how this genre-defying play included elements of drama, dark satire/comedy, and horror. From a design perspective, the Others provide lots to work with in terms of clever staging, movement coordination, lighting, sound, visual effects, etc. The Others are also a clean and effective extended metaphor for the demons and baggage that infect old relationships and that we bring into new relationships. An insightful exploration of processing and moving past traumas, grief, and neuroses that uses a good deal of wit, fun, and theatricality.

Beautiful, expansive, theatrical, lyrical, and yet very human--these are qualities that I've definitely come to associate with Darcy Parker Bruce's work. The characters that I began to be invested in and care for in "The Place That Made You" see awesome development and journeys in this piece. The visual/aural/sensorily acute landscape (that heliotrope!) is so vivid and unique. The incorporation of music and liminal spaces--physical and emotional--make me feel like this would be an awesome piece to work on as any member of a production team--musician, actor, director, movement coordinator, set, light, sound designer. Super-layered and compelling storytelling.