Recommended by Nick Malakhow

Keiko combines a truthful exploration of adolescent social dynamics, female friendship, and the politics and toxic structures of theater with gloriously heightened theatricality and a potent, powerful ending. The high school theater child within me loved the eclectic and recognizable students rendered here, as well as small structural details that amplified that lens (i.e. defining the passage of time by productions, auditions, etc.). I'd love to see this staged! Great show for schools.

A highly original, compassionate play about motherhood, infertility, faith, and how those things weave together with intersectional identity. Rachel is a wonderful nucleus for us to follow and her and Eve's parallel journeys related to womanhood, motherhood, science, and religion were compelling to watch. I appreciated how urgent the needs and wants of all of the characters were, while Brake-Silla always kept sight of the love and compassion within and between them. A play of big ideas and explorations as well as fine-tuned and intimate character work.

A thought-provoking play that manages to be both a heady piece of ideas and a study of a complex, very human relationship between mother and daughter. Using subtle world building and a deftly drawn speculative future, Caronna explores the ethics and politics of genetic modification through a long conversation in which Miranda reconciles her own origin with her desire to be a mother and reevaluates her relationship with her parents. This stands alone as a powerful narrative by itself, but also serves as a potent extended metaphor for family traumas and betrayals and moving on from those.

A surprising and compelling play about fanaticism, belonging, faith, religion, connection/friendship, and the ways those things intersect with isolated, lonely city living. Even though Ruth's enigmatic past is never fully illuminated, I found myself drawn into her story and her as a character and found that open-endedness an opportunity to draw universal conclusions about isolation and loneliness and how it can be both a source of empowerment and humanity and how it might drive someone else to fill that void with something potentially harmful. Ruth's parallels with Claire and Joan were powerfully explored! I'd love to see this staged.

What a complex, fascinating exploration of family and the influence that an abusive man can have beyond death. In Yassmine, Sami, and Nadiya, Malley examines how three generations of this family have been shaped/warped, held hostage by, and forever changed by the patriarch Gidou. What begins as a complicated family drama about ownership, power, and the tension between moving on past family trauma/patterns and remaining mired in it also has some surprising twists I didn't anticipate involving Karim, Nadiya's home health aide. All of the character are fascinating, especially the proud, suffering, frustrating, and sympathetic Nadiya.

An inventive, theatrical piece that looks at the subtleties of the harm Black folks and other BIPOC folks face as they navigate predominantly white institutions. I also appreciated how Washington examines the intersection of race and sexuality here and the unique challenges of being a Black queer person, even when one is "in community" with other queer folks. The arc of James and Marckus' connection is particularly moving and truthful, in all of its mini-victories, insights, and moments of hurt. I loved the realistic, not neatly resolved, but hopeful note it ends on. Would love to see this!

A beautiful, lyrical piece that pairs verse, spoken word, and hip hop with unique, specific, and dynamic relationships. The combination feels both highly theatrical and grand and startlingly intimate. I loved the exploration of queerness with Blackness and other intersectional identity elements. Most appealing is the gentle nature of the piece and the focus on small, seismic character shifts and revelations. To be sure--there is plenty of conflict and push-pull, but it's all rendered so finely and deftly. Where B and Jimmy leave things feels heartbreaking and hopeful. Where Edmond and B resolve is poignant and satisyfing.

This is such a gentle and intricate ensemble piece that examines, above all, family--blood and found--and the tensions that emerge when those two kinds of family intermingle. All of the characters have distinct senses of yearning/longing that are fully realized here. The conflicts and fires that pop up are all compelling in their individual ways, make up a unique mosaic/impressionistic image of this community, and potent but not overwhelming. In other words, these characters grapple with a lot of pain and hurt, but it never feels exploitative of their experiences. Lovely play!

A terrifying and nuanced piece of speculative fiction! Max has a knack for creating cleverly constructed future/alternate worlds that feel all too plausible and real. Here, he explores what it means to be American and belong in the USA and defining moments for people from varying backgrounds in their identities as Americans. He also looks at the fear of replacement/scarcity mindset that lives at the root of so much anti-liberal discourse and rhetoric. I'm eager to follow this play's development trajectory and would love to see it performed!

A haunting and lyrical exploration of being queer (and struggling with family, substance abuse, and more) in territory that, at times, feel hostile and, at others, feels achingly like home. Jay is a compelling nucleus around which the play rotates, and beautifully observed, natural interactions are stitched together with poetry, inner life thrust outward, and highly theatrical moments. The love between all of the characters makes the tragic moments of the piece and the character disconnects/harms both disarmingly gentle and infinitely potent. I'd love to see this on its feet!