Recommended by Nick Malakhow

A spare and simple piece that manages to explore identity, family (found and blood), grief, and moving on. These characters are well-rendered in just a few short pages, the plot setup is potent and straightforward, and it culminates with a beautiful moment of evolution between Grant and Prue, as well as a magical overture that could be cleverly and impactfully executed with skillful design or directing/performance. A lovely living portrait captured in time!

Haunting and poetic like all of Burnet's work, I love how the use of text, repetition, verse, and characterization serves to establish atmosphere without the need for elaborate design elements (with plenty of room for those, however, production depending). The piece is evocative in and of itself, but also serves as an open-ended blueprint that a creative choreographer, director, and group of performers could make their own.

Fantastic, unique work that explores sexual violence against women in a multi-faceted manner. Vera's journey is nuanced and compelling, and to see her grapple with the intersection between healing, her own trauma, her nonprofit work/activism, and her personal relationships is important and illuminating. Eleven and Lance's evolving partnership and the conversations they have about rape culture in various media industries, male upstandership vs complicity, and more is an equally important dynamic to see unfold. Phoenix complicates and elevates the exploration of these themes as well. The dialogue is lyrical, natural, and beautifully human. An absolutely essential play!

An awesome fabulistic piece that feels like aesthetic kin to Fornes and Beckett and the Greeks in some ways, but I say that not to in any way call it derivative--on the contrary, this theatrical world is wholly original, jarring, yet cohesive. Goldman-Sherman uses this unsettling theatrical reality to examine motherhood, patriarchy, survival, and the ways patriarchy pits women against one another. It strikes me as a piece that a production team can really leave their unique imprint on even though as written it is already such a specifically drawn and well-defined reality.

This spare, lyrical piece has the feel of a contemporary parable. Gijsbers van Wijk plays with time, memory, and reality in an exquisitely theatrical and compelling way. I especially loved how this play could be taken "straightforwardly" as an examination of Willow's trauma about the literal well incident, but also as a larger allegory for the tricks any trauma plays and the inconsistent ways it haunts and lingers. I eagerly read this briskly-paced script in one sitting and found myself compelled by so many visual images which would, no doubt, be creatively, diversely interpreted by various productions teams.

A fantastic play that examines so much--mental health, suicide, trauma, assault, identity, grieving--with a nuanced brush, a sharp sense of humor, and a deep sense of empathy. Goldstein keeps every character uniquely human and sympathetic even as they make unsettling and devastating choices. The rendering of the online world and its juxtaposition with the few snippets of "real life" that we see is amazingly theatrical. This play would be a treat for an entire production team to work on--designers, actors, directors, dramaturgs. Nils' journey felt so complete and poignant. Compelling candidate for both live and virtual production.

This is a unique, contemplative play with a lot of room for expansion (and doubling) and a multitude of possible roles for teen actors--I hope that educators that direct and teach young actors look at it for their future seasons! It's a piece with a rare combination of features--it takes its teen characters seriously; how you cast it will really change dynamics, relationships, and ways that characters are grappling with their identities; and it provides much room for a director and production team to leave their imprint on the sparse but intriguing road map Szymkowicz provides.

Absolutely brilliant piece that explores rape culture, masculinity and male privilege, patriarchy, and fracturing and dissent within affinity groups. Kaufman's use of women and GNC folks double-cast to play people of various genders is a brilliant and potent device here. I loved how sharp humor was used to illuminate the frequent hypocrisy and danger of a certain brand of male wokeness, to identify its roots in firmly entrenched patriarchy, as well as illustrations of how to begin to dismantle and disrupt that dangerous status quo.

Much like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" itself, Nina Ki cleverly uses genre tropes to explore very real and potent traumas and questions of identity. Yuli is such a compelling central character who you root for throughout the play. The toggling back and forth between dream sequences and reality is well done and I love how the two worlds come to a head as we encounter revelations about Yuli's past and what really happened to her. The end is beautiful and hopeful and a wonderful moment to end the piece on.

I appreciated this piece for both the well-drawn characters as well as for its irregular chronology that helped build and sustain tension. We know just enough to keep us engaged, and are in the dark just enough to make the potent revelations land. Without directly telegraphing that its focus is identity, this piece explores masculine identity, legacy, and expectations both familial and social in subtle and nuanced ways. The little shifts in each character feel well-earned. The final moment is poignant and powerful.