Recommended by Nick Malakhow

Superb! Has the human, funny, confessional quality of an excellent solo show combined with bold, chaotic, theatrical, ensemble-based aesthetic sensibilities that would make it a blast to stage or be in. In exploring Daniel's singular story, Isaac dives into huge accessible themes of family and found family, history, and home, and how those things interact/intersect with identity. The stage images are vivid and off the wall, yet I can still imagine ways they could happen in live theater. I chuckled mightily throughout and was always impressed by the unsentimental but affecting dollops of poignancy layered throughout. Brilliant!

An amazing play! Brie Knight balances bold theatricality and visually stunning stage pictures, moments, and transitions with nuanced, wrenching, and human character study. Nancy is such a compelling figure and the relationships she forges are rendered with much complexity. This is incredibly engaging historical fiction, but also a thought-provoking, of-our-time examination of the ways quote-unquote "barrier breaking" can be a confounding catch-22 exercise in harmful compromise and perpetuating white supremacy. Nancy's conversation with Ms. Cooper is sobering and illuminates tensions around the definition of progress, self-preservation, and individuality vs. community in the fight for racial equality.

Beautiful play! Manikowski explores so much--loneliness and connection; their intersection with the LGBTQ experience; trauma; and ambition, just to name a few themes--in a highly compelling and briskly-moving piece. Annie and Mina are dynamic central characters whose journeys are poignant and fascinating. The three supporting characters are also vividly and lovingly rendered. Like all wonderful sci-fi, Manikowski provides enough world building to provide context through masterful theatrical "showing," and illustrates a future that is a powerful reflection of contemporary anxieties, fears, and dreams. The aquarium setting, human-meets-lyrical dialogue, and stage pictures prove to make this a theatrical, complex marvel!

A powerful and unique play that examines a cross-section of people I haven't seen a theatrical story about! I love how Kime rendered these characters with a great deal of care and respect, plumbing their emotional depths and complexities even as they articulate theories and ideas that have made them pariahs among the "social norm." Eric and Mia's dual journeys are fascinating, and the examination of social factioning, mental health, outsidership, stigma, care-taking, and family is thorough and nuanced. Jeff's hilarious and, at times, distressing interjections punctuate and rhythmically shape the piece. Fascinating, theatrical, absorbing work!

A beautifully rendered, wrenching story that explores PTSD in a highly theatrical and nuanced fashion. I appreciated the examination of a female medical professional--it's a narrative about combat-related PTSD that is not given a voice. Cardona's use of projections, pliable space-time, sound, and lights is fantastic and gives a production team a whole lot of aesthetic richness to work with. Watching the progression of Maria and Rio's relationship in real time and flashback feels both human and heartbreaking. This is a tragedy with a message beyond the devastation described within that treats its characters like complex people.

A funny and thought-provoking piece with two great roles for young women. Caffrey starts with a potent set up and the momentum never drops through the well-written scenes that fly by at engaging and irregular rhythms. He utilizes the evolving creature as a clever metaphor for the central themes--evolving relationships in adolescence, existential anxieties about climate change and the state of the world--and executes some skillful world-building of a hypothetical future by dropping well-timed details into the conversations. It also goes without saying that the creature (and the ending) provide a fun creative challenge for a production team.

In this briskly-paced drama, Mahapatra explores the intersection of sex, desire, connection, identity, and shame. In spare two-person scenes, we get to know and root for Tom as he puzzles through and works to make sense of his fixation on erotic asphyxiation and through how that secret impacts and shapes his life and relationships. The characters are funny and human, and many of the interactions are actually hilarious. This isn't, however, because Mahapatra mines the situation for comedy--rather it emerges organically from the gloriously human, real conversations. The moments of alienation and disconnection are potent, affecting, and gutting.

Beautifully done and highly theatrical! Cox's use of a triptych of visual space is very effective, especially as the boundaries between each become fuzzy. The central themes around the definition of life and death, organ donation, family, bereavement, letting go, and being haunted by past events are woven together so intricately and specifically. Adilene is a compelling central character, as is the determined and grieving Sarah. The ramped up stakes at the end of Act 1 feel inevitable, but no less potent, and the surprising revelations about those in the meat locker are poignant, surprising, and affecting.

Reinhardt provides such a vivid rendering of place and time with well-chosen details. I was amazed at how she was able to conjure potent sensory details just through dialogue. Manny and Janet are funny, sympathetic, and compelling central characters in this story. I was also astounded at how the rest of the sizeable ensemble was so three dimensional and complex as well. Reinhardt wrote these characters and cultural/social conflicts with kindness, generosity, and tenderness, even as they bristled against one another. The negotiation of Manny's complex, intersectional identity was, in particular, poignant and beautifully handled. Theatrical, touching, and hilarious!

A beautifully-rendered mosaic of humanity that explores universal truths and mines the everyday for the profound in the tradition of classics like "Our Town" and modern analogues like "Reykjavik." Nieboer has such an excellent grasp on the irregularities and peculiarities of natural speech, and here he gives us 15 very distinct and compelling characters. I loved the fantastical eccentricities that helped to underscore how both normal and bizarre daily life is. The stories come together in a poignant, theatrical moment at the end. I'd love to see this on its feet!