Recommended by Nick Malakhow

I loved how this story was so subtly told and how fully-realized the characters were. Reid captures young people on the precipice of and then jumping fully into adulthood with a sensitive eye for the small seismic changes that occur between and within people, and the fractures that appear in relationships as people mature. The characters simmer with all of the uncertainty, loneliness, and desire to make an impact and meaning that all young 20-somethings experience. How wonderful that Reid communicates these truths in poignant, well-structured scenes that avoid unnecessary histrionics and that hit a more nuanced bullseye.

Mindbending, hilarious, and poignant! At the start of the script, Vanderark says that the play asks the question "When have we replaced too much?" and that really is such a potent, clear, and affecting throughline that guides the play and provides a unifying focus that really makes this piece so much more than just the sum of its parts. There is so much hilarity in here (particularly most times AI is meant to reproduce the thoughts and creative output of human beings) amidst the pervasive, touching, and undeniable reminders of what makes humanity human. Theatrical and bold!

A sublime play that opens with catastrophe at the fantastical/global level as well as the immediate familial level. From there, the sci-fi circumstances serve as a simple but powerful metaphor for the family implosion going on inside Brielle and Zachary's apartment. Vanderark provides enough details about the world to make the circumstances potent, but then skillfully focusing on the human heart of the play. The treatment of each flawed character is very sensitive--they are rendered with deft skill and are all clearly fighting their own impossible battles. The ending is a poignant, time-bending, stop-motion-animation-like punctuation mark.

I enjoyed the kaleidoscopic nature of this play. Even just reading it, I found it evoking in my mind smells, saturated colors, soundscapes, and rhythms. I appreciated how the characters felt vividly-rendered but also like a unique and fierce ensemble. There's so much to work with here with regards to movement, visual storytelling, compelling stage pictures, and environmental staging! The irregular rhythms of the piece were fun and I loved how they highlighted the strobe-light-like flashes of human connection within. The fantastical Nathan/Jonah love fable in the middle was beautiful and poignant. The ending was affecting and startling.

A wildly theatrical piece with an extremely human heart beating throughout. I love the pastiche of horror-satire-fantasy-coming-of-age-dramedy that this play lives within. The world is mindblowing, eclectic, cohesive, and fully-realized. Walker pointedly uses the thread of werewolf mythology to explore coming of age, identity discovery, shame, desire, and the push-pull of repressing or realizing those overwhelming forces in a limiting society. I flew through this in one sitting--it is hi-LARIOUS, sexy, horrifying, and poignant at key moments. I loved seeing Junyce/Kyle and Huck/Beecher as two different models for coping with these desires and internal conflicts. An amazing piece!

A gorgeous and haunting theatrical poem of a play that explores grief, guilt, moving on, and intersectional identity with well-chosen words and scenes. I very much appreciated the collage-like irregular structure that mirrored and uneven and inelegant rhythms of grief. All of these characters are so beautifully realized, both in relation to one another and individually, and their potently written soliloquies punctuate the whole piece beautifully. There are some exquisite stage pictures described that just felt so uniquely theatrical--everything agricultural, Jamal's computer editing, tactile interactions with flora and dirt--and I would so love to see them live.

An awesomely inventive and timely piece that resonates profoundly with today as it imagines a future informed by our present. The central characters are all well-defined, and I appreciate their intersectional richness and the ways their identities clearly influence and impact their decisions, actions, and lives. Goldfinger's exploration of digital footprint, rape culture, activism, and the broad implications of existing in a digitized world is thorough and nuanced. I also appreciated how both theatrical and flexible this piece was--it feels like the kind of piece a production team can clearly put its stamp on. Great for colleges!

As others have mentioned, this is a truly captivating and compelling play that takes you in from the start. The evolving and mysterious dynamic between and circumstances surrounding girl and soldier are endlessly intriguing! I found myself being swept up with the narrative and not getting bogged down in trying to constantly guess what was happening. That is a testament to the rich sci-fi world that Kiechel establishes with just a couple of characters. The details she provides about the circumstances of this world are well-chosen and rich. Haunting and stunning images abound! Produce this!

I appreciated the interplay of straightforward and spare dialogue with more carefully-written, lyrical moments. I also enjoyed the potent powder-keg that this play renders--Matilda's increasingly urgent need to divorce herself from her toxic relationship with Solomon and substances. While both characters are troubled and vividly-rendered, the subtly-drawn line of Matilda's journey gave the play a clear narrative shape and set up the tragedy of the ending. Her dual co-dependencies reflect one another in powerful ways. Solomon's desperate excuses about the "necessity" of making art under the influence is a sad-but-true presumption and coping mechanism of many--truthfully illustrated here.

I appreciate a lot of things about this play. There is something about this moment in time that is causing me (as I'm sure it's causing a lot of people) to reconsider and reevaluate connections, relationships, errors, and missteps I've made. Minigan captures that perfectly here, and renders that in a way that honors the complexity and age-appropriate imperfection of its teenage main characters. I also appreciate this play as a teacher who is teaching young students a "quarantine-performance-ready" playwriting unit through distance learning--it's a great model for them to read and absorb!