Recommended by Nick Malakhow

In "The Hub," Allyson Dwyer creates a compelling theatricalization of vintage internet culture when online connection was still in its nascent phases. Dwyer's vision for how an old chat room might translate to the stage, and how online personas might exist in relation to real life humans is both clear and provides room for directors, performers, and designers to leave their mark on this piece. I so appreciated how the dramatic action steadily climbed at an irregular but driving pace, and loved the nuanced exploration of identity, relationships, connection, sexuality, and alienation. It was truly human and affecting!

In this beautiful, tightly-written one-act, Pisaturo explores loneliness, connection, and identity formation in the digital age. Owen and Jasper are two well-written and distinct characters that speak with their own rhythms and vocabulary. Even while just reading this play on the page, I felt as if I had a great sense of the visual/aesthetic world of the piece, and it presents an excellent opportunity for some poignant and beautiful staging and affecting lighting. At turns funny, poignant, melancholy, and intimate, this would be an excellent showcase for two strong actors.

This wrenching piece captures something about living with an ED that most narratives on the topic fail to truly communicate--the heartbreaking ways one's illness infects, informs, and shapes their relationships with others and how that compounds loneliness and isolation. We see the haunting, metaphorical Everywoman have direct negative impacts on Mel; we also see Mel navigate a minefield of triggers and trauma in everyday interactions with people who, ostensibly, care greatly for her, but whose very existence brings trouble for her. This collage of slim, harrowing scenes is potent, and nuanced. Such excellent work!

Wow! SPOOKFISH is a brilliant mash-up of horror/slasher films, absurdism, and brutalism that proves to be a wild ride from start to finish. It is also a structural master-class--beginning with a hilarious and lively hook of a first act before ramping up the stakes and the insanity and ending with a contemplative and gutting finale. Haygen-Brice Walker shows a unique facility for utilizing tropes of disparate genres to create a chaotic yet cohesive aesthetic whole. This piece is also a great example of substance with style as Walker explores/explodes trauma, shame, human cruelty, sexuality, and social dominance within.

PLAINCLOTHES presents us a cast of multi-dimensional, exceptionally well-rendered individuals with potent needs, flaws, and motivators. Each member of the large ensemble is distinctly-voiced and speaks with the uneven rhythms of natural speech. Davis explores identity, the lengths we go to protect ourselves or our loved ones, and privilege with such an astute eye towards intersectionality, it's hard not to empathize with the conflicting perspectives on display. This is an absolutely hilarious piece with some well-timed and well-earned gut punches to its beloved characters. Spectacular work and a good showcase for a diverse, talented ensemble!

This hilarious and clever satire was a joy to read from start to finish. Lazarus does an excellent job of establishing an absurd theatrical world from the first moments of the script and deftly explores a number of issues, the most potent of which being the right to life debate. The blobular, exceedingly funny embryos are a perfect and absurd theatrical conceit used to comment on Mommy's societally-driven frantic obsession with having a biological child of her own as a way of validating her role as a mother and woman. This play should reach a wide audience!

This hilarious piece is the perfect balm to forgetting about the bizarre present at the moment! Hageman creates several supremely distinct and unique characters here--based partially off mobster movie archetypes. In working with this conceit, she both delivers some hilarious and immensely readable dialogue, while also using a tongue-in-cheek manner to comment on the way social structures play out among little kids. Would be a great piece for a strong ensemble and perfect for schools.

What a sweet slice of life that captures the phenomenon of two disparate strangers connected over a shared feeling in a complete organic and natural way. Al and Walt sound distinct and believable and very three-dimensional for folks in a ten minute piece! The revelations are effectively foreshadowed, but poignant when they happen.

This was a fast-paced and thrilling, and adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet." Davila created characters that felt both like the familiar archetypes to be recognizable, while still being wholly fresh, original, and nuanced individuals in and of themselves. Adan and Julio have the youthful impulsiveness of the legendary couple, but their problems here are clearly compounded and more poignant with the intersectional eye towards their queerness. Like "Romeo and Juliet," this reads as not an epic love story, but as a scathing critique of how socio-cultural and political structures created by dysfunctional adults impact generations of youth to come.

I tore through this haunting, lyrical piece in one sitting! Henry has, at once, crafted a unique and well-rendered theatrical world, while also utilizing the structures and rules of that world as part of a brilliant metaphor for grief, trauma, loss, and the resulting mental health fallout of those things. Julian is a really compelling central figure, and I loved how her character was revealed through propulsive jumps back and forth through time. This is also a play that could serve equally well as an elaborate designer's dream and/or a resourceful/scrappy production company's creatively staged small show.