Recommended by Sarah Jae Leiber

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    One of the strongest scripts and best performances of a one-person show I've ever encountered! SAS's deep compassion for the world, incredible sense of humor, and easy way of explaining complicated socio-religious history makes Something To Believe In an absolute joy to watch and an absolute breeze to produce.

    One of the strongest scripts and best performances of a one-person show I've ever encountered! SAS's deep compassion for the world, incredible sense of humor, and easy way of explaining complicated socio-religious history makes Something To Believe In an absolute joy to watch and an absolute breeze to produce.

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    A funny and damning play about ceding reality to what looks real onscreen and what doing that does to your brain, especially if you’re rewarded for it with millions of eyes on you. The moments where Ditty makes you feel every one of those eyes are the most arresting in the piece, and the characters shine equally in their more insular, ~intimate~ (whatever that means to ghouls) moments.

    A funny and damning play about ceding reality to what looks real onscreen and what doing that does to your brain, especially if you’re rewarded for it with millions of eyes on you. The moments where Ditty makes you feel every one of those eyes are the most arresting in the piece, and the characters shine equally in their more insular, ~intimate~ (whatever that means to ghouls) moments.

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    My favorite Sean Swenson play. So broad in scale and personal in stake, Swenson's finely-tuned senses of humor, history, and the uncanny dovetail into something weird, wild, and wonderful here. A play that begs to be staged, designed, and witnessed.

    My favorite Sean Swenson play. So broad in scale and personal in stake, Swenson's finely-tuned senses of humor, history, and the uncanny dovetail into something weird, wild, and wonderful here. A play that begs to be staged, designed, and witnessed.

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    A gorgeous act of silliness. A.J. Ditty knows exactly how to balance madcap clowniness alongside grounded good-heartedness in his plotting and characters, creating an easily-trackable, accessible adaptation of THE ODYSSEY & THE ILIAD that simultaneously makes you wonder if the Homer who first spun this yarn might have been Homer Simpson. An absolute dream production for very lucky, very funny actors, directors, designers, and artisans.

    A gorgeous act of silliness. A.J. Ditty knows exactly how to balance madcap clowniness alongside grounded good-heartedness in his plotting and characters, creating an easily-trackable, accessible adaptation of THE ODYSSEY & THE ILIAD that simultaneously makes you wonder if the Homer who first spun this yarn might have been Homer Simpson. An absolute dream production for very lucky, very funny actors, directors, designers, and artisans.

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    There is a joke in this play that is so funny and so clever that I laughed out loud just reading it on the page. Actors will make meals out of this material. McManus writes clearly-defined characters who are so grounded in their absurdity that it's impossible not to fall in love with them and their world. I understand Cowboy Law, and I respect it. But, more importantly, I understand, respect, and adore the characters who find Cowboy Law sacred.

    There is a joke in this play that is so funny and so clever that I laughed out loud just reading it on the page. Actors will make meals out of this material. McManus writes clearly-defined characters who are so grounded in their absurdity that it's impossible not to fall in love with them and their world. I understand Cowboy Law, and I respect it. But, more importantly, I understand, respect, and adore the characters who find Cowboy Law sacred.

  • Sarah Jae Leiber: All at Once [40th Anniversary Remaster] by Jack McManus
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    McManus and collaborators have created a rock album virtually indistinguishable from something made contemporaneous to this story, and I hope they continue gaslighting audiences with their love for '70s rock for years to come. Unique in form, funny and sad in context, I feel like I know everything about Margaret and Danny's marriage simply through the way they speak to each other musically — so it is a gift to also have their 50 years of retrospective perspective playing out on top, like a beautiful live commentary track. Would be excellent for colleges.

    McManus and collaborators have created a rock album virtually indistinguishable from something made contemporaneous to this story, and I hope they continue gaslighting audiences with their love for '70s rock for years to come. Unique in form, funny and sad in context, I feel like I know everything about Margaret and Danny's marriage simply through the way they speak to each other musically — so it is a gift to also have their 50 years of retrospective perspective playing out on top, like a beautiful live commentary track. Would be excellent for colleges.

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  • Sarah Jae Leiber: Lay The Bent to the Bonny Broom by Zoe Senese-Grossberg
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    Passionate, layered, funny, and dark, Senese-Grossberg has created something unique and enduring that lives up to its promise of being "the A-side of a Jane Austen novel and the B-side of a Mary Shelley novel." The scary, sexy, devastating Jewish Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein of your dreams. What does it mean to act out of line when you already have an identity-based target on your back? Who wins and who loses when oppressed people submit to an uncaring societal hierarchy to gain acceptance?

    Passionate, layered, funny, and dark, Senese-Grossberg has created something unique and enduring that lives up to its promise of being "the A-side of a Jane Austen novel and the B-side of a Mary Shelley novel." The scary, sexy, devastating Jewish Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein of your dreams. What does it mean to act out of line when you already have an identity-based target on your back? Who wins and who loses when oppressed people submit to an uncaring societal hierarchy to gain acceptance?

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  • Sarah Jae Leiber: QUICKSAND, a one person play by Sam Heyman
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    A quick and remarkable insight into what it feels like to be a people-pleaser tragically in touch with the part of themself that wants to please other people. Sometimes it really is like sinking! Beautiful work.

    A quick and remarkable insight into what it feels like to be a people-pleaser tragically in touch with the part of themself that wants to please other people. Sometimes it really is like sinking! Beautiful work.

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  • Sarah Jae Leiber: A Typical STEM Job Interview by Sam Heyman
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    Sharp, funny, and a really smart way to create a digital theatrical space. Heyman captures the inherent absurdity of selling yourself before you can sell your soul to capitalism and — in eight pages, no less! — creates memorable characters, scenarios, and so many great jokes straight out of your worst nightmare.

    Sharp, funny, and a really smart way to create a digital theatrical space. Heyman captures the inherent absurdity of selling yourself before you can sell your soul to capitalism and — in eight pages, no less! — creates memorable characters, scenarios, and so many great jokes straight out of your worst nightmare.

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  • Sarah Jae Leiber: AFIKOMAN by Sam Heyman
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    This play is a really beautiful meditation on what it means to miss someone who's been gone longer than you knew them. American Jewish families have a very particular way of speaking to each other that Heyman really captures well here. Well done!

    This play is a really beautiful meditation on what it means to miss someone who's been gone longer than you knew them. American Jewish families have a very particular way of speaking to each other that Heyman really captures well here. Well done!

    ”