Aaron Ricciardi

Jacqui is a wildly untalented thirty-something actress who’s been struggling in L.A. for years and has nothing to show for it. When she meets a has-been movie star and his even more has-been wife—who believe there is an underground organization working to steal money from and then murder Hollywood stars—she latches onto them. As their lives and ambitions intertwine, it's a dangerous cocktail of desperation, paranoia, delusion, and filmmaking for this threesome, who try so hard and want so much and just can’t cut it.

In a landscape of distorted and fractured memories, a teenage prince meets Jess, a lonely schoolteacher, and becomes ensnared in her marriage, her family, and her fantasies. Boundaries fall away, and childhood is stolen—from The Prince, from Jess’s daughter, and from the students who came before.

It’s December. Shayna, the only Jewish kid in her class, would give anything to not have to celebrate Hanukkah and instead celebrate her favorite thing in the world: Christmas! But this all changes when she is visited by the spirit of a bubby from the Old Country, who takes her on a journey through Jewish history, large and small, and teaches her the value of tradition and of miracles, large and small.

Roberta, a spry young woman, is embarking on a cruise, but she can’t find her husband. Also, she’s annoyed to be surrounded by old people with walkers, and she has to babysit all these kids whose parents are nowhere to be found. Oh, and she doesn’t recognize the furniture in her apartment. Perhaps the woman on the phone can help her figure it all out, and also get her a frankfurter. In short, it’s a surreal expression of how life feels for someone with dementia.

A twenty-eight-year-old gay man walks on stage to tell you all the wildest story, but then she appears. You know. Her. That woman from his past: the teacher. Another gay guy joins to mix to help him tell the story, but our hero’s plans fall to pieces, especially once the woman gets down on hands and knees and starts playing his dog. This metaplay is a simple story that spirals into a more complicated one, a story about love and sex and how time moves for children of abuse.

Kenneth and Asher got caught trying to sneak into an R-rated movie, so now they’re camped out on a bench in front of the movie theater, unsure of what to do with their night—or at least until their moms come to pick them up. The boys butt heads, chat Oscars trivia, have a visit from one of their favorite actors, and run into their drama teacher, with whom Asher is close—perhaps too close, if you ask Kenneth. These two dweebs have grand visions for their lives—to make great art!—but, right now, life sucks.

In July of 2016, Aaron’s family learned a dark, shocking, over-five-decades-old secret about his grandfather, whom everyone called Beak. Seven months later, Beak was dead. In this play about legacy, redemption, and family, Aaron grapples with what to make of a void left by a loved one, especially if that loved one was less than perfect.

Four 10th-grade girls are studying for tomorrow's history test on World War II. When three of them stage an intervention to warn the fourth about the dangers that her neutral face poses to her social standing. it's clear that, even with no boys around, it's better to be pretty than smart.

Jeff is a Midwestern Jewish liberal who manages a Walgreens. Kirk is a right-wing Evangelical Christian who owns one of America’s largest companies. By day, they lead humdrum lives just like the rest of us, but, at night, these two closeted men rendezvous in an Internet chat room and project their fantasies onto each other. When their love gets all-consuming and all too real, these guys must strip themselves of their digital fictions and make a decision: remain in the closet, or finally live their truth.

In a nail salon on the outskirts of New York City, immigrant ladies spend their days toiling like servants over the fingers and toes of obnoxious customers. This modest shop is the livelihood of a Korean-American family, who dream of making it big in America—or, really, just scraping by, especially now that the new salon next to the Whole Foods down the street is siphoning off their customers. As word spreads of labor department crackdowns, the salon owners’ daughter fights to modernize this tired establishment, all while growing captivated by a new customer who is not like the others, forcing her to examine the value of identity, government regulations, and Disney movies.  

Shayna and Shoshana are sitting in their apartment, busying themselves on their smartphones, trying to order food for delivery, and ridiculing Rivka, that girl they hate who they hear is a Communist. When a canvasser comes to their door to encourage them to vote in the upcoming election, Shayna and Shoshana don’t really listen to what the canvasser has to tell them, even though their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren and other people from the future are all sitting in the audience watching to see what they did when the worst was happening.

Welcome to the U.S. of A. Other countries suffer biblical consequences for their filthy ways, but the U.S. of A. is the most perfect place on Earth — at least, that’s what Mr. Travel preaches every day on the nation’s only TV show. A trippy dystopian tale with an eclectic soundtrack, this Epic play with songs follows Teeny, Mr. Travel’s rule-breaking daughter. Teetering on adulthood and perplexed by this cruel world, Teeny learns to see past smoke and mirrors… and she starts a revolution. Mashing up styles that range from Brecht to dystopian fiction to South Park, this show turns the genre of musical theatre on its ear.

Carla’s friends can’t stand Diana. Diana is the worst. She's pretentious. She's hyper-critical. And she smells like poop. Or maybe she doesn’t smell like poop. Maybe that’s someone else. Maybe Diana is actually a really good person who’s living in accordance with a strong set of ideals, and Carla’s friends are all judgmental jerks who don’t think of how their actions will affect other people. The bottom line, though, is that something stinks.

It's Break the Fast dinner at twelve-and-a-half-year-old Sol's family's house. A real social caterpillar, Sol has a hard time relating to anyone or anything that isn't the books he reads or the trivia he's memorized or the Broadway CDs he listens to on his Discman. But this Yom Kippur turns out to be very special indeed when Seth, Sol's twenty-five-year-old gay cousin who lives New York City, comes to ring in the High Holy Day at Sol's house, and Sol gets a glimpse of a possible future where he might feel a little less like an outcast.

Natalie and Candice were best friends growing up in Indiana. Candice still lives there, but Natalie? She lives in Los Angeles, doing the actor hustle of auditions and side jobs and starving herself—she’ll tell you all about it, just ask her. When Candice happens to be in Los Angeles, she and Natalie meet up. Candice listens to Natalie word vomit about her fabulous big-city life, until Natalie runs out of steam, her façade crumbles, and the two women are drawn together by their shared past and their shared humanity.