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Rachael Carnes

Recommended by Rachael Carnes

  • MARTY SAVES HUMANITY by Adam Richter
    10 Feb. 2022
    “ This back to the future romp is a delight. If you were there, Richter’s depiction of 1980’s radio, particularly the rat-tat-tat of the slick DJ patter — the likes of which offered a cultural lifeline for pre-internet, pre cable America — is a warm hug. For anyone newer to this planet, the play will illuminate just another of the reasons why a million angels should go forth to part the airspace in front of Saint Dolly. ”
  • A Lifetime of Adventure by Lee R. Lawing
    10 Feb. 2022
    “ I’m bowled over by this stunning piece, a masterwork of historical drama. In the rich character development, Lawing shares with us just enough context to connect us to a time, and with a subtle, succinct emotional dexterity, pulls our empathy to a deeply-felt human moment. This is the short play form at its finest. ”
  • PASTOR JOAN HARTLEY OF OPEN HOUSE CHRISTIAN IN INDIANA: A SERMON: A MONOLOGUE by Asher Wyndham
    10 Feb. 2022
    “ If Joan were my pastor, I’d be a church regular. Wyndham crafts Joan’s spirit with candor and a capacity to invite empathy through humor. How is someone supposed to shepherd a persecuted flock? This play smartly puts us all in the congregation, imagining a clear-as-day environment and giving us a laser-focused purpose to be here. Joan’s sermon of radical love and acceptance is balm for the beleaguered soul. ”
  • An Apple for a Telegram by Samantha Marchant
    30 Jan. 2022
    “ Mother Jones is a titanic figure in American history (even if she was barely five feet tall) and Marchant's gorgeous play illuminates her spirited essence in the way historical drama can, and should: By digging into the formidable rhythms of Jones' undaunted leadership, and letting those efforts loose through the language of poetry. This is a beautifully-wrought play, casting a person from the past into the searing light of today, and helping us to know her better. (Makes me wish Mary Harris Jones were still here, to take on Jeff Bezos.) There's power in the unions! Brava. ”
  • Right as Rain by Joe Swenson
    28 Jan. 2022
    “ A deeply-felt ode to friendship, and the ways in which the people we know, love and trust stay with us. There's a beauty to the physicality of this piece - maybe it's because I come from a long line of fishermen - I'm drawn to Swenson's depiction of that space, where kinship and connection reflects like sunshine in the water itself. ”
  • Bing! by Rachel Feeny-Williams
    28 Jan. 2022
    “ A lovely exploration on the 'entertainer' - dancelike, in its commitment to wistful nonverbal cues. Feeny-Williams taps into the trope that shows us that perhaps the fool knows more than anyone onstage. I would love to see this performed live! ”
  • Hot Blood Sundae by Aly Kantor
    28 Jan. 2022
    “ Holy wow! Profane and irreverent and as I drink my morning coffee I am here for it. This is a wild two-hander, darting and weaving around myriad 'taboo' subjects with breakneck pacing and dialogue that snaps. ”
  • Mixed Signals by Aly Kantor
    24 Jan. 2022
    “ A gorgeous exploration on what happens when two people in love prepare to enter the orbit of... the parents. Will they be accepted? Appreciate? Loved, for who they are? Kantor dips and weaves a filament of emotion in this tight little play, stitching together want, need, hope, joy — And sorrow — that there should be any doubt. A lovely example of how a play can say so much, with so few words. Poetry. ”
  • Guys Galore! by Lee R. Lawing
    22 Jan. 2022
    “ I love Lawing's work for just how human it is. From the jump, we're at the saddest moment — An ad-hoc funeral for a friend, cut down too soon, and humor bubbles up - as it often does at funerals or wakes - and gosh darn if these moments don't make me love these characters in an instant. Then, what they reveal, my heart. Lawing sets up the perfect serve and *thwack* — My mind is taken back in time and my emotions are with these men, so completely. By page 6: Tears. Then 7, PAGE EIGHT? Read it!! ”
  • Justice For Salem by Rachel Feeny-Williams
    22 Jan. 2022
    “ If we don't know our history, we're doomed to repeat it, right? And here, Feeny-Williams reaches back into the vile miasma that descended, cult-like, on the 'good' leadership of Salem, MA, who of course didn't invent the idea that independent-minded women *must* be witches - they had 1,000 years of evidence to 'prove' it. Feeny-Williams' fabulously ferocious TABITHA captures these judge and executioners' misbegotten piety, like a cat pinning down a mouse's tail. If you hate being at the mercy of neoconservative politicians, you will LOVE seeing this young woman flip the script. Bring popcorn. ”

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