Recommended by Rachael Carnes

Razor-sharp dialogue shimmers with subtext in this tight exploration, as Jigour digs into tropes about relationship, expectation, hope and failures. Bright rhythmic dynamics keep us rollicking on an absurdist arc but underneath is the guts and sinews or real, deep feeling. Brilliant.

Gah! I love these two characters *so much*!! Holbrook's dialogue bobs and weaves in and out of such touching, tender places with ease, taking us on a wash-dry-fold journey that feels real-not real in the perfect way that eavesdropping in a crowd can reveal philosopher kings. A charming revelation.

Deceptively funny dialogue, magnetizing characters and richly-hewn out-of-time world-building masks a deep introspection on life and loss. The best plays about tragedy are comedies at their core - fight me on this - and Moon's work here is a perfect example. Great stuff.

I want to watch all of JJ's YouTube videos from now until the end of time. This monologue is a gem — Hitting all the 'what makes a monologue' marks and then bringing us to exquisite company with this delightful human who is here to help us get it all sorted. JJ for President! JJ for *everything*. A beautiful journey that we get to sidekick, like Abu. Or Raja. Anyway, read it, smile, feel better about life and the universe, and understand the reference. Superb work!

This is a tight little snare drum of a play! Seymour crafts a cagey world with deft dialogue and these characters that could be mopey Jazz-age layabouts, or #influencers — The writer digs into their ennui and finds a rivulet of humor. Delicious rhythms here. So theatrical and whimsical and dark. Reminiscent of a Chas Addams cartoon or an Edward Gorey lithographic, spare, perfect, kinda horrifying. Love this play.

With characters immediately likable and resonant, Cato builds a world behind the scenes that we all know is all-too real, all-too common. Sharp, funny dialogue underscores the desperation here, the high stakes and mourning for plausible, unreachable futures that neither man can trace, even in imagination, except in his repetitive company with the other. A powerful commentary, finely crafted. Brilliant work.

A remarkably crafted monologue about the internal/external experience of "intimacy" and it's relationship to language and the lived experience. This says so much about the subtleties and intricacies of misogyny, body-shaming and what it means to live in a world where mere pleasure may exist for the other's consumption. Ugh! So relevant and so heartbreaking. This should be required reading at the beginning of educational conversations in High Schools and colleges about sex positivity and consent. Brilliant work.

This utterly charming play would be a delight onstage. Kaplan creates warm, instant rapport among the characters, with Tim in right field — Wishing someone would *see* him for the non-sportsy person he is. There's such lovely humor throughout, and a river of tempered, relatable emotion flowing underneath each perfect beat. This would be a dream to explore for any creative team: Bright, funny, with opportunities for dynamic physicality and deeply-felt heart. What more can you ask for?

A huge deep breath after reading this monologue. Goldman-Sherman's elegant, seemingly effortless exploration of the distant past as it enfolds into the present expresses exquisitely the searing discomfort of long-buried pain rising to meet current trauma. From an actorly point-of-view, this beautiful work offers guy ropes up a steep mountain face, footholds that would take the performer away from basecamp, into the realm where oxygen is low, and back again. Stunning craft. Deeply-felt ideas.

Raw and real, Donnelly's words here slide along a knife's edge — Tapping a rivulet of pain and tender mercies. An actor embodied in this role would have every arrow at the ready - it's sharp, visceral, smart. Achingly sad, when we widen the lens and allow ourselves the scope of the horror depicted. Bravo.