Recommended by Dave Osmundsen

Changing rooms are a minefield of confused sexuality, body insecurity, and emotional vulnerability. Playwright Kyle Smith ratchets this milieu up by centering the painful journey of a trans/agender character whose painful coming out results in his relationship with his water polo teammates disintegrating as their camaraderie grows over the course of a contentious season. The audience viscerally feels Titus’ pain and isolation as they come into their own, and anger at the team’s treatment of them. A fantastic and powerful play about what we lose to become our true authentic selves.

Thomas Hardy’s famously tragic indictment of hypocritical Victorian morals is given an intensely visceral spin in Brian Scanlan’s play. A poem as much as a play, Scanlan incisively interrogates the stigmas and consequences of addiction and what happens when society fails to care for those struggling with addiction, much like how Hardy condemned society’s treatment of “fallen women.” Moving, powerful, and heartbreaking, “hurt people/hurt people” is a necessary play in our national conversation about addiction and treatment. It is also a beautiful character study of desperation, trauma, and survival. Fantastic work!

Neurodiversity, grief, critical theory, mental illness, and queerness are only a few themes deftly explored in this economic yet expansive coming-of-age tale. Jackson’s quest to carve an identity for himself as he begins his freshman year of college brings him to the darkest moment of his past. How much of a toll this will take on him, and how it will impact his loved ones, is a question I couldn’t help but invest in. It felt like a metaphysical take on “Proof” in the best way. Lovely play!

A haunting and haunted story that examines friendship, class, family, addiction, self-destruction, and local mythology. Ghosts travel through this play like the Hudson Valley region this play takes place in. Richly drawn characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, and imaginatively vivid stagecraft populate this moving story. A perfect play for young actors!

I was lucky enough to see this play at Luna Stage. An intimate, engaging, and compassionate portrait of a Black father and son trying to understand each other as grown men. The play asks what it means for parents and children to relate to each other, despite the trauma parents unwittingly inflict on their children. Ty’s “When men smile at me” monologue is heartrending and gorgeous. Fantastic play!

A riff on the Frankenstein mythos, a speculative Shakespearean tale, and a coming-of-age story rolled into one delightful and surprisingly poignant package. I don’t generally care about Shakespeare, and sci-fi can be a hard sell for me, but the theme of wanting to be an independent person on your own terms while learning to articulate and define thorny human emotions resonated profoundly here. I was deeply engaged by William’s quest to become the person (or automaton) he was meant to become. I highly recommend this play for theaters seeking an accessible yet moving new play.

Julie d’Aubigny’s life has become fodder for half-truths, exaggerations, and outright fabrications. Monica Cross acknowledges the myths and legends through five gadfly gossips who act as an incorrigible and unruly Greek Chorus, and then returns the narrative to the flawed, yet deeply principled human at its center. While lengthy, the play consistently intrigues and entertains, then wallops you with one of the most emotionally intimate, vulnerable, and moving love stories I have read in quite some time. A perfect play for colleges and universities.

An intimate epic of the cosmos, “Impossible Theories of Us” has the mystery of a “Black Mirror” episode, the poetic economy of a Caryl Churchill play, and the wonder of Nick Payne’s “Constellations.” This play, in its own unique manner, is a memory play. Not the kind where a character relives memories, but rather about trying to recapture one’s own memories, complicated by the question of whether the objects of our memories have agency. Compelling moral/ethical questions, fused with an emotionally engaging and charming pas de deux, make this play a stunner.

“We hear a rush of water—a waterfall, an ocean, a surging river. It is the sound of the WOMAN’s life.”

In the midst of some truly dark horror, this stage direction breaks forth like a beautiful beam of light.

Stark, brutal, but ultimately hopeful, MERE WATERS is about the impossible choices and risks one woman takes in order to not just ensure her survival of Auschwitz, but other women as well.

Theatrically and visually rich and ritualistic, it is not an easy play to read or sit through. Good! More plays should be as uncompromising as this.

A lovely story about small town life, body image, and self-acceptance. Boyd displays a fine ear for dialogue and character dynamics. I thoroughly enjoyed following the evolving shapes the characters’ relationships took throughout the play, and yearned that they would all find their places in the world by the end.

The birds also present a fun challenge for designers—I would love to see how they’re represented in different productions!