Recommended by Dave Osmundsen

  • The Rapping
    26 Feb. 2020
    Horror is extremely difficult to execute onstage. However, Detray manages to create a consistent rise of suspense in this short, but chilling play. It lovingly references classic slasher horror films while being its own thing. Perfect for play festivals focusing on horror, this play is both an effective horror story and a just-plain-fun read!
  • Babel
    22 Feb. 2020
    Add my voice to the well-deserved praise for this play! Goldfinger has written a compelling, thought-provoking, complex, and horrifying futuristic tale here. What happens when we begin to make moves towards a more "perfect" society? How does that society decide who gets born and who they may be better off without? Goldfinger raises so many great points, and yet the play never feels didactic. You always have great insight into who these characters are and their relationship to each other. I really hope to see this play staged at some point. It deserves to be seen!
  • NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance
    11 Feb. 2020
    A wild romp through 1820 London that gleefully, yet lovingly, satirizes the convolutions, coincidences, and contrivances of 19th-century novels (specifically those of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen). With whiplash dialogue that would be a blast for any actor to deliver, and a fast-paced plot that allows for some great staging opportunities, "Nell Dash" is a treat for anyone who has ever loved a 19th century novel (or musicals about murderous men set in Victorian England...).
  • That Kind of Boy [a 1-minute play]
    5 Feb. 2020
    A sweet, charming, expectation-upending piece that emphasizes the importance of love and understanding in not just the family dynamic portrayed in the play, but ALL families. Lovely!
  • Sock Puppet Fetish Noir
    2 Feb. 2020
    Another delight from McBurnette-Andronicos! Takes all the tropes and stylizations of film noir and applies them to a wonderfully weird and wild narrative about missing socks (something I'm sure all of us sock-wearers relate to). Well done!
  • The Mortal Drama
    1 Feb. 2020
    A high-stakes scene between two heroin addicts, one of whom wants to get clean, the other relying on it for their artistic gain. The play interrogates and criticizes the idea that the artist needs to somehow be in an altered state to create their best work by honing in on a self-destructive couple who are trying their best, even when their lives are falling apart. The play builds a feeling of impending dread, resulting in a shattering climax.
  • Apples in Winter
    31 Jan. 2020
    WOW! What a galvanizing portrait of a mother's complex and conflicting feelings over her son. Miriam is a sympathetic character with a deeply tragic story to tell, and by the end of the play you feel like you have seen multiple shades of her character and her world. The play is also successful in humanizing her son, who has committed a terrible crime. It reminds us that even the worst criminals who commit the most heinous acts come from somewhere (or someone). PLEASE read this necessary and moving play!
  • One Month Along
    30 Jan. 2020
    Reading like a modern-day response to Pinter's "Betrayal," this play shares that play's pointed use of economic yet potent language to explore issues of love, trust, sex, abandonment, neglect, and passion among three artists. On a deeper level, there is a rumbling of "What if?" underneath the surface of these characters and their situation, which adds quite a melancholy and poignant feel to the proceedings. A fascinating read!
  • The Condemned, a Monologue
    26 Jan. 2020
    A short but potent indictment of a fickle culture that seems to be intent on hating both its incompetent leaders and those who actually do something about them. The speaker may be condemned, but he also condemns society for its capriciousness.
  • All the Things
    25 Jan. 2020
    We get a strong sense of the long relationship these two men have had, and feel a sweet sadness of what might have been. And all in just five pages! Sickles exhibits masterful brevity with this tender and intimate script.

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