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Charles Scott Jones

Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

  • The Play of Excessive Exposition, Stereotypical Characters, and Cliches by Neil Radtke
    15 Mar. 2024
    “ In THE PLAY OF EXCESSIVE EXPOSITION [. . .], playwright Neil Radtke casts himself in the role of desperate and total hack and excels at hacking his way through this riotous spoof of bad mystery writing like a pirouetting Pirandello. The plot to put Max Laxative into the city’s water supply gets things flowing and it never stops in this show about shows that shows shows. ”
  • First Date 2099 by Mike Byham
    15 Mar. 2024
    “ Truly effective and prescient writing. Relatable dialogue creating an appropriate contractual outset to romance. As with all worthy futuristic satire draws intriguing parallels to the present. FIRST DATE 2099 by Mike Byham somehow stays one step ahead while staying within the established date strategy for Man and Woman. What makes this hum along like a distant love song on the radio is that Woman makes herself both salesperson and object and Man is never wrong with the coin flips in more ways than one. Has a date that goes "very well" ever been more unsettling or amusingly ambiguous? ”
  • Five-Minute Major by Mike Byham
    11 Mar. 2024
    “ The hockey career of a future enforcer or goon is founded by a violent tantrum after missing an open net. FIVE MINUTE MAJOR is an amazingly sustained monologue from Bugsy Morano told in real time. From the penalty box. Brawling has long been the ruin of professional hockey, and here are some insights from Mike Byham and his player-confessor into the thinking of the powers that be and the bloodthirsty fans that keep it going well beyond the hockey arena. Pro hockey could be played as they do in college or the Olympics with no tolerance for fighting. ”
  • SEEN by Neil Radtke
    11 Mar. 2024
    “ The things that Angela and Charles endure together. Within the final room is the relief of having “no evil machete-wielding robot mimes," among other spoofs of horror film tropes. Really admire that with SEEN (Seen-Saw?) Neil Radtke has cut through all the givens of great campy horror and given us instead the final scene which is a doozy. Fine twisty work. ”
  • I am the Center of My Universe by Nora Louise Syran
    11 Mar. 2024
    “ Our place in the universe. What could be more thought-provoking? From the earth as the Pale Blue Dot in the photo taken by Voyager I, while billions of miles away - to standing before Van Gogh's Starry Night at MOMA. Read Nora Louise Syran's wonderful monologue. ”
  • An Audience of One by Michael C. O'Day
    8 Mar. 2024
    “ AN AUDIENCE OF ONE by Michael C. O’Day is a brisk and entertaining short play with 5 allegorical characters. The action is very cleverly strung along with one-word utterances that parody the kind of social interplay our lives have been reduced to, in this, our capitalist world of brief transactional encounters. By the end we feel Hero’s frustration, but - alas - the golden age of the hero has been superseded by the consumer. A cool play for our times, especially with Vendor as the nexus of the manic activity. ”
  • The Scarecrow and the Crow by Jonny Bolduc
    8 Mar. 2024
    “ A wonderful original children's play. For adults too. I'm partial to crows and scarecrows and even the black cat and love how Jonny Bolduc has knit this fable together. A very nice touch is having the farmer live in the scarecrow's imagination. The three roles for kids bring them into the act. Well done. ”
  • He Misses by Patrick Vermillion
    7 Mar. 2024
    “ This remarkable play explores gender roommate imbalance through a urine crisis. The liquidy crux of HE MISSES is more thought about than talked about - but once brought out into the open - the debate is provocative and messier or more complicated than one might think. Is it a psychological pissing on one's turf that Patrick Vermillon is exploring? Decide for yourself how far to take it. An astute mixture of realism sans bathroom carpets and absurdism, this fine work - it's easy to visualize - would spark various animated audience talkbacks wherever it plays. ”
  • For a Limited Time Only (The Bread Play) by Daniel Prillaman
    7 Mar. 2024
    “ During the first 20 pages I took laugh-breaks to indulge in the madness and during the last 20 I took thought-breaks. Intuitively falling into the basket-by-basket rhythm of this demented work of virtuosity. The can’t-leave component of this fine piece of insanity has pleasant associations with Bunuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” - however, with THE BREAD PLAY, Daniel Prillaman has sharpened the focus and deepened this no-exiting Hades eatery with the illuminating reciprocity of Val and Arlo. Who are so good you're willing to follow them into the Dough of Eternity because the breaking of bread will never end, amen. ”
  • What You Wish For (short) by David Hilder
    7 Mar. 2024
    “ WHAT YOU WISH FOR by David Hilder is a saucy modern take on the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, a story with origins that may go back 4000 years, with a version in many cultures. The Hilder version is for adults, fast- paced, cynical, hyperbolic, and replete with the hierarchal sexism of the corporate workplace. Instead of spinning straw into gold for Miller’s daughter, the goblin with the secret name fondles her as she types magic into her desktop PC, making millions in the process. A disturbing and darkly funny mixture of the old and the new. Hilder is a force. ”

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