Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

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    There are only so many stories so it comes down to how the story gets told. In “deadbodydeadbody-deadbody” Marissa Joyce Stamps previews a boxing match or fight between Moses and Dante by charting the hourly movements of the two men preceding the challenge. This experimental play parodies charted preparations and training routines boxers make, their sleep or unrest while the neo-noir mystery of a dead father hangs over their lives like a shroud. A fascinating work I would love to see staged.

    There are only so many stories so it comes down to how the story gets told. In “deadbodydeadbody-deadbody” Marissa Joyce Stamps previews a boxing match or fight between Moses and Dante by charting the hourly movements of the two men preceding the challenge. This experimental play parodies charted preparations and training routines boxers make, their sleep or unrest while the neo-noir mystery of a dead father hangs over their lives like a shroud. A fascinating work I would love to see staged.

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    Think Aeschylus, Blake, Eliot, Lorca, Shakespeare - MINOTAUR is an epic spectacle, the ghost story of humankind, echoes of civilization only a blip in earth’s history. Big picture drawn from the mouth of Minotaur ("the lone beast upon the shadow throne") who expounds with Ari (Ariadne?), and Pen in their wasteland triangle of loss. Caridad Svich pushes stage limits for our vanquished horror show. Crazy-good insights, astonishing poetry ancient and modern. I love Pen's parade-of-animals toast!

    Think Aeschylus, Blake, Eliot, Lorca, Shakespeare - MINOTAUR is an epic spectacle, the ghost story of humankind, echoes of civilization only a blip in earth’s history. Big picture drawn from the mouth of Minotaur ("the lone beast upon the shadow throne") who expounds with Ari (Ariadne?), and Pen in their wasteland triangle of loss. Caridad Svich pushes stage limits for our vanquished horror show. Crazy-good insights, astonishing poetry ancient and modern. I love Pen's parade-of-animals toast!

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    The sagacity of OCCUPIED hinges on how well Aly Kantor uses a big and small strategy in an intimate two-hander that covers 25 years. She expertly replaces plot suspense with curiosity for the evolving friendship of Amelia and Jac. External pressure exerts itself on their inner world of moveable sanctuaries. Huge insights fuel this dazzling miniaturist drama. I love Jac's horrifying soul joke in the stellar Scene 5. Also the balance between fear and hope, comedic flourishes and tragic distancing.

    The sagacity of OCCUPIED hinges on how well Aly Kantor uses a big and small strategy in an intimate two-hander that covers 25 years. She expertly replaces plot suspense with curiosity for the evolving friendship of Amelia and Jac. External pressure exerts itself on their inner world of moveable sanctuaries. Huge insights fuel this dazzling miniaturist drama. I love Jac's horrifying soul joke in the stellar Scene 5. Also the balance between fear and hope, comedic flourishes and tragic distancing.

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    This play revels in high-flying heady debate, history that never feels recited. THREE SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A TROTSKYIST makes for stimulating, illuminating, gleeful drama due to its stellar debaters, Lev and Daniel. The 1939 Scene 1 gets you hooked with its rat-a tat-tat repartee, slogans, and references and the 1980 Scene 3 closes the door on the brilliance Andy Boyd has begun. Can’t remember the last time my mind had this much fun. Amazing rat metaphor on page 50. Read this play! [6-1-26]

    This play revels in high-flying heady debate, history that never feels recited. THREE SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A TROTSKYIST makes for stimulating, illuminating, gleeful drama due to its stellar debaters, Lev and Daniel. The 1939 Scene 1 gets you hooked with its rat-a tat-tat repartee, slogans, and references and the 1980 Scene 3 closes the door on the brilliance Andy Boyd has begun. Can’t remember the last time my mind had this much fun. Amazing rat metaphor on page 50. Read this play! [6-1-26]

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    The research that must have gone into WYOMING 1879 is impressive, with diction reminiscent of the HBO series Deadwood. Kim Ruyle has crafted a Western drama for our times with strong female characters, and yet it sits firmly in its own. Kim deftly weaves in the science, religion, and literature of its day, each area represented as a suitor to Claire the school teacher. The future doctor Lillian is a hoot. Wildly visceral resolution. The use of the Tolstoy quote is inspired. Wonderful! [5-31-26]

    The research that must have gone into WYOMING 1879 is impressive, with diction reminiscent of the HBO series Deadwood. Kim Ruyle has crafted a Western drama for our times with strong female characters, and yet it sits firmly in its own. Kim deftly weaves in the science, religion, and literature of its day, each area represented as a suitor to Claire the school teacher. The future doctor Lillian is a hoot. Wildly visceral resolution. The use of the Tolstoy quote is inspired. Wonderful! [5-31-26]

  • Charles Scott Jones: Art Duty by Daniel Prillaman
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    Daniel Prillaman’s play gets at something ineffable and central to the human condition. Wildly inventive, Roman-candle-esque - and yet contained, thematically focused - an elusive and mystical running joke, somehow both deep and witty, protean yet fixed, deeply disturbing and reassuring, death and life-affirming, a genius eye-patch routine, astonishing characters like Critic 1, a phone-call monologue I envy, many great absurdist lines, the slyly oxymoronic title. ART DUTY is the thing! [5-25-26]

    Daniel Prillaman’s play gets at something ineffable and central to the human condition. Wildly inventive, Roman-candle-esque - and yet contained, thematically focused - an elusive and mystical running joke, somehow both deep and witty, protean yet fixed, deeply disturbing and reassuring, death and life-affirming, a genius eye-patch routine, astonishing characters like Critic 1, a phone-call monologue I envy, many great absurdist lines, the slyly oxymoronic title. ART DUTY is the thing! [5-25-26]

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  • Charles Scott Jones: Battle Buddies by Caridad Svich
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    I feel lucky to have experienced BATTLE BUDDIES at the reading on the Intrepid Museum. Even luckier after reading it on NPX. I love playwrights who explore what's unique to the stage and Caridad Svich does. With vigor. By writing in a highly articulate and assertive slang. Without stage directions there is great character movement between the beer-drinking military spouses as they convey their waiting condition with humor and anxiety. The ending is a magic trick that fills me with wonder.

    I feel lucky to have experienced BATTLE BUDDIES at the reading on the Intrepid Museum. Even luckier after reading it on NPX. I love playwrights who explore what's unique to the stage and Caridad Svich does. With vigor. By writing in a highly articulate and assertive slang. Without stage directions there is great character movement between the beer-drinking military spouses as they convey their waiting condition with humor and anxiety. The ending is a magic trick that fills me with wonder.

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  • Charles Scott Jones: THE ARCHWAY - A Full-Length Psychological Thriller (2026 REVISION) by Donald Loftus
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    Meticulously plotted, with brisk engaging dialogue, THE ARCHWAY by Donald Loftus might seem a psychological thriller in the Hitchcock mode - yet, when you give it some thought, it's more. In a major structural subversion, the intended victim, ambitious lawyer Jeffrey, finds his inner vilain every step of the way, as his decadent brother Philip and his Crimean girlfriend Roksana unhatch a bloody scheme to extort money. A gripping read by a confident, talented author that will keep you guessing.

    Meticulously plotted, with brisk engaging dialogue, THE ARCHWAY by Donald Loftus might seem a psychological thriller in the Hitchcock mode - yet, when you give it some thought, it's more. In a major structural subversion, the intended victim, ambitious lawyer Jeffrey, finds his inner vilain every step of the way, as his decadent brother Philip and his Crimean girlfriend Roksana unhatch a bloody scheme to extort money. A gripping read by a confident, talented author that will keep you guessing.

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  • Charles Scott Jones: HIGH FIDELITY - A Ten-Minute Sci-Fi Comedy by Donald Loftus
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    This Sci-Fi Comedy takes place in a jail cell in Cleveland in 1971, but much of HIGH FIDELITY gloriously (and thankfully) takes place in the audience / reader imagination as Officer HIll describes to Frank the outrageous scene that took place the night before that landed Frank's father, Leonard, in the slammer. Donald Loftus builds on the suspense as he makes you laugh. What will Leonard have to say for himself? What's the darn black box? I love the name Planet Fidelius and it's impications.

    This Sci-Fi Comedy takes place in a jail cell in Cleveland in 1971, but much of HIGH FIDELITY gloriously (and thankfully) takes place in the audience / reader imagination as Officer HIll describes to Frank the outrageous scene that took place the night before that landed Frank's father, Leonard, in the slammer. Donald Loftus builds on the suspense as he makes you laugh. What will Leonard have to say for himself? What's the darn black box? I love the name Planet Fidelius and it's impications.

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  • Charles Scott Jones: DITMAS (10-minutes) by Glenn Alterman
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    Nicely executed, touching, and karmic - DITMAS is about a rescue that takes place in the back of a mid-Manhattan bar that mirrors a long-ago rescue in junior high. I love the implication that most of us embody both of the characters, for their successes and failures as we move along through time. (Haven't we all faced Mr. Floor at least once in our tumultuous lives?) Glenn Alterman handles a big surprise admirably, in a quiet way that makes it all the more powerful. Fine work! [10-30-25]

    Nicely executed, touching, and karmic - DITMAS is about a rescue that takes place in the back of a mid-Manhattan bar that mirrors a long-ago rescue in junior high. I love the implication that most of us embody both of the characters, for their successes and failures as we move along through time. (Haven't we all faced Mr. Floor at least once in our tumultuous lives?) Glenn Alterman handles a big surprise admirably, in a quiet way that makes it all the more powerful. Fine work! [10-30-25]

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