“ True confession: I have a soft spot for raccoons since I saw raccoon paw prints - amazingly like a human's - going up the shed door. Raccoons are not rodents, and I’m glad Darlene sets the record straight on that one, but she needs to brush up on what is included in the mammal class, a deficiency that Brenton Kniess hilariously plays up in SLAPJACK SATURDAY. Grief can take on many shapes -sometimes best depicted with puppetry I’m thinking - and Cletus responds as a good friend and barkeep in this tavern romp with a satisfying finish. ”

“ A DOCTOR'S VISIT has many favorable associations with Gotthold Lessing’s excellent and underrated play Nathan the Wise, also set in 1192 during the Third Crusade. The contrast of the higher motives of the Jewish doctor/rabbi/sage with Richard the Lion-Hearted's warmongering gives an important historical window that offers guidance for modern quandaries of faith and state. I admire how self-confidently and serenely Moses Maimonides guides the conversation with the ailing king, turning down Richard's job offer: "If anything, it is the great learning in Islam that I would miss." A fine historical play for our often unthinking times. ”

“ A play with an elderly married couple with infectious laughter. Terrific and unusual humor. This might be my favorite Paul Smith play so far. It captures so much of what I think of as life in England. And I love it that the action captivates you with the connection between Fred and Iris and foregoes that bugaboo - conflict. It was fun listening to the Overture of Gretry: Zemire et Azor as I was reading this fine play. ”

“ It’s my reading experience that park bench plays are very hard to write - something always goes badly (as in ponderous exposition), but OVERTIME by Wendy Vogel is a park bench play that goes wonderfully right. Most of the play is a somehow simultaneously uneasy and reassuring conversation between three women watching children play. They are reassuring in their careful motherly observing and uneasy because there’ s the sense that something terrible is about to happen. I love most that it reminds us of the love from our mothers that has gone into us. A fine play. ”