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Charles Scott Jones

Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

  • Shakespeare Lives! (a ten minute play) by Mark Harvey Levine
    4 Sep. 2021
    “ Shakespeare's no stranger to campy horror (see Titus) and that he comes stumbling back from the undiscovered country a zombie makes this uproarious 10-minute romp in a Stratford-on-Avon cemetery a dark delight. In the hands of a lesser playwright than Mark Harvey Levine, SHAKESPEARE LIVES! might have died on stage (pun intended), but the side-splitting jokes are perfectly balanced between Bard references and gags and the marvelous use of props and slapstick comedy. Three idiosyncratic roles, as well as a disassembled car, a tennis racket, and the lover's object of affection keep it insanely rewarding and a must-see. Will Done! ”
  • The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor (and the Terror the Old Gods Wrought Upon the First of Us Before the Great Liberation) by Madison Wetzell
    2 Sep. 2021
    “ SO MUCH to praise about Madison Wetzell's funny and deadly serious play - the droll wit of Allyson and Hero, (for example when the sentient radio Sony asks how they got their name, Hero says "It is written on your face"), the pushback against human assumptions, how the repartee of the machines works to create empathy and a sense of doom for us old gods, and the simple, high-stakes action. I love the monster title, pieced together, how it serves as a label for the play as artifact and as epilogue for what follows. CREATIVITY JUMPS OFF THE PAGE! ”
  • I'll Be Here by Philip Middleton Williams
    12 Aug. 2021
    “ A charm-your-socks-off short play about a father and son reckoning. I'LL BE THERE is as deep as it is clever and makes the most of its woodsy location. The insights that Philip Middleton Williams reaps are the kind that come with time. I love the central metaphor, how a favorite bird-watching spot in the forest draws Dan to the spirit of his father Clyde. The talk between the living and the lived is just right and the sacred hole of their communion is perfectly placed as the past gets put to rest and put to sweet rumination. ”
  • Of Night Shadows by John Mabey
    12 Aug. 2021
    “ In his ten-minute horror dynamo - OF NIGHT SHADOWS - John Mabey makes wonderful use of a window and a third character who doesn't enter or speak but is always there. Angus and Matilda grapple with his eerie existence - as if their lives and marriage depend upon it - until the chilling conclusion. Would love to experience this work in a dark musty theater, to feel the atmosphere the two characters work in harmony to create and I love it that Angus and Matilda can be any age. Will their marriage survive? Only the shadow knows. ”
  • Dinosaur Play by Rebecca Dietsch
    24 Jul. 2021
    “ DINOSAUR PLAY is a wild and wily romp, especially for anyone who's written fiction and endured a feedback session. If you like Shakespeare's stage direction "Exit chased by a bear," then you'll love what Rebecca Dietsch pulls off with aplomb and perfect timing in this meta-theatrical joyride. For me the dinosaur entrance is as random as how chance events alter our lives . . . and yet - dare I say? - the ancient reptile's appearance might be a symbol for society's hunger for stories we've come to expect and how our lives fall prey to fitting into those stories. ”
  • The Deal - 10 Minute Play by Ryan Kaminski
    24 Jul. 2021
    “ I admire the attention to details that Ryan Kaminski puts into this short noir thriller, how the accretion of backstory and sensory data, create a languid, creepy atmosphere - as potent and thick as the extra sugar in the frozen lemonade. THE DEAL delivers with a classical 50s noir-feel. A strong female lead proves more than capable of giving the devil his due in this twisty tale. ”
  • Sock Monkey, Serial Killer by Lee R. Lawing
    2 Jul. 2021
    “ One of the best coming-out plays you'll read, SOCK MONKEY, SERIAL KILLER is clever and heart-felt. It reminds you of a sleight-of-hand trick from a magician as it keeps you thinking about Sock Monkey on the couch and her nomenclature crisis while the real drama unfolds right before your eyes. Lee R. Lawing's diction is charming, seductive, and sincere. I look forward to reading more from this prolific playwright. ”
  • A TALE OF AN UNEXPECTED GATHERING AND ROMANCE MADE ABSURD IN THE TELLING by Rob Dames
    2 Jul. 2021
    “ What! Wait. Let me read this again . . . Wow! The play with the long title - let's call it TALE - is incredible, enigmatic, imaginative, and imagination-invoking. In just 10 minutes Rob Dames does so much with so little - and yes, the work of Beckett does come to mind. The jokes about time are timeless. The "mis en scene" is invisible. I haven't had so much fun seeing what isn't there in a long time. TALE gets told in the telling, so read it and weep and jump for joy! ”
  • Sssedona by Emma Goldman-Sherman
    27 Jun. 2021
    “ Some plays you read for craft in storytelling - the sly poetry of the spoken word, some for pure pleasure or new possibilities, some because that dream you keep having about the desert pulls you in. SSSEDONA is all of the above - a brief Kafkaesque breakup play that will resonate for a long time. The lead role (mature, philosophical Debra) is superb. SSSEDONA is as deep, majestic, and gorgeous as its red rock Arizona setting, perfectly placed and paced and yet it makes you want to keep reading long after the final word. ”
  • The Mess We Make by Michael Hagins
    5 Jun. 2021
    “ The minimalist horror comedy THE MESS WE MAKE does mess with you in the best possible way. With his tip-of-the-iceberg approach Michael Hagins explores a couple's nightmare where it lives, as much as anywhere, in our own imaginations. The pace is relentless, as Matthew and Lizzie manage to frighten while skewering our movie-smitten culture, for its absurdist terrors with Ionesco-like finesse. This short play's a blast. Love the golf clubs. ”

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