Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

  • Survivors Club
    10 Feb. 2020
    You do not have to have read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to feel the intensity of the feelings these survivors of that children's story and to understand what their life was like after. Arthur M. Jolly, ever the master storyteller, has given us a suspenseful and deeply-felt tale of what they feel and how they respond to each other when they reunite. It has some wonderful nuggets and keeps your attention all the way through. I'd love to see this staged.
  • That Kind of Boy [a 1-minute play]
    5 Feb. 2020
    This is a sweet little piece that’s succinctly and beautifully sums up how wonderful life can be. It’s the simple things that make it worth living.
  • A Gulag Mouse
    26 Jan. 2020
    This is a chilling and compelling play with strong characters who leap out at you from the page and take you into their world of power struggles, even if the reward is a crust of moldy bread. In this powerful drama of the horrors of Soviet imprisonment, we see glimmers of humanity that these women cling to as much as they cling to life itself. This is a masterpiece of storytelling from a playwright with a well-earned reputation for just the right blend of humor and brutal honesty in the same breath.
  • Three Boys on the Beach
    16 Jan. 2020
    This version of Two Boys on the Beach where it becomes three boys loses nothing. The wonder, the anticipation, the breathless joy and the sense of change is still there. For those of us who identify as LGBTQ, it has the added meaning of speaking to exactly what we may have felt at that age. It is a beautiful work.
  • Two Boys on the Beach
    16 Jan. 2020
    This is one of those plays that you wonder how in the world did Matthew Weaver know exactly what my life was like when I was twelve and on the cusp of knowing what all those feelings and urges meant? And what it was like to be so close and yet so far away from the truth? And how it felt to realize that what was so important ten seconds ago now means something else entirely? Oh, so many truths in such a short, sweet, and meaningful play.
  • The Mortal Drama
    15 Jan. 2020
    One of the best of many lines in this short, sharp, lyrical tragedy is "Life is root canal," the implication being that you can't survive it without being high on the painkiller that will inevitably kill you. I read this knowing in my heart how it would end, but it held me all the way because there is that hope, however fleeting, that freedom and release from the thrall can come without surrender.
  • Cherries Jubilee
    13 Jan. 2020
    I am sure that there will soon be a vaunted genre known as "a Rand Higbee play," and many will try to emulate him. But, like this tale, there's nothing quite like "Cherries Jubilee," and there's nothing quite like his dry wit and ingenious story-telling.
  • Zemantic Quibble
    11 Jan. 2020
    What's in a pronoun? Well, the way William J. Goodwin has it, a question of identity runs smack-dab into Strunk & White with this delightful look at how parents come to terms with their adult child and their preference(s). Without preaching and with a gentle dig at both sides -- not to mention a lesson in grammar -- we see a family finding common grounds no matter what ze many call them.
  • FUCK BUDDY: THE MONOLOGUE
    31 Dec. 2019
    This piece is packed with so much truth about relationships -- even if they're just drive-by -- that applies to all of us, regardless of gender identity. Asher Wyndham has such a way of crafting this gem that you want it to go on. What a marvelous piece for an audition or a festival.
  • IT'S ALL IN THE EYE
    29 Dec. 2019
    Marj O'Neill-Butler has such a wonderful way with both words and characters, and in this gentle but sharply-honed look at modern art, she brings both to bear with the touch of a fine artist. Never heavy-handed, this play brings out the truth and foibles in each of the three characters. The deftness and wit makes this play worth seeing and producing.

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