Recommended by Scott Sickles

The sheer scope of life represented in this play is a miracle in and of itself. In one conversation between mother and son, Vince Gatton plumbs decades of culture and progress, while examining the fragility of life and death from multigenerational perspectives. He anchors all of this with great simplicity, while managing to find humor in the most tragic and topical circumstances, and pathos in the tiniest and even silliest of moments. If they gave Pulitzers for short works of drama, it would be for plays like this.

Bone chilling horror piece! Three girls, all 13, face threats both supernatural (which may or may not be real) and corporeal (definitely, definitely real). The tension builds fast causing the girls to turn on each other, using the past as a weapon sharpened by their prejudices. All the while, a great menace looms closer and closer. Terrifying. Easy to stage. Great roles for three young female actors.

A masterful vivisection of a relationship as it's dying, that might even be WHY it's dying.

I simultaneously wanted to scream, "the love you are looking for is right there!" while doubting that it was ever there at all. Spotswood creates a complex dual empathy for his characters which is especially impressive with Maggie, given her detachment from what she's doing, the dismissiveness of her findings, and her desperation to both find and debunk the love she needs to have had so she can justify her actions and weaponize her resentment. Her impossibility makes her utterly real.

Simply magnificent!

Life is full of microagressions and the great thing about micro plays is that we get to dramatize them!

Here, Larry Rinkel provides a delightful and very fair examination of the annoying Starbucks upsell. In a very short time, he creates two distinct Starbucks employees. You get the sense that they have lives and personalities beyond the 90 seconds we see them in action. He uses the Rule of Three to great effect with their three customers, providing a realistic payoff and button to the scene. The play is like a perfect shot of espresso.

A delightful paean to reading and imagination placing special value on the merits of the fantasy genre, all while embracing that genre's audience, even those who don't appreciate it at first. Above all, it's a tribute to characters in books who demands to be read! It is, after all, what they're there for.

The staging itself requires great imagination as well, encouraging infinite possibilities.

As a straightforward story about dominance and submission or as a metaphor for sexual power dynamics, this play works because it's filled with Matthew Weaver's signature complexity, heart and sense of longing. A great piece to work on with an intimacy director. It might also be interesting to see the piece with actors if different ages, playwright permitting. Equal parts sweet and perverse, funny and yearning.

The piece is fun on its own but it SOARS when you envision Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman!

In a larger sense, Coffeegate is also about our attachment to ritual, be it our little routines to start our day or the zinging banter that comes with friendship. An easy to produce, fun to perform, acerbic slice of joy.

I was watching the video of the Gi50 performance and had not read the above description. It starts out so sweetly. There is so much love and kindness presented so simply. Then once I realized who the brothers were and the relationship and moment that was being captured, my heart simply broke. It’s still in pieces as I write this. Such kind men, beautifully memorialized.

Power struggles come in all sizes and motives may not always be what they seem. Herein lies a story filled with dread and apparent treachery in the guise of a pie fight that has yet to happen but still might. A delightful little play that’s filled with surprising pathos and whimsy.

Kudos. Dead it’s know participants the even before relationship a of autopsy an watching like of sort its. Impact more even circumstances the giving, way different a in tale the tells he, time this. Weaver Matthew like kisses questionable morally and awkward orchestrates one no.