Recommended by Scott Sickles

The funny thing about Destiny is it doesn't have to be specific. Instead of being riddled with details of trappings or traps, all it needs to decide is if your journey ends in paradise or wreckage. Or in this case, consumed by the black hole or basking in the dawn beyond.

Gonzales as ever finds poetry in brutality, in boxing and life. The characters are beautifully drawn. Destiny conspires with physics, turning the atoms of their dreams into universe’s playthings. We see all possibilities. But the outcome, like the subtitular black hole, may be inescapable.

It’s bad enough when people know they’re growing apart. It’s worse when they’re not and it makes no difference. Be it destiny or duty, when two hearts can’t possibly grow fonder, what is absence to do?

Blevins takes the kinship between Prince Hal and rapscallion bestie Ned Poins to an extremely possible romantic conclusion. If this is who they were to each other, what would have changed? Would anything?

Even if you’re not familiar with or haven’t experienced these characters in a while, this play’s heart holds tight like a farewell embrace.

In context, Bobby is a fictional character talking to the author who created him. But as we all know, characters take on lives of their own. And some don't like being left behind. Bobby is one of those characters, calling out his creator - not in a creepy horror movie way, but with a directness of a friend who knows you, who you've learned and relied on, who knows your importance to each other. Which is why it works out of context as well.

Bobby seems terrific. It's too bad he's fictional – in and out of context.

The thing folklore forgets about its animal familiars is that they're, well, animals. While they have a soul connection to their humans, they are still who they are. Prillaman refuses to anthropomorphize Nora's avian advisor Ralphio, bit that doesn't prevent Ralphio from being vividly expressive. In fact, Ralphio is often significantly clearer than Nora!

The romantic stakes are high for our socially awkward maiden and her songbird Cyrano as she builds up to wooing the beautiful Patrick, enduring conversational and situational challenges throughout. Hilarity ensues. One can't help but root for them... Or just hope for the best.

Unspeakably beautiful.

Rarely has an account of loss been told with such grace and simplicity. There are no histrionics, no keening or screaming into the void. There is only what is. Hard, sad truths. Dignity and kindness. So much love. So very much.

Take your time with this one. Savor it, like a good chilled wine or yesterday’s risotto after the flavor has settled in. Like the time you should have spent but didn’t. Spend it now, slowly. You won’t regret it. Quite the opposite.

When someone says no to tacos, you take them seriously. That may seem glib when you read the play, but I know whereof I speak. The denial of joy is a very bad sign.

David is trapped inside his body, able to communicate with electronic assistance but without inflection. His anger and sorrow are neutralized, then denied and exacerbated by parents who mean well yet are oblivious to their unintended cruelty.

David’s is a subtly volcanic cry for help. His anguish is made harrowing by his stillness. He could do with a little rain.

This is the story of a man who has conversationally and romantically hit rock bottom… and then started to dig.

It’s truly astounding how Barber keeps feeding his protagonist progressively worse things to say! As ghastly as it is funny, this monologue is a glorious descent into the mindless mind of one of the worst boyfriends ever!

ACTORS! AUDITION WITH THIS!!! You’ll get the laughs and probably the part!

The thing about gilded cages: they’re still cages. While someone may seem well-off with an upper class life plagued with first world problems, if we look a little deeper you will find people like Heather. Trapped by controlling family, her freedom further leveraged by the need to protect others even more vulnerable. Her trepidation is palpable and it’s hard to to root for her to find the courage to triumph by any means necessary.

As the old saying goes, it’s the journey not the destination. Sometimes, we get turned around on that journey due to a confluence of mischief and unfamiliarity. With any luck, there’ll be someone to give us directions.

Rick and Dermot are fun foils, though as charming as Irishman Dermot is, because I’m me I really identified with uptight American Rick’s frustrations. Fortunately, Dermot’s a good-natured soul and Rick isn’t so bad himself really. Spend a few minutes with these two. You’ll be pleased you did.

Searing! A simple and beautiful portrait of childhood juxtaposed with the tragic poetry of when that childhood is cut short. Not *after* it's cut short, not really – but the moment it happens. O'Grady manifests this boy's lost future with the man he will now never be. Whether that life ended a moment or a year or years ago, the consequences of that act of violence, one of many that day in Uvalde, are eternal. Limitless possibilities are torn asunder.