Recommended by Scott Sickles

What a question! It's the kind of question you ask when you've stepped in something wonderful... but only a little of it. Is also the question you ask every time love ends... or takes a pause.

In this play, it's both.

Osmundsen captures the complexities of mixed neurodiverse relationships, familial and romantic, through well-drawn characters who represent different points of view yet are never mere stand-ins for those perspectives. These are fully fledged human beings each of whom we can empathize with regardless of how our brains and hearts work.

The ending in particular is sublime.

Gay parents have the same hopes for their kids as straight parents but their fears come from a very different place. Vaughan gives us a deeply personal monologue that ultimately captures a crucial moment in time while effortlessly embracing us with a familial love story rich in detail and heart.

Despite being direct address, it flows with the ease and intimacy of friendship. The backstory always feels active and important and the payoff is sublime and powerful.

A damn lovely piece of writing and a blessing to perform out loud. Try it, you'll love it.

This play hit close to home: the gay straight friendship with unrequited crush, the body acceptance and insecurity, the spectrum of masculinity, and how it physicalizes inspiration in the face of faulty neurology.

But it's the story that took hold of my heart. There's a deep platonic love between Paul and Alonso that is enviable and dear. All of the relationships are as realistic and detailed as the 1460 titular sketches. And it truly captures the wrecking ball decision making people are capable of in their 20s.

It's as comfortable and familiar as it is frank and uncompromising.

A super-quirky twisty-and-turny, home invasion long-con neo-noir that'll keep your head spinning. Lies pile on top of deceptions, hard truths are wielded like scalpels and cudgels, and once Henry realizes he's trapped, it's too late keep the wolves at bay. Outwitted and outmatched, with one hilariously useless ally, he needs to bide his time while bearing witness to his girlfriend's twisted relationship with her so-called brother as they mess with his head. Henry's no saint and after a while even he has to wonder if he deserves this. But even cuffed to a dumpster, it's a wild ride.

.. -- .--. --- ... ... .. -... .-.. -.-- / . .-.. . --. .- -. - .-.-.-
Translated: Impossibly elegant.

Beautiful in its simplicity. Its intellectual approach belies a great emotional wallop. At first a series of facts that, when put in context, opens up a shared life of love and regret.

Miraculous.
Translated: -- .. .-. .- -.-. ..- .-.. --- ..- ... .-.-.-

Leave it to Nora Louise Syran to find (literally) universal joy in the discovery of one's own solipsism.

As someone who contemplates the beauty of celestial objects and the inconstancy of one's location on an ever-moving planet hurtling through space so that from moment to moment we are never where we were and will never be there again, this monologue was a warm arrow to my heart, a sparkler in my brain, and a salve for my weary soul. [Miranda Jonte's Back Porch Theatre recitation captures all this magic.]

And talk about great last lines...

Bravo!

Dissertations could be written about this play.

Schwarz's wisely chooses Rosalie Wells as her subject, rather than tormentor Mary Tilford, who would only regret getting caught. Rosalie, vulnerable and sensitive, owns the consequences of her actions, even though they were coerced, and questions why the lies themselves were so damaging when they were only about love. She's a child; greater implications escape her.

Schwarz perfectly captures the homophobia of the time, casual condemnation even as Rosalie's mother attempts fair judgment. Complex cycles of victimization are on vivid display. Schwarz inlays a faint hope that lessons in acceptance can be learned.

There's a wonderful, deadpan matter-of-factness that can only be found between two people who know each other this well. Susan and Henry are that rare combination of characters we recognize both as people we might be and people we want to know.

This is partially because Eppich-Harris has given them a rich background, especially Susan. When you've experienced what she's been through, or shared in it as Henry has, not a lot phases you, but you still feel things deeply. The play elegantly captures the pragmatism found amid the chaos of family dysfunction.

I hope they make their window.

A rather taut five minutes set during the simplest of actions. There's so often tension when dividing a check. (If you've ever been out with a crowd of theater folks, it's a feeding frenzy.) Sitcoms and sketch shows have made great moments from this one cultural phenomenon.

Donnelly fashions a terrific little drama. The characters are so well drawn (reading it aloud they leap off the page) and the banter is so natural it reads like a transcript. It would be wonderful and so simple to stage.

Beautifully economical and deeply satisfying: the opposite of the date they're on!

Harrowing. Utterly harrowing.

Gay people generally hope their parents will be accepting. Well... be careful what you wish for!!!

Martin has fashioned the most hilariously excruciating parental overcorrection for a gay son's wedding night. The intergenerational vibes and parental tropes are spot on. Like the beleaguered grooms, you'll want the earth to swallow you whole to spare you from the cringing! Thanks to the parents, you'll want to look up a whole bunch of naughty stuff, purely for educational purposes of course.

Hilarious. Utterly hilarious.