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Scott Sickles

Recommended by Scott Sickles

  • Crisis Exercise by Jillian Blevins
    4 Oct. 2023
    “ This play made me happy about three things: I’ll never be in primary education again, I’m not in it now, and I got to experience this stunning play!

    On the surface, we see conversational snippets between three kids (likely boys) from kindergarten thru senior year. Blevins captures each age perfectly: as personalities evolve, power dynamics become increasingly unsettling.

    BTW, each vignette is set during a lockdown drill! We learn what goes into these drills as the kids do, watching helplessly as they’re desensitized and traumatized over time. Extraordinarily powerful, the ending is a jawdropper! ”
  • EMERGENCY ATTORNEY: A MONOLOGUE by Asher Wyndham
    2 Oct. 2023
    “ Absolutely sickening! It's political theater like this that should inspire outraged mobs to rally for an actually just cause!

    Wyndham has been on fire lately with monologues on infringements against women's autonomy with ULLA and SISTER CONSTANCE... With EMERGENCY ATTORNEY, he takes things to a new level, a new low even, with one of the most contemptible characters anyone has ever created. It's one thing to follow objectionable laws, it's another to do so with such indifference to humanity. That it's all not only believable but undeniably accurate is horrifying.

    You won't read anything more terrifying this October. ”
  • Aunt Nellie's Two Cents Worth by Donald E. Baker
    2 Oct. 2023
    “ Not having a tight-knit extended family nor one steeped in religion, I'm often taken aback by how much power elder generations wield. Or think they wield.

    Here, Flo's family is jeopardized by an age-old predicament: a son moving on from the life he was supposed to build on and pass down. Even worse, he's been ensnared by a woman of another faith. Baker steeps familiar tropes in a deeply personal reality, where family history is both weapon and salve. Flo and Aunt Nellie remind us people who live and think like this still exist and are capable of adapting. ”
  • September in Biddeford by Greg Mandryk
    2 Oct. 2023
    “ Oh my god...

    I second my esteemed colleague Mr Busser's warning: SKIP THE SYNOPSIS! GO IN COLD!

    What a gift it will be for unsuspecting audiences to watch the drama unfold. A truly inspired narrative tapestry combining and even unifying disparate tropes to tell a tale as comfortably familiar as it is mindblowingly unique.

    People will leave feeling better about the world, themselves, each other, and the state of theater, all while asking... "what the hell did I just watch???"

    You watched SEPTEMBER IN BIDDEFORD, people! Know you are blessed. ”
  • Did you do the thing yet, Joe? by Christopher Plumridge
    2 Oct. 2023
    “ I may be biased because I'm IN IT!!! (Thanks for the cameo, Chris!)

    What Plumridge has fashioned out of creepy echoes from the social media void is a highly funny, blithely surreal tale of persistent menace met with gloriously understated English reserve. The mundanities of family life are upended by the escalating presence of this message, culminating in a critical mass of chaos!

    I won't tell you if Joe ended up doing the thing yet, but Plumridge certainly has! ”
  • The Snow Angel by Andrew Martineau
    2 Oct. 2023
    “ You know from the get-go what's going on and what's gonna happen. Then you find out, YOU'RE WRONG! Multiple imaginations are at work, specifically the playwright and his protagonist conspiring to fashion magic and memory. There are a few holiday tales going on at once, like unwrapping a present to find another present inside and another after that... only this time there's a gift in each box. Any sentimentality (and I mean, it's a Christmas story about a little girl so...) is balanced with working class strife and real world loss. Start unwrapping this one now! ”
  • Hearing, Seeing, Knowing (A monologue for women) by Darrin Friedman
    28 Sep. 2023
    “ Jackie is DONE! And we get to bear witness to the moment, or rather moments, where she realizes just how done she is! While the monologue is relatable to many across age and gender, Friedman smartly makes his speaker a woman in her 40s. What is she willing to settle for? What do you do when you realize the crumbs of affection and attention you beg for are at best stale and at worse imaginary. We see her vacillating, one foot out the door praying for a reason not to leave. Her prayer is answered. A powerful piece. ”
  • Like a Broken Record by John Medlin
    26 Sep. 2023
    “ Gauge strikes me as someone who's been told over and over, "If you want people to take you seriously, maybe you shouldn't dress like that." By the people who are supposed to be their allies!

    Peaceful revolutions are hard enough when you're part of a movement, but when you're a movement of one as well as an outlier among other outliers... Sisyphus had it easy by comparison. Medlin perfectly conveys the anguish of justice stifled on all sides, from the righteous indignation to the unstoppable determination to the morbid facts of potential consequences. A powerful rant! ”
  • The Bench by Brenton Kniess
    25 Sep. 2023
    “ It’s the everyday objects that ground us, not only in our present lives but in the past. Not just personal belongings but public locations like the titular bench. Kniess captures grief and loss as the speaker revisits a temporal touchstone, an ordinary place where life as they knew it changed with the advent of love. ”
  • Not Hefty Enough (One Minute Monologue) by Lee R. Lawing
    20 Sep. 2023
    “ Well, this takes me back!

    Body fascism in the gay community cuts many different ways. For some guys, any body fat is too much body fat. For others, there's no such thing as too much heft... but there is such a thing as too little.

    Kudos to Michael for putting the brakes on a bad decision IN THE MIDDLE OF MAKING IT! May he be a role model to us all. But regardless of our background, most of us have been in this predicament. Screw that guy! Choose you!

    And sure, adjust your app preferences. ”

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