Recommended by Scott Sickles

As the author of the piece (or pieces, as it were) that provided the groundwork for this monologue, I could not be more honored and pleased!

Both as a companion piece and a stand alone, BEFORE YOU GO is a testament to mothers who survive dangerous, potentially deadly marriages and can now focus without hindrance on their children, who survived with them, finding joy.

Heyman gently and elegantly makes the circumstances, past and present, clear as this mom and her boy let out a cleansing breath and move forward. Beautifully observed, deeply powerful.

It totally made me cry!

The challenge of a play cycle is writing individual pieces of a larger story that also stand alone. Missions accomplished!

We not only meet the fabulous and fabulously neurodivergent Jessica, we also learn more about Chip! Introduced as a fairly together gay crusader in SNOWFLAKE, we now see what a mess he really is when alone with his bestie. Heyman skillfully uses Jessica’s apparent ADHD to organically lay out backstory because WE DO THAT!!! Their quirks and insecurities holograph their friendship beautifully. They make us want more! Fortunately, there are six more plays to go!

I was actually on the homicidal voice’s side for a while. Putting up with these two kids must be exhausting if you’re a disembodied entity trying to cleanse the world of sin. For an audience, they’re great fun! Levine takes the kids-stuck-in-the-woods-with-a-killer/monster trope and smacks it upside the head. The banter is a hoot and the characters are smart and well drawn. Not just the boys but the voice too, right from the opening narration. What a great way to spend Halloween!

“What does your protagonist want?” We writers should always start with that, but then what desire could possibly fill a ten-minute epic journey on the stage? Lawing tackles this question and in doing so instigates a tickle war with actors who seem confused about their role in the process simply because our needs and demands keep changing. Why???

Meanwhile, as the reader and a writer, am I to feel a sense of solidarity or humiliation at being called out? Both are happening, though I’ve chosen neither, hence I’m outraged and quite pleased.

I hope this wins something.

Plumridge’s house not only has a soul, but a long memory and an attention span divided by emotion. Especially profound is the love it recalls for one little girl is essentially unrequited, the child unaware of its affection, and being a child instigating rambunctious wear and tear. But like a neighbor or friend condemned to paralytic observation, we feel the house’s desire and inability to intervene. Those memories resonate in hearts and hallways. And we’re left to wonder what happened after - to the girl and the house. I want to know more.

A wonderful haunting, indeed.

Why do I get the feeling this is less a play and more of a transcript???

Either way, Dzubak fashions a frothy confection about the limitations of tolerance and divisions of commanality in relationship and, if you want to extend the metaphor, also makes potentially profound statements about the subjectivity of art, the effections of weaponized sound in psychological warfare, and the failure of diplomacy in the face of spiraling human rights violations, but really it’s just super fun.

“Guess leftovers only last so long.”

That line a tripwire. Or a snare. Once you hit it, you’re trapped.

A mediation on grief and loss, the play is deeply moving without being manipulative, which is a pretty big feat considering it’s about parents contemplating buying a toy for a child they lost. Dzubak lets the moment happen without belaboring it. Grief rises to the surface and we feel it with them.

Rehearsals and design meetings will be amazing. Figuring out the store. Exploring how to play these beat. A theatrical gift borne of tragedy.

A fascinating character study of weakness – physical and emotional – and how one might acclimate instead of overcoming it. Plumridge traps his speaker in a metaphor that’s just as effective a restraint as the insufficient life they‘ve never been equipped to lead. There’s great aplomb in the character’s bitterness making the monologue eminently speakable. There are great depths to plumb here on this rich page. Read it aloud and find them!

A great introduction to an intimate saga of friendship, discovery, and what we hope will turn out to be love. Heyman effortlessly plunges is tight into Chip and Brett’s world, actively showing us who they are and the social climate of the environment they inhabit. We learn just enough about them to hope for more: more for them and for us. A great first installment that’s off and running!

EXTRA!!! EXTRA!!!
RADIO THRILLED BY AUDIO NOIR!!!

Soucy fashions the best noir drama Humphrey Bogart, Jane Greer, and Clifton Webb never made! Cast it yourself; there are a million combinations.

The plot moves like certain misfortune, yet despite being a tropefest, it's full of twists and turns! Even though it's a radio piece, this dark tale projects itself on the screen in your mind in black and white with long shadows, off-kilter angles, and lurid jazz.

A love child of send-up and detective story, this'll keep audiences rapt by their wirelesses from opening theme to final fade.