Recommended by Scott Sickles

Much like the Lord above, Marcus and this play are OVER THE TOP!!!

It's one thing to find your boyfriend has immaculately conceived the next Christ child but O the strain of literally being the Joseph in this situation... The histrionics escalate ever Heavenward, sweeping the audience up like marauding angels hellbent on abducting us with hilarity.

Yet Garcia does so much more than explore a "What If?" They take a vivid look at love, especially loving someone dealing with mental illness, sticking the landing with a gut punch. Or a gut kick as it were. AMEN!

Glorious! Equally vast and intimate in its scope, TIDAL PULLS grounds us (as it were) firmly on the wet earth, connecting the bottom of the sea to the ever turning galaxies that surround us, all through the prism of a scientist with a magnificently lame sense of humor. Cowley captures the esoteric passion of science lovers and proceeds to connect everyone and everything on a quantum level with the poetry of Lee's beautiful nerdy soul. More than a monologue, it's a map of the universe.

Oh, I have had this conversation! Many, many times with my very own Barney. When Lou says, "Write that down" and Barney taps his forehead and replies, "It’s all up here." It was like a Time Machine.

Lyle captures the push-pull of storyteller and sounding board. The defensiveness when the listener has too many questions or JUST DOESN'T GET IT as well as the glee when a good idea blows up. They're great characters steeped in truth.

My real-life Barney is sadly no longer with us, so this was a lovely visit. Thanks, Heinrich!

Ah the trials and tribulations of dude bros! Their friendship, their insecurities, the endless cavalcade of competition, and yes, their secrets... what they look like on the outside and how they feel on the inside. BLUNK is a delightful comic inner duo-logue dissecting the dynamics between two friends know each other so well and yet not at all. And it's a dynamic I personally adore. For sports fans and their admirers.

When I first heard of savior siblings, I thought it was bullshit. That anyone would have a child solely to use its body parts to save the ailing child they already have, love, and are terrified of losing is simultaneously understandable and monstrous.

But this isn't about the parents. This is about the "savior." The man that began as a boy brought into the world for spare parts.

Martin's monologue filled me the Gabriel's rage, frustration, and displacement. It's a story of a family torn asunder by a void and how the void feels, evolves, and loves. A masterpiece.

A lot of playwrights bitch and moan about submission guidelines. I'm one of them. Here, Brenton captures a few of the most annoying, the first few incisions in a death by a thousand gatekeepers. Best of all, he illuminates the passion and the pain of wanting to share our stories and being stymied at the earliest possible moment.

I felt this one in my ribcage. A punch to the heart.

"THAR SHE BLOWS!!!" And if anything does blow, it's MOBY DICK.

Richter has fashioned a public service announcement inside a public service announcement that's also a fun comic scene, a needing doll that's the love child of Cliffs Notes and Mr Yuck.

And it's a real time-saver!

#TeamG

That's it. That's the rec.

My Brain wants my Eyes to get a good look at this Cole person...

Equal parts cheeky and resonant, this it's a delightful MRI into human desire.

Scroll directly to the body of the play, past the title page and the page in between!
If you don't, you'll be fine but you're better off if you do.

Regardless, the atmosphere is tremendously creepy from the start. The ordinariness of the scene only heightens the suspense. Directors and lighting designers should have fun colluding. Audiences will shudder.