Recommended by Scott Sickles

During lockdown, the yearning for connection was overwhelming for many. We not only missed the people we knew and the things we did; we missed strangers. We missed unexpected contact. We missed newfound mystery and imagination outside of our walls.

Brennan captures that yearning in delightful, surprising, and even profound ways. Leaving casting open to any gender creates myriad opportunities to explore sexual and gender-related dynamics. The rhythms and repetitions in the dialogue form converging melodies in a spoken prose duet, until...

Well, you'll just have to see for yourself. But the payoff is glorious.

An absolute joy to read aloud. What a great reminder that the darker the cloud, the brighter even the smallest silver lining will seem.

Cathro makes sure we all know what we've survived, what we're still surviving, and that so many people didn't. Yet, he avoids a bleakfest, instead painting the world in stark tones that welcome rescue... and then that rescue comes. Nothing majestic, which is what makes it so magnificent. There are simple things that save us, both from major disasters and our own seemingly minor foibles, sometimes at the exact same time.

I almost wrote, "Christopher Plumridge has invented a fascinating new genre: the sad sack noir." But he tricked me. I won't tell you how. There's too much joy in finding out for yourself.

Monologuing in the past tense is dangerous business; one runs the risk of losing the urgency, the now. Plumridge and protagonist keep us steadfastly present, ably aided and abetted by a barkeep who says little and a potential femme fatale who doesn't need words. Loneliness, isolation, temptation, lust, and yearning adorn the cocktail menu at this hotel watering hole.

It's resonant, surprising, and just damn elegant!

There's plenty of cruelty in SLAUGHTER. What struck me was the innocence. It is in woefully short supply which makes it precious. Beyond golden. Platinum. With these children, innocence is a commodity no one wants.

Hansen trades innocence for cruelty, allowing it to switch hands unexpectedly. He captures the yearning to belong, to be accepted among false friends, to be desired while accustomed to scorn. There's also the golden child whose darkest impulses shine bright, whose platinum worth is recognized by savages but not understood. An innocence that traffics in forgiveness, even to the undeserving.

Your blood will freeze.

Miraculously as cathartic as its title, SCREAM uses its simple premise to spark a debate on human worth and misery in the grand scheme of, well, EVERYTHING!!! Humanity may be outmatched but we carbon based bags of water are no slouches when it comes to defending our right to complain! The result is a grand display of philosophical gymnastics, and comic (and cosmic!) solipsism!

A joy to read, watch, and perform, it's also super easy to produce. So, hop to it!

It's one thing to gaze into the abyss; it's another to be stuck inside, enveloped in a darkness that alternately paralyzes and silences you. IRL, that abyss can be the hours everyone is asleep while you're awake with your misery, the days between now and when a professional can see you; the eternal seconds after dread and heartache rest on your skin and set in your bones. The good news is those seconds, hours, and weeks do end once someone answers our pleas. Martin captures the beauty of the rescue and the terror when asking is impossible or unheard.

The Good News!!! It’s as though Duncan Pflaster wrote a play just for me!!!

The Bad News???

It’s as though Duncan Pflaster wrote a play… just… for… me… (He knows what I mean...)

That said, POCKET UNIVERSE is a delight! The characters are complex and heartfelt. Pflaster understands the connection between longing and imagination, and the necessity that objects of our desire be more than beautiful and less than perfect.

I saw myself in Jeff, more than I wish I had, yet I salute his passion, imagination, and resilience.
I have two words for him: “NERD, SAME!”

AWWWW!!!! Sometimes, we just need a play that makes us happy!

Which is not to say there isn't drama and conflict or that the stakes aren't high! Lermond gives us a working class couple at crosspurposes, a business that can't sustain them, and a highly questionable path to salvation... and CHRISTMAS!!!

Generosity, materialism, pragmatic accounting and the holiday spirit make this a must for any end of the year play fest!

The versatility and vastness of Emma Goldman-Sherman’s imagination staggers me once again!

Her Brachiosaurus is a divinely elegant creation: sympathetic and compassionate, earnest and grand, full of life and love in the aftermath of a long-ago extinction! This creature is not only a gift for actors but a gift for humanity.

The piece itself leaps and soars with wonder and generosity before landing, light and surefooted, on the precious earth its narrator once inhabited, beseeching the current occupants to create a better world.

Like a Brachiosaurus, THE GREAT MIGRATION is a thing of colossal beauty.

O, l’amour! Or whatever they call it on Brev’s planet! This is a subtly hilarious piece written for subtly hilarious actors who know how to trust a script. As queer high-stakes comic romance overflowing with wistful optimism and the blush of early love, BREV the monologue is absolutely trustworthy! But is Brev the alien? Could he be luring our stalwart rebels into a trap??? Golly, I hope not. I want his shoulder against our narrator’s shoulder to mean something wonderful. I don’t know what’s gonna happen next! But I am rooting for intergalactic love!