Recommended by Lee R. Lawing

Very gut-wrenching monologue from one of the many heroes who fight these wildfires which have just increased in numbers every year for the past several years. Wyndham's firefighter hit upon the intimacy of what is at stake with these destructive forces and that is the people and the homes and the communities that we all have built over decades all gone just like Paradise and with that somber thought, it is a feeling each and every one of us should take to heart to help change the direction that we are currently on.

This will be familiar to a lot us who grew up in our own Goonsville and wanted to leave as soon as an out showed itself. Most it was college. For me it was a boyfriend. I like the surprise twist at the end which I honestly didn't see coming which puts a little sparkle on any play.

Everyone laughed when Trump was elected. Maybe laugh is the wrong word. Those who felt empathy for others were horrified. And then all the values we placed so highly under Obama were just one by one stripped away until you had some crying This is just like Germany and for those who were horrified it seemed like it and we were all scared. This play is a must see for everyone who fights for democracy. After Jan 6, we might still end up fighting again. Hopefully this time we will push the clowns far outside the city limits.

I love Goldman-Sherman's writing so much. It's full of honest frankness that is a beacon of light in this shadowy world we live in. Religion has messed up so many people with being able to just be honest with themselves and then the norms that a religious society has boxed us all into. Margret's monologue is full of funny bits, full of heartache and full of that internal struggle so many of us have had to make about who we really love and can love, and that moment that have caused people's their own life. Margret deserves a better world.

This is a heartbreaker of a play and one that reminds me of all the rules and regulations around parenting that were so ingrained into us a a child of the "Bad boy" or "Bad girl" syndrome and what road they will lead you down. Could Have Been shows us such a scene and this only points to so many lost loves that could have occurred if people could have seen another person for the beauty inside and not just the color of the skin.

This is such a beautiful play about friendship and what friends can do for each other in times of need. The entire atmosphere is one of doom and gloom, but in amidst all of that atmosphere comes a friendship that blossoms from the tiniest of acorns and how these two characters help lift the burden off the other so that they are both freer to welcome a new beginning.

What is the saying, one man's junk is another man's treasure. This play had me laughing because for myself, I always want to write comedies, but they end up not being funny enough to classify as them. I feel for Claude so much because in the end, an artist must be true to himself regardless the paycheck.

I loved this short play by Sickles. I was taken immediately back to my own childhood and my older brother and myself playing these same sort of games. I know how the older brother/younger brother syndrome played itself out with me and Joey, but I feel the Younger brother in Sickles' piece might just have a fighting chance at winning the life match!!

No matter the characters, I know with any Wyndham piece, I'm going to get somebody I'm not familiar with and this is another great example of that. Corey stands in the cold seeing sometimes that what you stand for doesn't make you the most popular person on campus. Hopefully Corey finds a change of heart, but I feel if he's still holding on to his Make America Great cap, there may not be a snowball's chance in hell for that redemption.

You're drawn in instantly by the title and then by the narrative and the remorseful tale that unfolds before you. This was a heartbreaking one to read and one that is so deserving to be seen because it points a light into the darker areas that are hard to find in us as humans, but oh so important to be discovered.