Recommended by John Bavoso

In Appalachian Dove Song, Welles takes a familiar story about growing up queer in a hostile place and renders it tenderly, authentically, and theatrically. I absolutely adore the role Diamond and Soap play in this piece and that they get to become fully realized by the end. With naturalistic dialogue and striking imagery, this play is sure to be beloved by theatres and audiences alike—and will hopefully touch some hearts and minds along the way. Highly recommended!

Wow. I was absolutely absorbed in this piece from page one. Reading this script in this time, when so many of the events described have either come to pass already or seem imminent and inevitable, filled me with such unease and has served as a timely reminder of all I haven’t done because I wasn’t personally affected in some way. But, at the heart of this piece is the very specific relationships between these characters and how real and complicated they feel. This play needs to be produced literally right now. Highly recommended!

Set against a backdrop of an absurd, post-apocalyptic world, Camp Wonder takes a serious look at freedom, choice, and trust—all wrapped up in an unlikely love story. Meager has found new spins on familiar tropes and has created a protagonist the audience can’t help but root for from the very beginning. Plus, this play is an absolute gift to sound designers! This play flew by while I was reading it, and I can only imagine that it would be equally exciting and thought-provoking for a live audience.

This is such a fascinating—and, at times, morbidly hilarious—examination of fear, academia, and artistic expression. Knight's use of repetition and off-kilter language leads the characters, and the reader, to feel like we're in some kind of foreboding fever dream—which is pretty appropriate for anyone living in America in 2022. Leia is a gift and a challenge to actors, and there's plenty here for directors and designers to sink their teeth into. This is one I'd absolutely love to see come to life on the stage.

I’m happy to add onto the heap of praise this play has received! Craig-Galván has taken the living room drama and shaken it up expertly. The interplay between the two couples is delicious enough, even before you get to the brilliant ending—one that’s done so deftly that it feels almost inevitable, rather than gimmicky. This script was an absolute joy to read, and I desperately hope I get to see it up on its feet one day!

This play is deeply unsettling from the very first page and doesn’t let up until the fiery, harrowing ending. I could feel the claustrophobia and darkness just leeching through the page as I read. Underneath the disturbing atmosphere, this play is a brutally honest examination of grief, parenthood, and family. This script is such a gift to actors, directors, and designers and will linger with me for a long time. Highly recommended!

In a world looking more and more critically at Mamet’s work and stature in the theatre (how delicious that one of the leads has Vogel as a surname!), Greene has found a twisty, taut way of adding to the conversation. I particularly appreciated the intersectional way fatness and queerness are layered into the broader discussion of sexism and misogyny. In a similar vein of “John Proctor is the Villain” (do better, fictional Johns!), this play invites audiences to take a much closer look at the art we consume and the way in which it gets made.

This is such a tender, heartbreaking story of a young man torn between his culture, race, and family on one hand and young love on the other. Clark suffuses this script with so much richness beyond the dialogue itself—there’s an interesting sound, visual, or light cue on almost every page… I can practically smell the chlorine wafting off the pages. This is a play that I truly hope I get to experience live one day!

Jarred Corona’s SPOTTING THERMALS is a gritty procedural a la True Detective or The Fall, complete with dark twists and turns and suffused with poetry. More typically seen on the screen, I think this kind of story would come alive incredibly on the stage, and can only imagine how the tension will build in a live audience. A great read that I’d love to see up on its feet!

ADVERSE EFFECTS is a searing indictment of capitalism, the pharmaceuticals industry, and academia wrapped up in an investigative thriller a la ‘Spotlight’—but, at its heart, it’s an examination of grief and loss, and how ‘closure’ can be both elusive and hollow. Gruenloh’s characters feel real and lived-in, and the dialogue is naturalistic but still contain beautiful moments of poetry. This is a heartbreaking drama that should be widely read and produced… highly recommended!