Recommended by John Bavoso

There’s so much more going on in this play than what’s on the surface—and the surface is pretty great! Using a deceptively simple setup and some incredibly real-feeling characters, Gatton has a lot to say about systems of oppression and our individual role in them. Even the characters who try to buck the system do it for mostly selfish reasons—no one is without blood on their hands (both literally and figuratively). With some stellar monologues and shocking bits of stagecraft, this play will give audiences a lot to think about on the way home!

Office-based dark comedies are a personal favorite of mine, and Maxwell Johnson has created an exemplary addition to the genre with this play! With the perfect blend of realistic and over-the-top characters and laugh-out-loud-worthy lines and physical comedy on nearly every page, this is sure to be an audience favorite. But it’s the deeper examination of what happens when our lives become too wrapped up in our work that will stick with me. Easy to produce and featuring six great roles for actors, this play is well worth reading and producing!

In Greetings from the Red Planet, Natalie has created a beautiful little slice of life about grief and pain—but also suffused it with genuine humor and love. A one-way trip to Mars is a striking and timely metaphor for mortality, and ultimately Arin’s challenge is to find a way to live on this (deeply flawed, rapidly failing) planet, in spite of everything, just like the rest of us. The dialogue crackles and a talented team of designers could make something really magical out of this gorgeous script. Everyone should read this play!

Wow. There’s so much more I want to say about this piece than will fit in this box! In the time of The Great Resignation and increased labor strikes, Tristan has devised a brilliantly meta-theatrical play that spotlights both oppressive bosses and how and why we as workers so often find ourselves exploited—especially in the arts! And they do it in a way that allows the actors agency. The metaphor of performers as cutlery is ingenious and haunting. This is a piece that will discomfit audiences and theatres alike, and should be produced everywhere RIGHT NOW!

This play is breathtaking in the way it unfolds and reveals more and more about the characters. What seems to be a surface-level, transactional relationship gradually cracks to allow for glimpses of grief, shame, and otherness. I saw a virtual reading of this play, and it was absolutely mesmerizing. Beautiful work!

I knew from the perfect character descriptions that I was going to love this script, and McIntosh didn’t disappoint! This script has the qualities of a horror flick—on the surface is all the fucked-up politics of your typical drama department, but underneath simmers something darker and more malevolent. The tension builds in such an organic, unnerving way until you get to the ending, which feels simultaneously completely inevitable and totally shocking. With five great roles for female actors, this is a play I’d absolutely love to see up on its feet!

“You’re a real mystery Carmilla, and sure you’re a vampire, but you aren’t a monster. You’re a person. And that’s really nice.” These lines perfectly encapsulate the empathy and longing imbued into this modern reimagining of a classic work of vampire fiction. The pithy, naturalistic dialogue allows the audience to really immerse themselves in the aimless desire and feelings of being stuck—whether in a small town, a dysfunctional family, immortality and insatiable hunger, or all of the above—that suffuse the play. A Spooky Season read with depth and heart!

This play so perfectly captures how tragedy can have a ripple effect on people’s lives and how humor can coexist with even the deepest feelings of grief and pain and loss. Dellagiarino’s dialogue flows so naturally and it really felt like she had been listening in on one of my own family’s holidays. This is a deceptively simple play that would be easy to produce and allow some talented actors to really shine. Highly recommended!

With True Identity, Quinn shows off his remarkable talent for subverting an audience's expectations—each character is at times familiar but also surprising, as they grapple with their own identity, their place in the world, and the actions and attitudes of those around them. But the best part is that, thanks to the playwright's quick and natural dialogue and biting sense of humor, the script can engage with weighty subjects while still feeling spritely and entertaining. I highly recommend reading—and producing!—this incredibly timely play!

As the slightly train-obsessed son of a formerly avid As the World Turns and Guiding Light watcher, I was immediately hooked by the synopsis of this play! Schwarz has crafted a lovely, comedic world that is both an homage to and send up of a much-maligned genre. But it’s the small, tender human moments in an otherwise over-the-top script that really resonate and stick with you. If you’re looking for a fun read, check this out!