Recommended by Jacob Juntunen

This play is about an ecological disaster, but what really stays with me are the characters, particularly the family relationships. The play captures the region, captures this moment, and feels relentlessly personal even as it asks big questions.

I got to see a workshop production of this show at Tesseract Theatre in St. Louis, and the script still sticks with me, just as its title suggests. A song weaves its way through a number of stories, with memorable characters, exciting representations of women and LGBTQ+ characters, and an ambitious formal structure that moves in and out of time with a huge payoff at the end. Definitely worth the read!

I was privileged to hear this wonderful play at the Confluence Writers Project readings at St. Louis Shakespeare Festival in 2019. The play is like a "behind the scenes" look at events from the Bible, showing the stories of the women who made the well-known stories possible. It's by turns hilarious, moving, and always sharply intelligent.

I had the pleasure of seeing SICKLE at Red Theatre in Chicago. Fenbert takes on a difficult, important topic, but does so through skillful characterization and plotting rather than didactic docudrama. The fact that she does so with an all female cast makes the play that much more commendable. But what I'm going to take away from the play is its realistic portrayal of these people in an impossible situation. Fenbert finds a way to make a satisfying script out of an unbearable topic, with sardonic humor, a Slavic sensibility, and politics based in human beings' suffering.

This play takes the issues of The Crucible and applies them to the present-day Midwest, particularly Missouri. I especially appreciated that the New Yorkers, who were presented as the "fish out of water," were far from perfect, and that the Missouri residents were more than stereotypes. Wilner handles all her characters with care, and creates a strong play with an ending I think audiences will really enjoy.

I had the pleasure of seeing this play at the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and its beautiful handling of life and loss in a Southern, Baptist context was truly exceptional. It captured these lives with respect, and never portrayed their religion or region with caricature or exoticism. Instead, the play portrayed these characters' pain through poetic, theatrical imagery that has stayed with me. A must read.

Cam Baby is one of those rare plays that successfully represents internet age love and betrayal. Brutally honest, hilarious, and full of painfully specific descriptions of "shameful" eating, this play is a satirical gem that feels all too real...

This play's cast of memorable characters, witty dialogue, and ensemble-led plot remind me of some of Lanford Wilson's greatest plays, such as Balm in Gilead. The play takes on many topics, from gentrification to addiction, but what really landed with me was the play's subtle discussion of how the past, in this case L.A.'s queer past, is contested rather than fixed.

This play set in a dystopian future is a brilliant parody of the academic left. Equal parts satire and tragedy, the play reminds its audience that no matter what words describe a society, there is always inequality and sexual violence. A must-read.

This hilarious play manages to combine fast food, depression, and fairy tales. Carrie Barrett manages to take a protagonist who feels stuck and make her plight active. An imaginative and inventive play that, yes, will leave you wanting fried chicken.