Recommended by Peter Fenton

Philip Middleton Williams never fails to produce a thought-provoking piece, and he does so here in a mere 17 pages with REASONABLE DOUBT. This one-act is an intriguing two-hander between well-drawn characters about the justice system: one man who was previously on trial, one who had served on his jury, and I must add one character comes armed with excellent references to cop and courtroom media of all types. Fascinating stuff.

I especially appreciate when grief is explored in media, and Sam Heyman in general is a playwright quite gifted at exploring grief. In THREE DAMNED LETTERS, Heyman uses three generations to explore the tragic death of Jesse, who appears through flashbacks and visions the other characters see. This is a tight family drama with complete arcs for all characters. I have to hand it to Sam, also, for always drawing male characters who explore deep emotions authentically. It's powerful in this play.

I very much liked the lesbian vampire rom-com play.

With all the recent talk of John Proctor is the Villain (a script name-checked in this play, to my great delight!), it's fun to see a different playwright's take on building a story wrestling with the themes of a play in an educational setting, and boy does Ian Donley deliver a play written specifically for the moment of early 2025, with an absurdist satirical semirealist comedy set against a vibrant backdrop of Kushner's Angels in America. Can't wait to see the development cycle on this one!

It occurred to me that prior to today, I'd never read a sports play before. Brent Alles captures the backroom drama (and comedy) of a new head football coach's office in SECOND BANANA. The coaches are characters with rich history and the plot follows lived-in sports drama territory that would feel especially fresh on stage in this play. I'd be very excited to see how this script continues to develop!

If you are a member of the LGBTQ community and have any connection to Christianity (positive, negative, or complicated) (bonus points if you've played Mario Kart 64), please drop everything and read this play. Specificity matters even in an abstract piece, and Benne knows this. He anchors the audience in this story through very real imagery and well-drawn human beings, but allows it to play like a feverdream. I'd be excited to play Chris or perhaps direct this piece someday.

I think Priyanka Shetty would agree with me the most appropriate way to recommend this play would be by way of Haiku:
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Witty, subversive
Take on Oscar Wilde-type fare
Laughed the whole damn time.
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This play is so fun and I'd love to see a full production. I saw the reading at Allens Lane Art Center in Philly in 2025. An excellent blend of timeless British drawing room farce with some poignant insights playing well into Priyanka's well-established mastery of writing social justice plays.

I'm not sure I've seen this executed well before reading this play: a truly slice-of-life play capturing a complicated early 2000s nostalgia within an easy-to-follow poetic realism structure. Daniel K. Isaac in FULLERTON explores emotional and sexual coming-of-age in southern California as a Korean-American gay kid growing up in a Christian household. Funny (loved several jokes along the way), sad, and resonant for anyone with any intersection of life experience with this play. Great work!

[1/14/25] This one is a cute, queer-forward collection of stories from college. What I love about Sam Heyman’s anthology play TALES FROM THE HILL is the slice-of-life scale of each individual play, showing us what the college experience is like (or at least, was like for me): a collection of small interactions that create emerging storylines. Full of heart, good humor, and believable characters, this is a great selection for black box and/or student performers!

[1/3/2025] Philip Middleton Williams is a master of slice-of-life stories grounded in community capturing lifelike dialogue of real conversations. What I love especially about SWIMMING OFF THE BIG DOCK was the sense Williams was walking us through the lake community in Michigan specifically in the late 60s with people who specifically felt real to me in 2025. I also appreciated the Quaker themes integrated into the text, and the exploration of love and loss for a young gay man in the 60s.