Recommended by Doug DeVita

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    I love this play; by turns eerie, funny, mysterious, and ultimately touching, Gatton’s sure hand guides his assorted mismatched characters through a gauntlet of emotional revelations that build in intensity until everything coalesces into a surprise — and surprisingly touching — denouement. A stunning work.
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    I love this play; by turns eerie, funny, mysterious, and ultimately touching, Gatton’s sure hand guides his assorted mismatched characters through a gauntlet of emotional revelations that build in intensity until everything coalesces into a surprise — and surprisingly touching — denouement. A stunning work.
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    This play is a spiraling staircase of dual, time traveling plots and paintings, gaslighting, stolen lives, literary heroines and anti heroines – as well as a few less than heroic heroes – all of it wrapped into an original and wholly Houkian portrait of creepy, riveting horror. A definite recommend. And definitely recommended to read it in the daylight.

    This play is a spiraling staircase of dual, time traveling plots and paintings, gaslighting, stolen lives, literary heroines and anti heroines – as well as a few less than heroic heroes – all of it wrapped into an original and wholly Houkian portrait of creepy, riveting horror. A definite recommend. And definitely recommended to read it in the daylight.

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    A charming, touching, and deeply meaningful play, A PERFECT MAP OF EVERYTHING works on several levels all at once; by turns very funny and heartbreaking — often at the same time — I defy anyone not to fall in love with Hugo and Hamlin and root for them against all (the considerable) odds. Wonderful work!

    A charming, touching, and deeply meaningful play, A PERFECT MAP OF EVERYTHING works on several levels all at once; by turns very funny and heartbreaking — often at the same time — I defy anyone not to fall in love with Hugo and Hamlin and root for them against all (the considerable) odds. Wonderful work!

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    Outrageous! Shameless puns, one-liners, and situations fuel this comedy with the chaotic, gleeful anarchy of a Marx Brothers movie (and peopled with characters whose names are worthy of WC Fields.) Breathlessly paced and laugh out loud funny, Cantrell's farce hops, skips, and jumps along its way, dragging its audience willingly with it with every twist, turn, and sometimes cringe-worthy joke. I'd love to see this staged.

    Outrageous! Shameless puns, one-liners, and situations fuel this comedy with the chaotic, gleeful anarchy of a Marx Brothers movie (and peopled with characters whose names are worthy of WC Fields.) Breathlessly paced and laugh out loud funny, Cantrell's farce hops, skips, and jumps along its way, dragging its audience willingly with it with every twist, turn, and sometimes cringe-worthy joke. I'd love to see this staged.

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    SO LONG LIFE is a harrowing, sometimes brutal, yet touching deep dive into parents becoming the children, and the children becoming the parents. Anyone who's dealt with aging, ailing parents will recognize the love and pain attendant to the experience; Robertson masterfully captures the pain, the confusion, the anger, the loss, and most importantly the love that sometimes masquerades as hate and frustration on both sides. Deeply moving, and a field day for actors, especially older ones.

    SO LONG LIFE is a harrowing, sometimes brutal, yet touching deep dive into parents becoming the children, and the children becoming the parents. Anyone who's dealt with aging, ailing parents will recognize the love and pain attendant to the experience; Robertson masterfully captures the pain, the confusion, the anger, the loss, and most importantly the love that sometimes masquerades as hate and frustration on both sides. Deeply moving, and a field day for actors, especially older ones.

  • Doug DeVita: Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library by Jenny Lyn Bader
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    I recently saw this at Luna Stage, and I'm so glad I did; a gripping, tense, and intelligent game of cat and mouse set in 1933 Berlin, it is a political thriller that resonates quite strongly with what is going on today. Highly recommended,

    I recently saw this at Luna Stage, and I'm so glad I did; a gripping, tense, and intelligent game of cat and mouse set in 1933 Berlin, it is a political thriller that resonates quite strongly with what is going on today. Highly recommended,

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  • Doug DeVita: In the Garden of the Hesperides by David Adam Gill
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    This exquisitely painful, touching work is a masterclass in the long lasting effects of bullying on both the bully and the bullied. Gill delicately and skillfully picks at wounds long scabbed over but still throbbing painfully deep beneath the surface, and while he (rightly) doesn’t offer a traditional happy ending, he does give his characters — and by extension us — a cathartic, if not redemptive experience. A must read.

    This exquisitely painful, touching work is a masterclass in the long lasting effects of bullying on both the bully and the bullied. Gill delicately and skillfully picks at wounds long scabbed over but still throbbing painfully deep beneath the surface, and while he (rightly) doesn’t offer a traditional happy ending, he does give his characters — and by extension us — a cathartic, if not redemptive experience. A must read.

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  • Doug DeVita: SMOKING FAGS ON A ROOFTOP by Craig Houk
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    This is Craig Houk at his darkest, bleakest, most hopelessly dystopian. As the world falls apart, Houk nimbly, and with terrifying precision, paints a vivid picture of humanity with blinders on, quickly becoming like late nineteenth century author William T. Stead, who reportedly went down with the Titanic calmly reading a book in the first class smoking room while all hell was breaking loose around him. A hard, chilling, but necessary read.

    This is Craig Houk at his darkest, bleakest, most hopelessly dystopian. As the world falls apart, Houk nimbly, and with terrifying precision, paints a vivid picture of humanity with blinders on, quickly becoming like late nineteenth century author William T. Stead, who reportedly went down with the Titanic calmly reading a book in the first class smoking room while all hell was breaking loose around him. A hard, chilling, but necessary read.

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  • Doug DeVita: Crazy Quilts by Karen Fix Curry
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    Compelling characters and a timely story fuel this dark comedy, which at times can be so dark it’s horrifying, and horrifying that it’s so funny. Beware of the ski slopes. Just sayin’.

    Compelling characters and a timely story fuel this dark comedy, which at times can be so dark it’s horrifying, and horrifying that it’s so funny. Beware of the ski slopes. Just sayin’.

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  • Doug DeVita: TATTOO: A Tale of Terror by Greg Burdick
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    Intense and horrifying, Burdick writes in a dreamlike state, building the tension and the horror in small but insistent increments until everything explodes like a nightmare from which there is no waking. Chilling, fascinating, and I loved every minute of it. I may not sleep for a month, but I loved it.

    Intense and horrifying, Burdick writes in a dreamlike state, building the tension and the horror in small but insistent increments until everything explodes like a nightmare from which there is no waking. Chilling, fascinating, and I loved every minute of it. I may not sleep for a month, but I loved it.

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