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Doug DeVita

Recommended by Doug DeVita

  • Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin by Tyler Joseph Rossi
    4 Aug. 2019
    “ For a “*very early draft,” Tyler Joseph Rossi’s “Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin” is pretty tight. Fictional meetings between historical characters generally make for interesting theater, and Rossi demonstrates a sure hand here as the titular characters meet in an otherwise empty speakeasy at the dawn of the “talkies.” They drink, accuse each other of intellectual theft, and engage in a knock-down drag-out bar-room brawl in a promising play that deftly exposes the pain underneath their comedic genius. I’m looking forward to watching this develop. ”
  • Capital by James Armstrong
    4 Aug. 2019
    “ This is delightfully delicious; Armstrong’s farce moves like wildfire and provokes nearly non-stop laughter as it races along its wildly inventive, smartly conceived, and beautifully constructed course. ”
  • Staging by Kate Danley
    4 Aug. 2019
    “ Maybe the lullaby of old Broadway lights the way to opening a new window into the glamorous life of a real estate agent? Kate Danley's "Staging" – like Marjorie Bicknell's short "Sondheim Syndrome"– is another charming look into the necessity of using Broadway musicals as a selling tool. Apparently there's no business like show business, especially on the street where you live. So, hey, big spenders: Happy Hunting!

    And hey, Mr. Producer: pairing Bicknell's and Danley's shows would make for some enchanted evening.

    (Okay, I'm done.) ”
  • CRY HAVOC by Tom Coash
    2 Aug. 2019
    “ "Cry Havoc," by Tom Coash, grabs you by the throat on page 1, and never lets go. Gripping, terrifying, heartbreaking, and sadly still all too relevant.

    (Full disclosure: I was the marketing director for Abingdon Theatre Company when they produced this play in 2007. I loved it then, and I still love it; I'm thrilled to have a platform like NPX to recommend it to a larger audience.) ”
  • Meet Me in the Bathroom by Cassie M. Seinuk
    2 Aug. 2019
    “ Playwright Cassie M. Seinuk characterizes "Meet Me In The Bathroom" as currently under development. As a work in progress: it's already well on its way to being a WOW! Seinuk has a firm grasp on the language, the personalities, and the almost unbearable pressure of being a teen-ager in a world where high-school reputations are made and destroyed with a single click. As Choderlos de Laclos wrote in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses:" "When one woman aims at the heart of another, she rarely misses. And the wound is invariably fatal." Seinuk hits a bullseye here. Brava. ”
  • Unspoken by Sarah Cosgrove Gaumond
    1 Aug. 2019
    “ Sarah Cosgrove Gaumond’s UNSPOKEN is a sensitive work, beautifully balancing melancholy and hope as her protagonist, Cate, confronts her past in order to heal. Playing with time and place, the play is structured as a series of quick, short scenes, giving it a cinematic feel which builds the tension and pulls us deeper into Cate’s story, allowing a catharsis for both her and the audience simultaneously. ”
  • The Present Imperfect by Rachel Linton
    30 Jul. 2019
    “ An interesting, touching, and spot on character study that perfectly captures the dynamics of 3 siblings dealing with the suicide of their elder brother. Grief, denial, blame... all the emotions are bared with precision as they stumble their way to a greater understanding of their place in each others lives. ”
  • HALF MOON BAY by John Jiler
    30 Jul. 2019
    “ John Jiler's moody, evocative "Half Moon Bay" grabbed me on page 1, and never let go. A haunting tale about the illogical logic of an ill-fated obsession, Jiler's characters are so real, so flawed, and so human, one can't help but be swept up into their lives, and wonder, or is it worry, about their future long after having read the last page. ”
  • Be Mine by Shelley McPherson
    30 Jul. 2019
    “ Set in the not-too-distant future after a series of not-so-improbable climate change catastrophes, “Be Mine’s” frighteningly funny argument posits that despite apocalyptic events, human nature itself won’t ever change — for better or worse. A provocative argument, lightly but deftly handled by McPherson. ”
  • Baby Starbucks by Sheldon Shaw
    29 Jul. 2019
    “ Using a Starbucks in Manhattan as ground zero for a treatise on race relations in the Trump era is an inspired idea: where else is conspicuous consumption and white privilege better represented than the ubiquitous coffee shop that caters to the self absorbed kooks with too much time and money on their hands, and who fake a congenial intimacy with the baristas who serve them on a daily basis? But when something goes wrong, be it a badly made latte, or a missing baby, things get real ugly, real fast. ”

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