Recommended by Doug DeVita

Oh my gosh, this delightful monologue grabs you right from the first lines and carries you along on repeated gusts of macabre hilarity for the entire ride. I loved every single, laugh out loud word, and now I want a piece of Mince Pie and a glass of Sherry. Read this for the pure pleasure of it, and then produce it for the pure pleasure audiences will derive from it.

FOOLISH is William Shakespeare as focused through a J. Chavez lens; the Shakespearian wit, plotting, and poetic language are all here, as are contemporary versions of his characters, but it is all sublimely Chavezian in its edgier execution. Epic in every sense of the word, this is a wonderfully dark comedy; by turns gleefully hilarious and heartbreakingly touching in its lyrical callowness, it will provide a field day for directors and actors when it is staged. And I hope to see it when it is.

Brief, brutally bitchy, and brilliant.

And spot on.

Oh how I love the world Christiane Swenson has created; it’s a world that lives in its own style yet is recognizably Chekhovian in its spirit. A prequel of sorts to THE THREE SISTERS, this is a marvel of individual theatricality and melancholy hilarity. And while I don’t really want to act again, I’d play Chebutykin in a heartbeat if asked. It’s a rich role for an actor to feast upon… indeed all the roles in this play are meaty and rich, while the play itself – despite its hereditary dour underpinnings – is light, airy, and delicious.

The beauty of this script lies in how Hal Corley parses his information throughout, capturing not only our attention, but the relationship between father and son with smartly employed, non-expository exposition. The result is a sharp, moving, and enthralling ten minutes with two terrific roles for an older and a younger actor.

There is nothing about this exquisite, hauntingly lyrical play I do not love. It’s just… perfect.

This short play from Scott Sickles stings with truth; what he captures about relationships in barely ten pages is astonishing, and yet it moves with the swiftness and grace of a cheetah ready to pounce on its prey at any moment. Heartbreaking, even angrily cynical at times, the emotional honesty driving the play makes it another beautiful work from a master of his craft. Oh, and now I want a Purple Cow.

Pitting an attorney’s personal ethics against the job she must do, Kerr Lockhart has created a pulsing, fascinating deep dive into the varied shades of gray floating between right and wrong. Using cinematic shifts in time and tone to great effect, Lockhart keeps the action moving swiftly, always driven with superb authority by one of the most dynamic central roles out there; Eileen Kinsella is a role any actress would kill to play. I’d love to see this play staged, and I’ll bet the lobby discussions after would be as scintillating as the work itself.

How wonderful! The world created in this extravagantly theatrical piece, in which Boyle seamlessly merges fact and fiction, at once lives in two centuries hundreds of years apart. Part espionage thriller, part rollicking farce, and completely entertaining, this is a smart commentary on the never-ending battle between artists and those who would try to control creative thought for their own narrow-minded political ends. Oh, and throw in some tongue-in-cheek references to the creation of HAMLET, which at times seems like it was not to be. Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Just like I can’t resist this play.

A mesmerizing, deeply moving memory play set on the 100th birthday of a Holocaust survivor who has been living with the horror, and the questions, of an action he took in his youth. Sansone-Braff gets under the skin of this man’s memories, bringing us along with gentle but relentless force; by the end we’re spent, crying, more than a bit horrified, and asking ourselves “would we have done the same, had we listened to our inner voices?”