Recommended by Doug DeVita

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
— John Keats

And Lermond’s touching ode to later life change, while not in the least having anything to do with a Grecian Urn, is all about the truth in beauty and the beauty in truth. A deceptively simple piece, and simply wonderful from its first page to its last.

Once again, Ladva walks that line between specificity and universality, and once again she gives us a delicately balanced, beautifully heartfelt work. Oh, how I'd love to see this performed; the two actresses required will have a field day with such rich, emotionally layered characters to play, and the play itself will seem all the more deeply rewarding as it connects with its audiences on every level. A play brought to life because of the COVID crisis, but one that stands on its own, simultaneously timely and timeless.

Delving even further into the fractured world of his title character, Swenson hints at even worse trials this child has to endure, and again does it with razor sharp acuity. Completely horrifying and heartbreaking.

Gut-wrenching in both its horrifying specificity and heartbreaking innocence, Swenson brings an acutely trained eye to the subject of child abuse and gives us a title character you can’t help but want to save. At times hard to read, but oh, so necessary as it brings you right into the mindset of an abused child with cutting truth.

Gatton takes a baseball bat and runs amok with our emotions. By turns funny and horrifying, this gem is ultimately a heartbreakingly beautiful delineation of a sibling relationship in which each sibling has the other’s back, and the wherewithal to do what needs to be done. All the feels.

We all wonder what the afterlife will hold for us, just as we wish for those who've gone before us to "rest in peace." PMiddletonW tackles these thoughts with his usual aplomb, both begging and answering the question as to what it means to "rest in peace." Who hasn't felt some of our loved ones are not yet resting peacefully? In this poignant two-hander, Sam has found his peace, while Doug has not. A touching work that gives as plausible an answer to one of life's eternal questions as any.

A beautiful play about an enduring friendship. The conversational dialogue flows smoothly, delineating the two main characters and their relationship, and builds naturally to a visceral gut punch at the end. A lovely, touching work, with two meaty roles for late middle-aged actors.

In the two + years since meeting Nimisha at the Kennedy Center Playwrights Intensive, I've been watching her grow and find her voice as a playwright. And she has a wonderful voice, in its specificity and universality, in its musicality, and in its deeply felt layers of emotion. All of these are working full tilt in this beautiful short play, a gift for two actresses and the audiences who will, no doubt, be attending performances. A lovely, heartfelt, and smart work.

This gorgeous ten minute play packs the same power and punch as a full-length; information is parsed out with elegant, read-between-the-lines depth, and the two characters are drawn with broad strokes yet beautifully filled in. An absolute charmer, St. Croix aims for the heart and delivers an emotionally fulfilling bullseye.

This is a stunning companion piece to Williams’ A TREE GROWS IN LONGMONT, in which he shines an incisive light on the idiocy and thinly veiled hatred we still need to combat. Sharp, uncompromising, intelligent, and devastating. Bravo, Philip. Bravo.