Recommended by Doug DeVita

  • The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective
    8 Jul. 2020
    This is a wonderfully ripping work! A "me too" play disguising itself as a paean to Victorian thrillers, the parallels to the modern era are made strongly, but lightly, and never become preachy. Milton's delicious use of language, her astutely convoluted plotting, her engagingly prickly characters, and her sly sense of humor keep this highly theatrical piece racing at a pulse-quickening pace. I loved every word, and would just LOVE to see this staged! It's a thrilling comic thriller!
  • Car Games
    7 Jul. 2020
    Long car trips can be tedious, especially when one is not particularly looking forward to arriving at the destination. This early work from DC Cathro perfectly captures the claustrophobia and mounting sense of dread such a trip can engender, keeping the tension simmering until the young couple reach the end of their journey, when the emotional knife gets twisted quickly, and sharply. A funny, touching, sad, and ultimately very moving journey.
  • Tap Test - (covid zoom play)
    7 Jul. 2020
    Hilarious premise for a short ZOOM play: an online pop quiz for a tap-dancing class. Miller's script flaps, steps, shuffles, and makes an amazing ball change late in the game that provides a big, funny finish. Totally winning piece, perfectly suited to the medium for which it's written.
  • The Dieting of Anne Frank: An Autocorrected Play
    7 Jul. 2020
    SHAME ON YOU, John Busser! SHAME ON YOU! You made me almost lose consciousness from laughing so damn hard.

    If you're easily offended, the central premise of a certain diary being autocorrected as its being written may not be for you. But for those of us with a less uptight, twisted sense of humor, this is brilliantly scathing satire, and gasp-inducing in its hilarious audacity. I mean, who among us has screamed DUCK YOU, AUTOCORRECT at some point? Wonderful work, Busser. And SHAME ON YOU!
  • Teaching Professor Langstrom
    6 Jul. 2020
    As Oscar Hammerstein noted "...when you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught." With all due respect to Oscar, I doubt he had the kind of education elucidated here. Cathro once again explores the darker, secret underpinnings of human desire and compulsion with the precision of a surgeon and the skill of a gifted dramatist; his characters are so compelling and his story-telling so darkly fascinating we willingly follow these people as they descend irretrievably into a snake pit of their own making. Intense and sexually charged, this ain't something you take your prim relatives to see.
  • Outgrowth
    5 Jul. 2020
    Story theater at its finest, Malone's "Outgrowth" is engrossing from start to finish. Compelling characters telling a compelling story with lyrically intense purpose, this is a piece that can be performed anywhere: on a stage, on a screen, in a Zoom format, around a campfire... anywhere a good story can be told. Beautiful work.
  • Shipbuilding
    4 Jul. 2020
    "And is that really a good idea? I mean, should they be allowed to do this, just because they can?"

    This is the central question Sickles' asks in this taut sci-fi brain twister. Exquisite storytelling and questions that linger long after having read it make this an unsettling yet captivating work. A must read, or better yet, produce piece.
  • Sperm Donor Wanted (or, The Unnamed Baby Play)
    3 Jul. 2020
    There are people who believe having a baby can ruin one's life. There are people who believe the internet, especially Craigslist, is evil incarnate. And if one should ever consider having a baby via a Craigslist ad... READ THIS PLAY!

    Read it anyway; Young does a marvelous job of hooking you in with his sparkling dialogue and intriguing premise, and then keeps you on that hook as his characters spin slowly, but surely, down a dark drain of misunderstandings, regret, anger, resolution, and healing. Surprisingly light, and often funny considering how dark it gets, this is a wonderful play.
  • I Knew Him
    1 Jul. 2020
    When the twist is revealed (in one of the subtlest, cleanest bits of exposition I've ever read), it is both startling and yet not, it is both macabre and yet sweet, and it is both jarring, yet perfect. As is this touching, moving and – at times – even funny little gem. Alas, poor Yorick, would that we all know him so well.
  • Not Really (Little Star)
    1 Jul. 2020
    "How do men grieve the loss of something they didn't have a chance to love?"

    This line. What had been silently streaming tears and a few held breaths let loose in a full-on sob-a-thon with this line. A gut-wrenching, beautiful, yet healing monologue which is a gift for an actor to perform.

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