Recommended by Doug DeVita

Jesus, this is a beautiful piece! At the center of what appears to be a loving, if contentious, relationship between an uber-religious mother and her gay son are many, many questions about faith, love, acceptance, miracles, and hermaphroditic birds, all presented with a clarity and simplicity that belie their murky complexity. A truly beautiful piece. Jesus!

Poised right at that moment when two lives are going to change forever, this monologue is a harrowing, frightening, and riveting dive into the mind of a woman intent on following through with a decision she knows is wrong, but just can’t stop herself. An extraordinary piece for an actress to rip into.

A charming bit of blarney from a master blarneyist, CROWLEY’S CORNER transports one right into the heart of Ireland. Sure and it’s like bein’ back in Dingle – and that’s not, as American Jack Conlin finds out, such a bad place to be. In fact, it's rather wonderful. Sláinte!

Damn! Parents are awful creatures. Especially parents with phones, video, texting, social media pages… All I could think whilst reading Cathro’s trenchant treatise on modern parenting is “right now there are some kids in medical school studying to become psychiatrists, while even younger kids will grow up to pay off their college loans and fund their beach houses.”

All the “Lear-like” aspects of our former national disgrace are deftly satirized in this pointed, hilarious, yet disturbing short play. Would that the real Don were even half as human as the one imagined by Kyle Smith. But then this play wouldn’t have the heft it does. I’d say this was well done, but that’s such a cliché now I’ll just say it’s a deliciously rare piece for two performers to sink their teeth into.

Osmundsen presents two sides of an argument in this taut ten-minute, and with his usual passionate precision hits both nails squarely on the head. What’s so wonderful about this conversation is that it IS a conversation, filled with conflict and self-righteous declamations, but front and center is the long-standing friendship between the two characters, and their argument doesn’t devolve into DRAMA for the sake of drama. An exquisite piece.

It’s interesting to read a play and then experience it in production. Nuances may be lost in a director’s interpretation while insight not caught on the page may be brought into focus. Such was my experience with this deeply moving family drama; while it’s fun being on the outside looking in, the Hamiltons are one group with whom you do not want to spend Thanksgiving. It’s Ruyle’s gift that he keeps all their machinations spinning seamlessly in short, nearly cinematic bursts of sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking dysfunction, on page and on stage.

Oh, my God! Extraordinary use of language, situations, and characters make HOMESTAR required reading. It’s a jarring, horrifying, at times hilariously funny, and strangely beautiful script. As a long-time fan of Marshall’s work (Full-disclosure, I was in a writers group with him for many years), this is his most mature work to date, a play that demands to be read, and produced, and seen. Highly recommended.

Politics – world, financial, personal, sexual (especially sexual, and not just in the bedroom) – are the driving force in Juan Alfonso’s MIDDLE OF THE WORLD, a theatrical equivalent to a bundle of dynamite if there ever was one. And as provocative, engaging, and thrilling as it is to read, I can only imagine how provocative, engaging, and thrilling it will be in the hands of a gifted director and cast when it is on stage – which it should be. As I said: dynamite.

Reneé Flemings does a deep dive into personal identity and family history, taking us along with her on a journey into murky waters that leaves us gasping; her use of jazz motifs throughout is extraordinary, particularly the way she conveys them concurrently through her use of language, an audacious choice that propels the play forward at an ever-quickening pace. I’d love to see this staged.