Recommended by Audrey Lang

Alongside a compelling story, with several threads that get weaved together in the most intriguing yet inevitable way, "< 3" has an incredible sense of pace that kept me constantly engaged. The young characters feel authentically young even as they are trying to grow up faster than they should have to. I would love to see this play performed.

This play speaks truth in a striking way that feels like a gut punch. I couldn't take my eyes off the page and actually had to make myself slow down while reading so that I didn't miss anything - though what I really wanted was to take it all in as quickly as I could. I will be thinking about "Man of God" for a long time.

A lot of plays have magic, but few truly feel magical even in the moments that are part of "reality." Hayley St. James's "For Leonora, or, Companions" depicts and discusses two kinds of spectrums - I also love the way they used that parallel terminology - but it's the development of a relationship and the exploration of imagination that is really the focus of the story arc. I appreciate that St. James's queer autistic characters are allowed to express and explore their identities in a play that is, at its core, about finding your person.

An AWESOME Macbeth adaptation that is hilarious, terrifying, and poignant as it both illustrates the original story for me in a brand-new way, and tells an entirely new and thrilling story. And as someone who attended an elite magnet school on the east coast, the fierce competition among these teenagers is wildly familiar to me! I would love to see both the dynamic characters and the daring stage magic in this play come to life.

A fantastic ensemble piece for young women that is both beautiful and tragic - just as its source material can be. Each character is a delightfully and intriguingly full person who I could gladly watch for far longer than the length of the play. And along with the brilliant way this play uses Sophocles' Antigone and creates something even bigger, I love that it challenges the notion of "the show must go on" and asks us if that is truly the healthiest mentality to promote.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Pride Plays reading of Sophie Sagan-Gutherz's magnificent play. It is thoughtful and touching and rings so perfectly true as a play about young people who really do sound and feel authentically young. I wish I'd had "marked green at birth, marked female at birth" in my life when I was a queer middle and high schooler (though I didn't know it yet)!

I feel so lucky to have seen a couple iterations of The Siblings Play, from a reading at MCC's PlayLabs to the recording of the Rattlestick production from earlier this year. The story it tells is painful, vital, and thought-provoking - and one I want the whole world to see, hear, and experience.

Cambodian Rock Band was one of the last shows I saw pre-COVID and I am so grateful for it. There is humor along with the devastation of the events the play depicts, and I was cheering at the end (along with the rest of the audience) in a way that I never have at any other show.

Some plays leap off the page in a way that reminds you, especially right now, that they are meant to be performed live, on a stage. "The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows" is one of those plays. It's an exhilarating, vibrant, heartbreaking, thought-provoking read that makes me yearn to SEE it in the best way. Each character is fully rendered and even those who at first glance might be less deserving of grace are still given it, without letting them off the hook either. A play I will definitely come back to again and again!

I was so lucky to take part in The Workshop Theater's Fall 2020 writers' group with Isabella Waldron and witness a step in the development of JAWBONE! From the start, I was so deeply taken with this play and the way it lets three young women be so real and true, while simultaneously making its magical world entirely believable for audience members or readers. JAWBONE tells a painful but engaging story of sexual assault and coming of age as a young woman. I can't wait to see where it goes next!