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Michael C. O'Day

Recommended by Michael C. O'Day

  • Theatricide by Daniel Will-Harris
    21 Feb. 2022
    “ A giddy, gleeful spoof of theatrical pretension from someone who knows exactly where to aim. Imagine the works of Antonin Artaud done as a Vincent Price movie and you'll get a sense of the fun to be had here. ”
  • Customary Monsters by Kyle Therral Wilson
    21 Feb. 2022
    “ There's a paradox at the heart of our relationship with the so-called "Western Canon:" stories of elemental passions that we've transformed into Holy Scriptures, a way of clinging to an air of respectability while indulging our basest desires. Kyle Therral Wilson's drama tackles this head-on, exploring the intersection of culture, class, sex, power, and all the ways we can rationalize being monsters. ”
  • TOUCH MY HEART MASTERPIECE by Chima Chikazunga
    21 Feb. 2022
    “ A poignant, lyrical, and disturbing meditation on how past sins and trauma have a way of festering and intensifying with time, despite our attempts to heal or transmute our pain into art. Life as a futile attempt to understand a painting that's been painted by a blind man - that's a potent metaphor Chikazunga has crafted here. ”
  • THE WEEKEND PEOPLE by Tom Rowan
    21 Feb. 2022
    “ There's a very particular vibe to Upstate New York art towns - shimmering oases of superficial progressivism, created by wealthy outsiders vacationing from the sordid ways they've made their money, at unspoken odds with the townsfolk around them - and Rowan nails this. A fun modern Chekhov update (complete with the requisite firearm) that's crying out to be done on the biggest stage possible. ”
  • The Oktavist by Vince Gatton
    8 Jan. 2022
    “ A terrific (and so very musical) tale of self-deception and self-realization, of how culture shapes our sense of identity and how we learn to live with that. Hilarious and heartbreaking, and a feast for actors. To put it in terms the characters would understand, it's a Liadov miniature with Tchaikovsky's soul. ”
  • Trash by Kate Mulley
    7 Jan. 2022
    “ Everybody's encountered a teacher like this (if they aren't that teacher themselves - if that's you, log off this website and go get some help). Mulley does an excellent job depicting his rationalizations, his petty frustrations, and his charms - right up until the point where his amorality, and the damage he's left in his wake, can no longer be denied. ”
  • Out of Body/On a Train by Erin Moughon
    17 Dec. 2021
    “ Visceral, brutal - and profoundly theraputic by its end. A powerful piece about all the different ways we process trauma. ”
  • Questions by Jeffrey James Keyes
    18 Oct. 2021
    “ A young couple try to occupy their time during the COVID lockdown through an app that lets them answer the questions of internet strangers, only to discover that they're becoming strangers to each other. A fine meditation on how the technology intended to bring us together has a habit of alienating us even further. ”
  • Just Say it Three Times by Erin Moughon
    18 Oct. 2021
    “ What seems at first glance to be a literary and historical riff - and a delightful one at that - turns out to be a pointed commentary on the discontents of the modern world. Aphra Behn would approve (and would be throughly delighted at becoming the subject of a drinking game). ”
  • Leni & Joseph by Jacob Marx Rice
    19 Aug. 2021
    “ Rice's great achievement with LENI & JOSEPH is to create a thrillingly catty behind-the-scenes show biz soap opera - and let our excitement and engagement with that serve as an equivalent to the seductiveness of evil, so we can see just how easily it happens. Smart, an actor's delight, and terrifyingly relevant. ”

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