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Abraham Johnson

Recommended by Abraham Johnson

  • oh to be pure again by Kira Rockwell
    5 Mar. 2023
    “ Searing and nuanced, while never sacrificing laser-precise jokes and a flooring sense of theatricality, this play is incredibly special. Wow. The characters are lived-in and funny and heartbreaking. The writing is poetic and disarming all at once ("God-mom"? Break my heart!) Everything in this play feels carved with such intention (from such painful material), but what's so impressive is the hopefulness that steers the final moment of the play. The craft alone is running on all cylinders, but to add the clarity? Towards patriarchy, purity culture, and teen girls reaching for something more? So special. A rare, one-of-a-kind play. ”
  • The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd by Stephen Brown
    5 Mar. 2023
    “ This play is a rocket-fueled, laugh-a-minute, breath of fresh air. Filled with instantly loveable characters, super smart writing, and a playground for designers, it was an absolute joy to see this produced at the Kendeda Festival this year. Other theaters should JUMP on producing this script if they're smart! It is tight and bubbly and so, so much fun. The "weird little aliens" line will stick with me for a while! ”
  • Ridgway by Charlie O'Leary
    17 Feb. 2023
    “ Hairy and haunting with gorgeously spare dialogue, this play’s craft is palpable at every turn. The emotional core of the script is subtle and misty and dark, with so many foreshadowings that whisper into the final world-reinventing scene. I adore this play and would be *thrilled* to see it onstage! ”
  • Three Anne Franks by Maya Macdonald
    9 Dec. 2022
    “ Wry, sharp-toothed, and keenly aware of faux-progressive theater, this play is a can't-look-away exploration of three actors being told to embody the "perfect victimhood" of Anne Frank while interrogating their own relationships with her mythos. I love this refreshing, irreverent, and deeply interesting play! This script would *shine* onstage while stirring up some fascinating conversations in the audience. ”
  • Pluck by Jan Rosenberg
    2 Nov. 2022
    “ Dark, dangerous, sharp, and just scandalous enough to keep us on our toes, I adore this monstrous play. The twins are fascinating in their toxic, razor's edge intimacy. Cleo's relationship with gender dysphoria is refreshing, subtle, and expertly buried underneath the scandal of the chatroom scenes. Those chatroom scenes, too, feel at once dangerous and dramaturgically thrilling. Jesus, I'll be thinking about this play for a while. Excellent, excellent, excellent. ”
  • HOWLING: a fairy tale by Jordan Elizabeth Henry
    30 Oct. 2022
    “ A gorgeous and inventive play that brings its language, character contexts, and visual poetry to a truly decadent level. I was breathless by the ending. This play wrestles with the tangled relationships of history, trauma, and family as we follow Birdie on her path to both honesty and autonomy. What a dark, special, sure-footed script. It would be a delight to see this onstage! ”
  • Maybe This Time Is Different by Emily McClain
    29 Oct. 2022
    “ This play has such delightful surrealism threading through each of the scenes, counterbalanced by the fingerprints of capitalism that reflect on every surface. So smart! A theatrical, nuanced, and human take on how a group of characters on the poverty line reach and stumble toward the promise of better lives. ”
  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Alanna Coby
    9 Mar. 2022
    “ This play. This PLAY! Vivid, gutsy, hilarious, dangerous, cerebral, and theatrical to the max, smart producers should jump at the chance to premiere this script. Coby's razor-sharp craft and rich dramaturgy are expertly buried underneath the bubbly theatrical worlds that the characters move through. The character dynamics, too, are studies in the brutal civility with which America's history of eugenics is (not) discussed. The power struggles between these women are SO visceral and SO immediate, and watching them unravel (especially in the 1820s Connecticut scene... I scream!!!!!!) is a horrific delight. I'll be thinking about this play for years. ”
  • Where the Lovelight Gleams by Kyle J. McCloskey
    8 Mar. 2022
    “ A gorgeously crafted play that is at once intimate and massive. I am in love with *all* of this script, but I especially love how subtly the environment takes on its own character, plot, and pseudo-speech. We are always aware of its flames, and that danger is such a brilliant and natural way to learn about the 3 incarcerated women at the forefront of the play. I especially appreciate the way that McCloskey never spoon-feeds us any platitudes, instead trusting the audience to sit in this purgatory and make what we will of the beautiful, horrible cinders. What a play! ”
  • this is not the reunion by Maddie Dennis-Yates
    3 Mar. 2022
    “ Maddie is a master of writing characters who are at once desperate for change and terrified of it. That
    duality creates beautiful, subtle tension in this play where campers are torn between the idyllic versions of who they were at camp, now grown into adults still chasing self-improvement. The world of this play is such a delight to rest into. Wry, subtle, surreal, and so refreshing, this is a quick-paced read that would shine on a larger stage or be an awesome script for college-aged-groups looking to produce new voices. ”

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