Recommended by Vince Gatton

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    I started to write "Well, isn't this adorable", then realized it might come off snarky. But I mean it sincerely: this IS adorable. A genial stoner comedy that's genuinely funny, and distills a currently hot-button, allegedly complicated notion down to its easy-to-grasp essentials. A winning comedy that doesn't traffic in trauma or despair -- just people, finding what feels right and what doesn't, and realizing the promise of possibility.

    I started to write "Well, isn't this adorable", then realized it might come off snarky. But I mean it sincerely: this IS adorable. A genial stoner comedy that's genuinely funny, and distills a currently hot-button, allegedly complicated notion down to its easy-to-grasp essentials. A winning comedy that doesn't traffic in trauma or despair -- just people, finding what feels right and what doesn't, and realizing the promise of possibility.

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    “Witty people in horrible situations” is 100% my jam, and Mathew Green plays right into that sweet spot here. Alice and Mel’s sibling tensions, banter, and well-lived-in love are familiar and disarming, leaving you fully exposed when the ominous breadcrumbs get you to where they’ve been leading. A very cool reflection on how normal can slip away from us - slowly at first, then all at once.

    “Witty people in horrible situations” is 100% my jam, and Mathew Green plays right into that sweet spot here. Alice and Mel’s sibling tensions, banter, and well-lived-in love are familiar and disarming, leaving you fully exposed when the ominous breadcrumbs get you to where they’ve been leading. A very cool reflection on how normal can slip away from us - slowly at first, then all at once.

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    This play is quite a journey -- in one sense literally, since it's the story of a pair of dads and their teenage sons on a hiking trip. But its the emotional, psychological, and theatrical trip Nick Malakhov takes us on that really swept me off my feet: poetic yet grounded, idiosyncratic yet deeply relatable, inventive yet familiar, this play has a driving energy, wit, and empathy that earns its emotional payoffs, right up to its breathtaking last few pages. A directors' and actors' feast.

    This play is quite a journey -- in one sense literally, since it's the story of a pair of dads and their teenage sons on a hiking trip. But its the emotional, psychological, and theatrical trip Nick Malakhov takes us on that really swept me off my feet: poetic yet grounded, idiosyncratic yet deeply relatable, inventive yet familiar, this play has a driving energy, wit, and empathy that earns its emotional payoffs, right up to its breathtaking last few pages. A directors' and actors' feast.

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    Aly Kantor exercises her gift for reinterpreting Classical mythology, combining two perhaps lesser-known tales into a love story that's queer, funny, sad, terrifying, enraging, and heart-swelling. Myths endure across time because humans are who we are, ever and always: straining against societal restrictions, stumbling as we figure ourselves out and learn to get what we want...and finding out the hard way that men, alas, can be toxic and deadly. But resistance and love endure. Magic.

    Aly Kantor exercises her gift for reinterpreting Classical mythology, combining two perhaps lesser-known tales into a love story that's queer, funny, sad, terrifying, enraging, and heart-swelling. Myths endure across time because humans are who we are, ever and always: straining against societal restrictions, stumbling as we figure ourselves out and learn to get what we want...and finding out the hard way that men, alas, can be toxic and deadly. But resistance and love endure. Magic.

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    The metaphor is strong here, covered in Band-Aids. There is no bad guy, just a couple of people trying to do their best while suffering a death by a thousand cuts. A funny, humane snapshot of arriving at a hard decision point, punctuated with a great button.

    The metaphor is strong here, covered in Band-Aids. There is no bad guy, just a couple of people trying to do their best while suffering a death by a thousand cuts. A funny, humane snapshot of arriving at a hard decision point, punctuated with a great button.

  • Vince Gatton: RECALL by Aly Kantor
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    Aly Kantor gets past my jaded emotional defenses. Here, the awkward comic brightness of this robot interaction rubs satisfyingly against the matter at hand: a bone-deep despair that craves the solace of self-annihilation. There's a running theme in Kantor's work about the salvation to be found in friendships, but I didn't expect to see it so slyly appear in a customer service interaction between machines. Again I find myself at a Kantor "end of play", misty-eyed and smiling. A cathartic winner.

    Aly Kantor gets past my jaded emotional defenses. Here, the awkward comic brightness of this robot interaction rubs satisfyingly against the matter at hand: a bone-deep despair that craves the solace of self-annihilation. There's a running theme in Kantor's work about the salvation to be found in friendships, but I didn't expect to see it so slyly appear in a customer service interaction between machines. Again I find myself at a Kantor "end of play", misty-eyed and smiling. A cathartic winner.

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  • Vince Gatton: The Resolution by Daniel Prillaman
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    Forgive me, I'm still recovering from reading Daniel Prillaman's unhinged, madcap, & utterly destabilizing exercise in sociopathy & gaslighting, THE RESOLUTION. Erin is a compelling nightmare figure, and the reality-distortion field she creates for the people in her orbit makes for thrilling drama - and while this is not a facially political play, its resonances with the last decade of the American experience are there if you care to look. (Extra points here also for frakkin' BSG fans!)

    Forgive me, I'm still recovering from reading Daniel Prillaman's unhinged, madcap, & utterly destabilizing exercise in sociopathy & gaslighting, THE RESOLUTION. Erin is a compelling nightmare figure, and the reality-distortion field she creates for the people in her orbit makes for thrilling drama - and while this is not a facially political play, its resonances with the last decade of the American experience are there if you care to look. (Extra points here also for frakkin' BSG fans!)

    ”
  • Vince Gatton: Because We Planted Flowers by Aly Kantor
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    This big-hearted fantasy story captures a painful and tender fork in the road, one that many people in our real world are experiencing at this cultural moment. When the love we have for the stories that shaped us is set in opposition to the love we have for our people, a choice has to be made. Aly Kantor writes with compassion and decency (and welcome humor) about the whole conundrum, and we’re the better for it.

    This big-hearted fantasy story captures a painful and tender fork in the road, one that many people in our real world are experiencing at this cultural moment. When the love we have for the stories that shaped us is set in opposition to the love we have for our people, a choice has to be made. Aly Kantor writes with compassion and decency (and welcome humor) about the whole conundrum, and we’re the better for it.

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  • Vince Gatton: THE KEEPER'S QUARTERS by Craig Houk
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    The Keeper's Quarters has a structure I love: a single setting in two different time periods, with action and intrigue that echoes and overlaps. It's an enticing set-up, and Craig Houk ups that ante by doubling the actors across time, disorienting us (and his protagonist) about what exactly we're seeing, and why. Add in a slew of practical special effects, witty dialogue, and questionable motives, and you've got an irresistible thriller about creativity, money, and storytelling itself. Haunting.

    The Keeper's Quarters has a structure I love: a single setting in two different time periods, with action and intrigue that echoes and overlaps. It's an enticing set-up, and Craig Houk ups that ante by doubling the actors across time, disorienting us (and his protagonist) about what exactly we're seeing, and why. Add in a slew of practical special effects, witty dialogue, and questionable motives, and you've got an irresistible thriller about creativity, money, and storytelling itself. Haunting.

    ”
  • Vince Gatton: A Passage To India by Doug DeVita
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    Doug DeVita boldly brings E. M. Forster’s repressed subtext to the surface, with a fresh, exciting Passage to India that crackles with intrigue, longing, heartbreak, and rage. Thanks to a storytelling narrative device, much of Forster’s gorgeous prose remains, as do the colonial tensions, tender connections, misunderstandings, and outright betrayals that make this story so irresistible — all brought into a sharper focus. Where Forster had to insinuate, DeVita can shout; the result is thrilling.

    Doug DeVita boldly brings E. M. Forster’s repressed subtext to the surface, with a fresh, exciting Passage to India that crackles with intrigue, longing, heartbreak, and rage. Thanks to a storytelling narrative device, much of Forster’s gorgeous prose remains, as do the colonial tensions, tender connections, misunderstandings, and outright betrayals that make this story so irresistible — all brought into a sharper focus. Where Forster had to insinuate, DeVita can shout; the result is thrilling.

    ”