Recommended by Vince Gatton

The entire enormous series of Phillie McDougal plays is an equally enormous joy, filled with a sprawling cast of messy, mouthy, finely-delineated and unforgettable characters. This particular time-jumping subset serves especially delicious focus on Phil/Phillie’s complicated relationship to his mother, the balls-out brilliantly…well…self-assured Veronica, and to his trusted bestie Barbie/Barbara. 1970s queer adolescence, grotesque behavior from priests and nuns, and contemporary middle-aged grief and loss come in for the kind of ruthless, funny, and moving examination that only the sharp mind of DeVita can deliver.

Boy, oh boy, did I enjoy this disarming and witty father-son piece about what happens when Abraham and Isaac have to get home after...well, after what famously *almost* happened in the Bible *didn't* happen. Isaac's mouthy and unremarkably gay outrage is a freakin' joy to behold, and Abraham's desire to connect with his growing stranger of a son is beautiful and sweet. There are throwaway lines here that sparkle with such wit I want to quote them -- but won't, so they can slap an unexpected laugh out of you, too. Charming and winning and delightful.

Whew, what a tense multi-layered play this is: this claustrophobic cat-and-mouse drama about a parent-teacher conference with a loaded gun in the room also boasts a vividly emotional power-and-status struggle among the unseen kid characters bubbling underneath. I felt creeping anxiety right off the bat, and then white-knuckled through all the subtle shifts and reversals and turns, dreading all the places it might go...to then wind up someplace unexpected, unsettled and impressed with O'Day's masterful control of his characters and story. Effective and disturbing.

It seems that a lesson we often get in stories is to say "yes" to life, and see where it takes you. Here Daniel Prillaman spectacularly, egregiously, and hilariously tests that premise, in ways I guarantee you will not see coming. Jaw-dropping and utterly not right, this short play cracked me up and made me want to protect my sweet elderly mother from the knowledge that it exists.

A charming and intriguing guessing-game of a scifi two-hander, with great roles for actresses: the younger Maggie, a complex haiku of a role and no mere robot; and the elder Patricia, an ornery, fun, witty, kind, and emotionally deep character that any actress will itch to play. Full of questions and surprises about the choices that make a family, a life, and a human, not to mention the simple pleasure of making toast. Very satisfying.

This is a damn hoot and a joy: Hermia and Helena from A Midsummer Night's Dream are lost in the woods and encounter Sappho, whose hilarious, droll, and decidedly Sapphic guidance shows them a way out of their messy romantic entanglements with the boys. The dialogue is sharp and hilarious - a throwaway joke about pockets made me bark-laugh, and did I detect a Sondheim reference? - and the whole vibe left me smiling and giving quiet little fist-pumps. A delight.

So much to love about this play, so little space to list it all: the (literally) fantastic premise, the high ethical stakes, and the relationships complicated by very long histories. There's the delicious juxtaposition of the workaday setting with the enormous supernatural forces assembled there. There's the captivating metaphor of marginalized groups maintaining a shadow system of governance unseen by the dominant world. But mostly there's the rich, funny, angry, sad, brilliant characters, and the spoken and unspoken magic between them. Funny, moving, wearily romantic, and also kinda hot, this is a flat-out winner of a one-act.

This terrific 1-minute play has made me re-think what’s possible in that form. Every detail, every glance, every non-verbal action is hyper-important in telling the story of this complex, layered, profoundly emotional, and ultimately beautiful moment. A gorgeous reminder of the complicated and sometimes counterintuitive ways we depend on each other, especially when the chips are down.

This utterly bonkers romp throws characters and plots from 19th Century BritLit into a meat grinder -- Sense and Sensibility, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and Sweeney Todd, to name but a few -- and manages to turn out something not only coherent but balls-out hilarious! The endless pile-on of plot twists, coincidences, complications, and revelations are made all the more delightful by how entirely aware DeVita is of what he's doing -- and lest it get all too literary, he's not above indulging in some of the cheapest gags and wordplay I've ever been ashamed to guffaw at. A hoot.

Well, I wouldn't have thought "Speculative Fiction About Marie Antoinette" would be my jam, but here we the hell are. When it serves as a delivery vehicle for sparkly anachronistic dialogue, characters any actress would drool to play, a confident and sure-handed sense of comic rhythm, and generous doses of patriarchy-fucking, who am I to resist? Extremely smart and abundantly funny, this is comedy gold with something to say. Count me all the way in.