Recommended by Vince Gatton

How is it I'm feeling so educated about cosmic phenomena and ruthlessly (though affectionately) mocked all at once? Oh, it's because I just read RIPPLE, this delightfully funny, weird, and informative play about the nature of black holes...and actors. Excellent metatheatrical fun here from Rachael Carnes -- plus, you know, it's totally based on true events! Ancient, ancient, ANCIENT events. So that's a bonus.

Respect to Respects, because I genuinely laughed out loud at this. Its dark mind-frak of a premise was right up my alley, and the execution spot on. All the characters are fun and believable (well, believable to exactly the extent they're meant to be), and Hayet manages to stick a landing I did not expect but felt exactly right. Dark, hilarious, and surprisingly compassionate, this sucker is a well-constructed winner.

Wait...what?

Hold on a sec, let me read that again.

No. Yeah. OK. Yeah, I did read that right the first time.

Huh.

Well.

Whew, that was A LOT.

Everyone's got their lines they just won't cross; and then there's Steven Hayet's Pineapple Line, a savage short comedy that tests everyone's limits. A balls-to-the-wall hoot.

A wickedly fun, self-aware, meta-theatrical Halloween treat. While skewering tired clichés about Tragic Gays, Unburied revels in a smorgasbord of horror and fantasy tropes — I detected bits of Frankenstein, Murder By Death, The Eyre Affair, and Deathtrap, to name a few — while scratching at bigger questions about some gay people’s strained relationship to their own sense of identity. Good, murderous fun.

This charming-as-hell short play shows Steven Strafford’s keen eye and capable hand. The banter is witty, the characters are likable, the metaphors are self-conscious yet astute, and the revelations are well-timed and -executed. Tremendously actable with clear intentions and stakes, this sly rom-com left me smiling, and utterly disarmed.

I saw this play last year at the OOB Festival and really dug it; reading it here now I like it even more. It contains so much about power and privilege and resentment, while staying firmly grounded in realistic dialogue between believable, smart, human characters. The finely calibrated way they each lean in - or get sucked in - to what’s boiling underneath their cocktail party congratulatory chat is something to behold. Their arguments are made intelligently & in good faith, which serves to make some of those arguments even more extra-bonus-infuriating. Timely and timeless, I expect.

Bloody hell, what a world we live in that this is an entirely plausible drama that could be playing out in schools all across America. Minigan does an excellent job of taking a societal issue and making it personal, with sharp dialogue, high stakes, and deeply emotional and practical consequences for his characters. I say this as highest praise: this play made me feel sick to my stomach. Also: great title. Well done.

Exquisite non-verbal moments, dry wit, and then some of the most beautiful language you’d ever hope for to capture dark times. What struck me the most, though, was the breathtaking intimacy of love captured here: the relatable, lived-in, physical, soulful, small and quiet yet enormous and world-defining love between these two. Brava.

An experiment in radical frankness, DIS/CONNECT displays a terrific ear for dialogue and character. Andy and Robyn feel specific and jagged and interesting, with whole lives that exist outside this play. Their verbal jousting is smart and witty, even when it's at its saddest, and Martin has a nice sense of non-verbal "speech" as well. Equal parts sparkling and weary, I found this very satisfying.

Holy crap, do I love this so much. On top of the well-deserved skewering of office-culture frustrations and banalities, this play has a lot to say about isolation, friendship, and the incremental ways humans build connections even from afar. Precise in her observation of behavioral details and emotional nuances, Gillian Beth Durkee gives us full, rich characters, plenty of genuine wit, and emotional payoffs that she earns honestly. Excellent.