Recommended by Vince Gatton

Scott Sickles has such a gift for writing about the bonds of love between characters, whether those bonds are romantic, sexual, fraternal, or platonic - especially when the love involved is mixed, contradictory, and confused. That is extremely so here, where his characters share a history that is at once beautiful, sad, and utterly horrifying. This story of trauma, mental illness, and the burden of past wrongs, remains underneath it all a story about love...complex and compelling and moving as hell, as Scott Sickles tends to have it. Beautifully done.

A witty and charming Faustian standoff, with apocalyptic stakes and some genuine emotional underpinnings. (Plus it has a Pippin reference, which, you know, makes everything better in my book.) Great fun.

Absolutely gorgeous. The frictions between these four terrific characters are made all the more poignant by the understanding and compassion Audrey Lang brings to each of their perspectives. The yearning romantic hope that drives her teen protagonists jumps off the page, as do their flaws and failings; and the frustrations and needs of a younger sister and supposedly wicked stepmother are given no less weight and care. With dialogue that’s both solidly realistic and endlessly expressive, this wonderfully humane story masterfully evokes all the feelings it aims for, and then some. Brava.

Messy, messy, messy, are the family dynamics explored so beautifully in John Mabey’s Stages of Joy. As Sharon and Mattie near the end of clearing out their deceased parents’ house, an accidental discovery sheds potential new light on old wounds — but whether that will prove to be a balm or more salt is unclear. The natural, easy flow of dialogue gives us two memorable characters: real, complicated adult siblings who are distanced but not estranged, loving but not close, and trying to do their best by each other. Well done.

Well, this is fun as hell. Poor dumb Evan wants desperately to live out the “flying home early and catching your wife having an affair” trope, for hilariously sad reasons, and the eminently reasonable Megan just wants to try that new restaurant that sticks cake slices on their milkshakes. The dialogue is witty and made me genuinely laugh out loud, and Feriend manages a tone that easily blends genuine down-to-earth feeling into the absurdity. All the roles are actor catnip, with strong intentions and comedic possibilities, and I imagine this plays like gangbusters on its feet. Brava!

This play is so stupid -- stupid-hilarious, that is, and stupid-smart. Kind of a "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" for the James Bond 007 genre, these two nitwit henchmen and their sorely-tested boss are laugh-out-loud stupid-funny. It pops on the page, and I gotta figure it would slay in front of a crowd.

An accusation of sexual assault drives the plot, but professional and personal jealousies and power dynamics define the twisty and twisted glory that is PERFECT TEETH. Hilarious, surprising, tight, and cringe-inducing, this short sharp shock of a play is both a bitter pill and a delicious meal.

Scott Sickles often goes where no one else has thought to, and does so with tremendous humor, pathos, and generosity of spirit. The four queer kids in Playing on the Periphery are such complex, funny, interesting individuals, and abundantly make the case that they are who they are well before sexual attractions enter the picture. Their needs, desires, tastes, and peculiarities, the losses and victories of these remarkable young humans (particularly at each other's hands), make for deeply compelling and entertaining drama. The Ring of Keys is right there, waiting, and Sickles is shining a light...

This recommendation really goes out to the whole series of Beauregard and Zeke short plays. They're all about sexual curiosity between two teenage boys, so there's a lot of sexual content -- but the frankness and specificity of the action keeps it well clear of feeling prurient. The care and attention paid to what's happening story- and character-wise in every moment, physical and verbal, sexual and non-, is what make these plays such a rich, sweet, romantic, funny, and moving rom-com mini-saga. If you've ever been there, the realness of this will get you where you live.

On the cusp of big life changes, two young men meet by the railway track for what will clearly be a goodbye. Martin does a terrific job of letting us understand what's unsaid and at stake between these two, eschewing clunky exposition and giving us dialogue that feels true to the ease and mutual understanding of two people whose lives have been deeply intertwined -- and are about to diverge. Simple, clear, sad, and lovely.