Recommended by Ally Varitek

This is for a thoughtful crowd, someone who wants to see theatre working through thoughts and memories that they themselves may be working through, too. I really enjoyed my time with this play because of my own feelings of being lost or disheartened in today’s day. This idea of lives not being our own feels like a very personal exploration of the consequences of systemic injustices in terms of both race and economic status in this instance. I find it left a strong impression on me for hours after reading the play. #BAPF46

With all of the gravity of a folktale and fueled by the old-soul energy of its protagonist, this play is easily one of my favorites and one I keep returning to . As Dontrell journeys to discover his role in his lineage, which poetically becomes a place both past, present, and future, the story connects us to those we come from and those we will become all at once.

Utilizing a more precious, more sentimental energy derivative of Beckett's work, this play (and its extra large wedding cakes) goes for something sweet, evoking depth without needing to name it. Thoughtful and bittersweet through its use of images alone.

Octavio Solis expands the notion of who counts as family and raises a group of unlike humans to their full worth by writing their characters fully and forcing Tom Joad to confront his own heart's judgments in a spin-off from Steinbeck that likely would find the original author watching his words.

The heart of this play seems to find the divine in the mundane. That's the way the light gets in.

Lewis' play is beautiful because it's normal, extraordinary because it's ordinary. Where we may often feel our own inadequacy to capture something that already exists, Lewis, like a weeping willow, shows resilient light peeking through sorrow in her play. I walked away from this work feeling renewed even in the recent sufferings of this world. I cannot recommend this play enough.