Recommended by Ryan Stevens

  • VERNON
    19 Mar. 2024
    What a fascinating short play! A period piece of the early 2000s, a memory play on the perils of childlike imagination, a marital drama starring a teddy bear. Vivid and immediate, playful and cutting, the total package.
  • The Art of Witchcraft in the 21st Century
    25 Oct. 2023
    A fast, furious, feminist fable on the power and danger of giving your all for your craft. Smith assembles two characters that are full to the brim with life and personality. In a world where you end up having to sell your soul to something, usually your job, why not try the devil instead? Really, what do you have to lose, that this world isn't going to take already?
  • Give Me My Flowers
    30 Aug. 2023
    A wonderful insight into ambition and living with dreams out of reach. Velandra's characters are both immediately clear to the audience and full of unseen complexity. Their relationship and the way the play develops them create an excellent engine to power this tightly-focused, character-first whip-smart script.
  • teddybear
    2 Aug. 2023
    A gutwrenching small-town noir that shoves a hand in your chest to grip your heart and never lets go. Appleby's most impressive trick is how they toss you into the middle of this sprawling, knotted mystery, then efficiently unties the whole thing in under 60 pages. The mystery is clear and concise, and you never feel the gears turning until the floor falls out from under you. I mixed my metaphors there, but the point stands -- a fascinating, edge-of-your-seat examination of the terrible creatures lurking under the pleasant suburban surface.
  • dis/member
    20 Dec. 2022
    "these are the consequences of caring"
    Within a gristly premise, Timms finds an altogether different kind of 'visceral' sensation -- the gory action and the intimately tender reflection of longing, self-destructive desire, and passion (in both the romantic and Biblical sense). It's beautiful in its deceptive depth and its straightforward audacity. A bloody, beautiful gem.
  • Indoor Cats
    10 Aug. 2022
    A smart, grounded snapshot of early pandemic existence, and an insightful exploration of the artistic desire to create when the world is on fire. Harris meets every character on their own terms, human or otherwise, and every perspective is as sharply developed as can be. Timely and engaging!
  • burnout.
    13 Dec. 2021
    A guttingly human look at the high cost of trying to live. Immediate, powerful, and achingly human. highly recommended.
  • Apple-at-cha: A Ghost Story
    7 Oct. 2021
    Absolutely stellar -- an exorcism of the contradictory identity of the American South, told with heart and sincerity. Utterly spellbinding and achingly human. A family play that actually feels relevant and insightful for a change.
  • A Prophecy is the Scariest Thing
    31 May. 2021
    This is a fascinating artifact of life in the pandemic, encapsulating the inevitable doom we all felt creeping in, rendered with humanity and warmth. Smith writes with the specificity and clarity of someone who really just might know what the future holds, or at the very least knows how people will react.
  • The Sisters Sic(k)
    19 Apr. 2021
    This play is fantastic! A fascinating deep dive into familial trauma and the fundamental horror of trying to know other people. Fox has such a knack for instantly recognizable and humane characters, and her seamless balance between family drama and the supernatural is incredible.

Pages