Recommended by Ryan Stevens

  • Storyplaying
    11 Jun. 2020
    This play has stuck with me in a way few other works of fiction ever have. A compact world, an image of youth in crystal-clear focus, and an exploration of how we project meaning and the soul on the things that are important to us. This play ignites the imagination and burns right into your subconscious.
  • The New Galileos
    26 Feb. 2020
    A rallying cry, a funeral for integrity, and an image of a future already happening. This parable of scientific crises and the way those who seek truth are muzzled by those in power reverberates with the power and resonance of a prophecy. Berryman's script is relentless and vicious in its ideas. This play is engineered with a diamond cutter's precision to be as devastating, well-expressed, and sincere as humanly possible.
  • Queen of Sad Mischance
    24 Feb. 2020
    An endless satisfying game of three-dimensional chess. This play lulls you in with the drama of academia and Shakespeare's histories, then springs its true cleverness and emotional power as all three characters grow closer and closer, ensuring the potency of the inevitable blow-up. A story of self-determination, family, and fearing the future, Queen of Sad Mischance is one of the most satisfying scripts I've encountered in a long time.
  • Charlotte Stay Close
    29 Dec. 2019
    This play is an incredible, tender, and heart-breakingly sincere look at death, loss, and how we do and don't say goodbye. A compact, precise diamond of focused storytelling. Not a word is wasted, and not a moment misses its mark. This play is a must-produce and a must-see.
  • Monuments
    19 Nov. 2019
    Fox's characters instantly feel real, and leap out of the fiction into your mind like you'd known them for years. The graceful and subtle conflicts between these charming, flawed, and fundamentally clear people ensnares you before you realize it, and the play's ultimate climax is all the more devastating because of it. This is fantastic story well-told!
  • The Odyssey of Tyrell James
    19 Nov. 2019
    A searing, confident, and timely exploration of how time does and does not change us. Williams' boundless imagination is matched by his clarity and focus -- The Odyssey of Tyrell James carries the weight of hundreds of years of oppressive history with style and aplomb. A dose of magical realism that is extremely Real, and a must-produce.
  • Ooze
    12 Nov. 2019
    A kaleidoscopic vision of interiority, femininity, and solitude blown up to the size of a solar system. Chloe Xtina's imagination has the power and intensity of the sun. At the edge of the world, at the end of perhaps everything, how do we define ourselves, and how can we ever be truly our own in such a crowded-yet-still-lonely world? This is a play asking huge questions and throwing huge answers at the wall, and it should be staged as far and wide as a country-enveloping desert.
  • Cigarettes May Ruin Your Moment
    8 Nov. 2019
    Achingly tender and bold in its sincerity, this script is another example of the keen humanism that makes Mahrer such a dynamic playwright. In ten minutes we see a fraught and traumatic topic unfold with no cheap shocks, no finger-pointing or shouting, and all the attention exactly where it should be.
  • UFO (this world is for the frat bros)
    4 Sep. 2019
    This play is a true vision -- a singular piece of art in its own world with its own rules of physics and gravity that will make you reel with profound understanding. Xtina's characters are so deep and bone-achingly human in every respect. This is a masterful exploration of childhood, ambition, gender, sexuality, and control in the face of the ever-alien world around us. This play, when put in front of audiences will change minds and alter lives. See this play. Do this play.
  • Last Waltz
    28 Jul. 2019
    Last Waltz captures the poetic longing of a dream, with painfully clear humanity and a beautiful sense of time and space. Mahrer is like an impressionist painter, letting character movements and solitary moments fill the space in vibrant night colors. This play is so beautiful and so gentle with its heartbreaking quality. It will stay in your mind.

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