Recommended by Nora Louise Syran

Another take on Aristophanes? Yes! "Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever!" No need. Kantor's done it. Her wit and humor is unbroken but it’s her underlying message that grabbed me most. Her voice as a woman comes through loud and clear. She pushes LYSISTRATA in a thoroughly modern and ecological direction; the women are saving their men from economical and ecological disaster they themselves are unknowingly perpetuating. MOBY DICK meets LYSISTRATRA meets ERIN BROKOVICH...but it's all Kantor. Brava, playwright.

This was fun to hear read aloud during a Sunday afternoon zoom reading some time ago (!) so I agree it would make a good audio production. But like most of Feeny-Williams's work, it's flexible and fun. On stage, I saw zoot suits throughout and plenty of sparkles. Oh and those mermaids! Peter Pan and mystery lovers will gobble it up!

Caught a radio show recording of this play...and now having been able to read it in Lermond's Next Stage Press publication MAD FOR MYSTERY, the voices sprang to life again. Great fun! Superb characterizations.

I needed to read something modern. Fresh. I got it. Bray plunges us into the mind of a damaged soldier and while so much of this story is just plain strange, it works. It all comes together. Guy Friendly may be hanging on by a thread, but we're not; the audience will be fully engaged. We empathize with Guy Friendly through his delirium, flashbacks, visions, regrets for actions taken and not taken... I could see Wes Anderson Rushmore-like battle scenes on stage or really simple staging, as the imagery is there in the masterful dialogue. Bravo.

Chilling. And yet Blevins weaves in "relief, beauty, and hope" in this visceral and moving piece. History (and especially her-story) has to be told and revisited no matter how difficult. We must face it alongside these women who are facing it over and over again throughout the ages. Loved the historical allusions, poetry and use of Hebrew--which I'd love to be able to hear recited. Brava, playwright!

The title drew me in and Donnelly does not disappoint with this deeply personal, weightily real and yet uplifting play. A play about Emily's journey of healing through her selfless reaching out to those around her. I appreciated the use of flashbacks, generations of females and the hope and strength that permeate the piece.

Attention must be paid to Berthe Morisot and her story and especially her art. Kindred spirit Debra A. Cole does a lovely job bringing Morisot's relationship to the Manet brothers alive. I'm jealous she's written something that is easy to stage, delightful to act and potentially visually stunning. I'd always wondered about Morisot's statement: "I have sinned, I have suffered, I have atoned." Brava, playwright, for putting it into context.

As usual Norkin had me snorting from the first line to the last. With his "I see what you did there" anachronistic quips and geometrical jibes and plenty more. Clever and fun!

In acting classes they always tell you to never play a young person as young. Despite their often limited vocabulary, their thoughts and feelings and inner-selves are deep and we adults should just well, beware. Be aware. This is certainly the case for Daphne who "has the world-weariness of Faye Dunaway in her famous post-Oscar morning-after photo"(!) And Sickles gets this. He captures this spirit as neither he nor his Seamus Heaney-like tadpole catching heroine will stand for tea parties and little-girl squealing.

A lovely, layered short play about allowing ourselves to break free from what contains us. Sometimes it takes a true friend, who knows us better than we know ourselves, to give us a little nudge in the right direction.