Recommended by John Busser

  • The Savior [a monologue]
    22 Apr. 2024
    I was stunned by this tragic, yet touching monologue from Steve Martin. Gabriel feels so conflicted as we watch him try to both honor and blame his older sibling for the sin of contracting a life-threatening disease. And finding out his parents true intent for his own conception is both sad and relatable. Who wouldn't have mixed feelings over these circumstances? My highest recommendation for this outstanding piece of writing. I'll be processing this one for quite a while.
  • Please, Don't Go
    22 Apr. 2024
    In one minute Neil Radtke takes us on an emotional roller coaster, except this coaster track ends much too abruptly. Such as what sometimes happens in real life. This was heart-breaking.
  • RAVINE (radio drama version)
    22 Apr. 2024
    Wow, this short radio play from Michele Clarke hits hard and then ratchets up the stakes and the tension in equal measure. The well placed use of sound (the crash, the water, etc) with no visual to guide you works even more to terrify you. I don't mean this in a derogatory fashion, but thank God this is only a short play. It's so effective in setting the situation, I don't think I could've taken a longer journey with them. Absolutely chilling.
  • Dickery Pokery
    22 Apr. 2024
    I found myself slowly crossing my legs as I read this. Holy cow, this was both funny as hell and cringe-inducing at the same time. I loved that hapless Tony was trying so hard to please his wife in a way that, frankly, gives me the heebie-jeebies to contemplate doing. The character of Claire holds her own quite well. A hilarious start to my day courtesy of Brandon Urrutia. And I'm going to be walking funny for the rest of that day.
  • Poetica
    22 Apr. 2024
    There's a frothiness to Jordan and Flannery's conversation that only happens in a play. We only WISH we could be as smart, as eloquent, as damned entertaining as these two characters from Scott Sickles imagination. And since he wrote them, I guess Scott IS that smart, eloquent and entertaining in real life. If we ever meet, I'll be straining to keep up my end of the conversation. OR I could just read or watch his work and enjoy his company that way, as a satisfied audience member. That's a fact, NOT opinion.
  • Do Not Resuscitate: A Mini Play About The Able-Bodied
    22 Apr. 2024
    This play needs to be staged if only to see how a play about noodle-armed people dealing with the travesty of a newborn with - gasp - hands would even work. This would be a fascinating creative exercise and I would imagine there are enough creative types out there willing to give it a go. Just don't offer to give them a hand staging it. You'll be run out of town. H. Avery wins for the strangest concept I've read in a while.
  • Assassinating Zeus
    21 Apr. 2024
    Surreal, funny as hell and unexpectedly thoughtful (The violence WAS expected though. Said it right there in the beginning). Dan Prillaman is a twisted, bent individual. But in the best way. No one blends humor and goosefeathers like he does. (I suspect no one would want to) But thank God he wants to, because we got this play out of it.
  • CYNTHIA'S CHOICE -- A FIRST LIGHT MONOLOGUE
    21 Apr. 2024
    I absolutely loved this monologue about the finite nature of memory and our efforts to preserve them. Michele Clarke has written a wonderful account for those of us who are both lovers of family history, yet at the same time, we are lazy caretakers of that self same history. I myself have box after box of tapes, films, photos, drawings from my past that I look at lovingly, yet leave them to their eventual disintegration. This monologue spoke to me.
  • Fly Away - A 5-Minute Play
    21 Apr. 2024
    As beautifully written as it is devastating, Deb Cole's look at loss and living on after is quiet, but it speaks volumes. Lacey is desperately looking for a way to hang on to her late daughter and finds it in a cardinal. David is even more interesting here. There's a sense of anger under his words. I was fascinated with his take on possibility seeing their child in the afterlife. It made him angry that a possible creator would take away their little girl in the first place. These are rich, complex characters brought to us in only 5 pages.
  • The Juggler
    21 Apr. 2024
    Oh my God! That was brilliant! I loved the idea. I loved the characters. I especially loved the wordplay! Morey Norkin is a spiritual successor to Norm Crosby, the patron saint of malapropisms. Keep these coming Morey. I need more nonsense like this in my life.

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