Recommended by John Busser

09.22.24 - Well NOW I want to see Dwarves vs Predator. What a fun little piece (for the whole family) from Rachel Feeny-Williams. But then, you always get fun pieces from Rachel. This is a fairy tale with some modern sensibilities to it. There's laughs, heart and even a touch of Spielberg, even if it's only over the phone. A terrific addition for a night of holiday plays.

09.22.24 - Thanks to Lee lawing for this one, because I WANT TO BELIEVE, just like Bobby Joe does. And he supplies the perfect payoff to this tale of close encounters. We may not ever find out who burned the welcome center down, but it's Bobby Joe who gets an even warmer welcome from out there. Fun and as uplifting as an alien tractor beam.

09.22.24 - Now THAT's a Christmas miracle I can get behind. Just when I thought Lee Lawing was going to go all dark and Krampus-y, he turns it around and gives me the best present I could want. AND STILL KEPT IT LEE-LAWING-Y while he did it. I laughed out loud a number of times and would kill an elf or two to see this staged.

09.22.24 - My God, the storm INSIDE that house was in a lot of ways worse than the one outside. Will Cloud pulls no punches in this two-hander showing that family ties draw the reddest blood. Watching Jimmy fight Pete for his own good even as Pete steadfastly clings to both hate and memory was incredibly moving and frustrating at the same time. Jimmy is on a rapidly-diminishing countdown and I wasn't sure whether he would succeed. To tell you more wouldn't be fair. Experience this one yourself.

09.22.24 - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I knew it! That was the most inevitable, yet supremely appropriate takedown of beer snobs I've ever seen. The pretentious descriptions of their tastings alone ("The cardamom and clove are fucking each other in my mouth, and creating a white pepper lovechild.") had me wanting to pee in their glasses. Considering how funny this was, I had to pee anyhow. You go Billy, you magnificent Stella-drinking bastard.

09.22.24 - Wow, that escalated fast. James Binz doesn't mess around here. As I read I kept wondering how was Tori going to get out of this, and really, should she? And maybe this is morbid of me, but I wondered if each and every one of those murder weapons WAS going to be used. Not sure what that says about me. Darkly funny and just wild enough to make me think, "There's an episode of Jerry Springer here."

09.22.24 - Like watching Carl Denham himself sweet talk Ann Darrow into being the original second banana to the 8th wonder of the world, this play from James Binz hints at a less flattering side of movie making. There's more going on behind the glib fast talk all in service of giving the public what they want. Here the agent's job is ALSO on the line. Binz has fun here with these characters, but you realize that the Ape isn't the real monster of this piece.

09.22.24 - A modern-day feminist Beowulf by way of school politics and bully-culture. That's quite a swing for the fences here, and it works beautifully. Some stories are quick to take sides but here we see that monstrous actions aren't always so cut and dried. Charlotte Lang-Bush shows that the monsters aren't always the ones with the fangs. I'd love to see this staged and watch the audience come to their own conclusions.

09.20.24 - Just finished listening to this on the Gather By the Ghost Light podcast and what a hoot it was. As someone who constantly gives voice to my own dog, I was totally down with the voices of the character mutts in this delightful play by Kara Emily Krantz. As I listened I was able to picture the dogs individual body languages and behaviors. The story is fun, and silly just the way dogs can be. I loved it.

09.18.24 - I was taken aback by where this went, because of that second last line (no spoilers here, find out yourself). Raymond McAnally has whipped up a dark satire of playground politics that has farther reaching implications. Especially in these charged times. I'd love to see an audience reaction to this, as the current thought on some of the issues covered here tends to be a divisive one, when you apply the narrative to the larger social landscape. Much food for thought here.