Recommended by Caro Asercion

  • Queen
    10 Apr. 2018
    It’s rare to see plays that deal specifically with STEM themes in a way that edifies without losing entertainment value, but “Queen” succeeds here—regally!—with flying colors. The plot stays compelling without becoming a dramatization of the scientific process, thanks to playwright Madhuri Shekar’s charismatic and dynamic characters. “Queen” succeeds at being exactly as self-contained as its narrative requires: every scene advances the characters toward the script’s stirring culmination without a beat feeling extraneous or misplaced.
  • Hookman
    10 Apr. 2018
    “Hookman” starts out grounded in the world of classic horror tropes, but builds with unshaking tonal consistency until it becomes apparent that this is really a platform to explore a larger theme. Lauren Yee delicately peels back the layers on her young protagonists, both leaning into and subverting the conventions of the genre until the line between memory and reality is fully blurred. A stirring examination of grief, loss, and confronting your own fear of letting go.
  • Snowflakes, or Rare White People
    8 Apr. 2018
    As the U.S. inches ever slowly toward the Minority Majority, “Snowflakes, or Rare White People” is a sandbox in which playwright Dustin Chinn digs beyond harmless white stereotypes and asks pressing questions: how do we as a culture currently view race, and how might that change in the future? What could a world untouched by western, Eurocentric ideals look like, and what does that world look like when it collides with those ideals for the first time? “Snowflakes…” dissects the very notion of a post-racial society.
  • HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO
    8 Apr. 2018
    Jiehae Park’s “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” merges the mythic and the modern in a dexterous and syncretic collision of time and space. The play takes on an almost Wonderlandian edge at times, but never to its detriment—Park keeps the story grounded (seamlessly!) through tight, polished characterization and meaningful familial relationships. A keen meditation on the power of folklore, legacy, coping with grief, and searching for a culture that was never quite yours to claim, “Hannah…” is an artfully-structured adventure from start to end to denouement and everywhere in between.
  • Fast Company
    7 Apr. 2018
    The heist-that-goes-wrong is a genre that is rife with potential: for tense interpersonal conflict, for dramatic irony, for comedy that stems from characters’ overambitious goals. Carla Ching’s “Fast Company” takes this already delightful genre and pushes at its boundaries by bringing onto the scene a family of four—each with their own distinct personality tics and familial baggage. The stakes of the play rise quickly, driven not just by the plot but by the relationships between characters, culminating in an unexpectedly heartfelt ending.
  • Satisfaction
    6 Apr. 2018
    It often still feels rare to find a play that highlights multiple distinct, unique relationships between several women, let alone one that carries such spark as Shenoy does with “Satisfaction”. The protagonists here are not flat or two-dimensional characters, but compelling, charismatic women, each expertly written and each with her own time in the spotlight. (And of course, there is always a healthy dose of comedy to keep with the playwright’s signature style.)
  • Today Is My Birthday
    5 Apr. 2018
    Susan Soon He Stanton’s “Today is My Birthday” is an elegantly-constructed script riddled with delight. An assortment of eclectic characters orbit through protagonist Emily’s day-to-day life, which offers the show’s ensemble actors the opportunity to span the full emotional gamut in a variety of scene-stealing performances. In filtering these scenes always through the lens of telecommunication—voicemail, phone calls, intercoms, broadcast radio—Stanton offers an incisive commentary on the 21st-century desire for human connection beyond technology.
  • King of the Yees
    5 Apr. 2018
    “King of the Yees” weaves together questions of personal, familial, and cultural legacy without undermining itself or crafting an air of unearned sentimentality. Playwright Yee sets up the emotional arc of the play to the score of a well-crafted story; every scene lands in a sweet spot of character development, plot advancement and rollicking adventure. With fun roles for actors, snappy humor, and heartfelt familial relationships, “King of the Yees” threads the needle of its own narrative to excellent payoff.
  • Bike America
    5 Apr. 2018
    In “Bike America”, playwright Mike Lew forges strong relationships between protagonist Penny and her cohort of fellow bikers as they travel the U.S. countryside. The character personalities span the full range from larger-than-life caricatures to down-to-earth sensibilities, but the play’s absurdity never overpowers its groundedness—nor vice versa. In a world full of weary millennial ennui, “Bike America” emerges as a stand-out satirical deconstruction of the American Road Trip genre.
  • Wolf Play
    6 Dec. 2017
    “Wolf Play” captures a multiplicity of voices in its storytelling. Each of the play's five main characters has a distinct relationship with the other four, and as the narrative unfurls the character relationships become even more compelling—with even higher stakes. Light on its feet, this script searches for moments to tear into convention, and delivers jabs that will knock the audience off their balance. Bold and exciting: a play to watch out for.

Pages