Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

I adore this short! So smart and funny and also sweet, while also being true to the kinds of outlandish actions and thinking of people desperately trying to conceive, who feel they are running out of time. The exchange about bears and salmon was my favorite, and I love that it ends ambiguously happily.

I've been sitting here trying to put into words what I want to say about this play for a while now, and I'm not sure what I can say to do it justice. I love that all the characters are flawed and it doesn't feel preachy. I love that the play will make Black theater goers feel seen and force white theater goers to self-reflect. I especially love the confrontation between Jasmine and Cal being played three different times, in three different tones. This play has been in my reading list for a WHILE, and it was worth the wait.

I feel this monologue in my soul. With universality in her specificity, Gina Femia nails both the unmooring so many of us felt when a pussygrabber ascended to the highest office in the land, as well as the thoughts and feelings of a young woman trapped by her own personal pussygrabber. The toggling between the two is genius and the writing is fantastic.

What I love so much about Demon Eyes is it's an epic story about good and evil, but it's also a simple story about a young woman trying to fit in. Julessa is a demon who was abandoned and raised by a fallen angel and her husband, alongside their half-angelic daughter, Cassie. The play is a wonderful study on nature versus nurture, family dynamics, and self-discovery told through a lens that raises all the stakes beyond most family dramas. Plus the two sisters anchoring the show are rich roles different from what's typically available for women in their teens/20s.

I love this. At first you think it’s a monologue about a young woman helping the guy she loves, but for whom she’s ‘not even the girlfriend,’ and then it pivots and becomes a commentary on the theater world and what roles are available to women. I was thoroughly wrapped up in the monologue, and then after the shift, I kept muttering “Yes... YES. EXACTLY.” This is wonderful. What a gift for a young actor.

This short in which two broken people become almost-friends is sad and sweet. I especially enjoyed the effect of it seeming to mirror the beginning as it nears the conclusion, but then morphing into something different, with less loneliness.

I love plays where you have to figure out who to believe, and this short is a great example of that. Susan seems to be going crazy, but is she? I also enjoy that what she experienced that led her to fortify her apartment against evil is mentioned, but never in detail, allowing your imagination to run wild. This play is a great mix of comedy and horror.

This play feels like a time capsule in so many ways. Taking place at the end of the Nixon administration/beginning of the Ford administration, full of music from the era, and with a heavy dose of magic realism, this is an engaging story about coming of age and coming to terms.

This short is so sweet! Two 2nd graders play house at recess. One has a great home life and a clear vision of what that entails. The other doesn’t and struggles to yes-and her as they play. I enjoyed the enthusiasm they had for the weirdest things, and the flash-forward moments added poignancy. Very clever!

Ooooh SPOOKY. This one act about a mysterious bridge in a small southern town at the center of several unexplained disappearances gets creepier and creepier as it goes along. I love all the instances of uncertainty over what is real versus what seems to be real, James's creepy, cryptic warning, and the twist ending. Also, this play would be a sound designer's dream. I'm glad I read it during the day. Hope I'm not too scared to walk down the hall to the bathroom tonight.