Recommended by Michael Cotey

There is an abundance of energy and style in the piece. Weingarten fully captures a superficial and irreverent tone that at its best is a successful satire of a millennial “live your best self” / “you be you” culture. The play gains extra resonance in our current moment amid the COVID-19 crisis and the cavalier point of view some young people populating Florida beaches have shown toward world events. The play does not skimp on its critique of gender roles and issues of class. The playwright has a DISTINCT, refreshing voice, full of chaotic, anarchist energy.

Dawes masterfully sets up an eclectic group of unique characters whom you get to know well enough without it feeling like exposition is being laid out at any point to give the audience a full picture of the individuals. The characters are great antitheses of each other, but like any good character pairings, they are also more a like than they care to acknowledge, and that
acknowledgement is part of the journey. The results are hilarious and full of heart!

I was moved by the kindness that flowed through this play. The opioid epidemic IS something that theatre ought to be tackling more. Full stop. Fazio's play does that with heart and empathy. I was rooting for her characters – three strong, flawed, human, women. Her play is hopeful, a celebration of our better angels - it's a play craves a world where human connection and a recognition of human worth is part of our first line of defense against the opioid epidemic. It's hopeful and refreshing in an otherwise bleak world. It's rehearsal for a better world.

A highly theatrical, necessary interrogation of our country. Themes of legacy, loss as a result of ambitious pursuit, and what makes us Americans resonated strongly with me, as well as compelling debates over what exactly makes America great, and how this democracy should be governed. JQA investigates how we got from the Founding Fathers to Trump, how the pitfalls and trials we are encountering now as a country are the same ones JQA encountered in his long life. This is the perfect play to engage with at a time when our country feels to be teetering on a precipice.

This play is devastating and vital. To show the stresses of public education on either end of the spectrum – either the stresses on teachers in under-resourced schools or the stresses on students in highly-competitive schools – would, and has, been enough for plays in the past. This tremendous play is SO unique (and bold) in tackling both and, together, shows how utterly broke the American education system is: where good people are pushed to act immorally to keep up with a fundamentally unfair system that privileges the privileged.

Joelle's characters are so funny, so completely realized and so real. Full of heart and love. The great success of your play is that it taps into the universal through the specific. The specific experience of Zalmy and Shmuel’s devotion to the Rebbe will only be shared by a minority but the obsession of two passionate teenagers, the trials and tribulations of finding yourself in the world, the strains of friendship as new people enter a tightly defined dynamic or when a someone you love begins to change – these are all things an audience can relate to. Excellent work!