Recommended by Zach Barr

Faster than a buffalo stampede and slipperier than a Carolina rattlesnake, Halle’s rip-roaring tale of wanting, weddings, and womanhood makes for a gripping play. Familial shame, financial instability, lesbian urges, and animal husbandry are a lot to include in one play, but the comic tone and enormously likeable characters are the counterweights that guide the audience through. Get it into production yesterday. Giddy up!

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
An outrageously funny and sharp comedy about government paralysis and bomb threats. Its careful pacing is a welcome relieve to a 24-hour cycle of disasters, and its discussion of political reality vs. idealism feels both pointed and even handed. A rare treat of a Gen Z perspective on history.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
An Epic work in the truest sense of the word, Vaish’s wholly original play is a lush reckoning with faith, ambition, and the need to be remembered for, or by, something. Featuring eight fully human characters, and a tone of exuberant theatricality, it’s a journey more than worth the trek for any company ambitious enough to stage it. Harrowing and uplifting in equal measure.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A play that begins as a story about covering up abuse, and turns quite drastically into a play about a cover-up of a different, if similar, kind. Dietsche weaves a deft script that kept me tense and speechless, while considering how our initial impressions of people - and characters - affects our ability to view their less wholesome sides.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A spooky little fable about how the best way of changing the world is to affect the hearts of those around you. From a tiny chance interaction, the play unfolds years of distrust that culminate in a necessary reconciliation.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A masterful update of the Greek tragedy, which feels both timely and speculative at once. Four rich roles for actors that run from broad comedy to intense tragedy, and a futuristic world painted with smart, sparse detail. Smith's script does not shy away from trauma, but the audience always feels cared for, along the way. Begging to be staged.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A rabbit hole that starts deep and only gets deeper and danker, Sutton's play is a clever look at how the tools women have to achieve autonomy can be corrupted to trap them even more. Immense opportunities for innovative and immersive design.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
“The truest form of body horror is the horror of having a body.” An uproariously funny story how in order to love others, we must forgive ourselves. An absolute feast for three comic actors, and any company who loves family trauma, queer love, and meat. Stage this play!

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A harrowing and tense play about the doom spiral of conspiratorial thinking, the desperation to be remembered in a digital ecosystem designed to discard you, and the creep of one doubt becoming a doubt of all reality. Kautzman’s script perfectly replicates the frustration at a world that doesn’t seem to care, while taking a terrifying look at the residual damage we can do in our attempts to regain control.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
When we play out a fantasy scenario, are we free to be ourselves without limits, or are we hiding from the hard truths of the real world? Romero and Grace-Duff craft a mystery box of a play that wraps layers of gameplay and fiction around a devastating core. Perhaps all that happens is fake, but the fear of loneliness is all too real.