Recommended by Zach Barr

How good a person do you have to be to have earned being happy? What does it mean to make a positive impact when we exist in a species that causes so much harm to the Earth? Do you want to listen, or just want to be heard? Barsanti’s trademark punchy dialogue radiates in this not-quite-domestic drama, ever blooming with dramatic surprises and challenging ethical questions. A play toeing the line between cynicism for Humanity, and hope for Us.

There is no other script that wrestles with the totality of the trans experience in the way "Rare Wolves" does. The community, the targeting, the abundant love, the white-hot anger, the reclaiming of pain, the security of softness – Labotka's lyrical script weaves through all of these, while anchored on a story of finding one's pack and forgiving old wounds. Six roles that TGNC performers will want to sink their teeth into. Effortfully bold, cheekily funny, and utterly unique.

Huneke's writing is marked by a dogged commitment to even the most ludicrous of narratives, which in turn encourages audiences to commit just as fully. The (incredibly gay) bond between Echo and Satan is the tentpole grounding this time-hopping vocal fry of a play, which sounds like Divine Comedy and smells like Teen Spirit. A great read.

In a fantasy setting, "the end of the world" is a plot point. For teenagers, it's just another day. Reasoner's funny and elegiac script captures that adolescent feeling of being on the precipice of everything you know coming to an end. Some really interesting hints towards magical realism and time dilating, handled by a quartet of believable, likable teens.

A plainspoken meditation on connections across nature. I appreciate how humanity are held up as both exceptional among nature, in our destructions and our emotions, while still remaining folded into the vast panoply of the Earth. A welcome expansion on the ten-minute play that closes this piece out.

A play that critiques the conventions of the Western, while also showcasing why the genre remains popular. Ro and Prophet both shift as the story continues from trusting the white establishment to realizing they can and should abandon it, while remaining split over how, and how vindictively, to do so. Huge opportunities for actors and designers to run wild.

The future Kearnan builds out in this domestic sci-fi story is utterly unique, with enough worldbuilding to sustain the plot and just enough left open-ended to stick with audiences. A fascinating story of safe lies vs. unsettling truth, capped by a whopper of a finale.

Creech's play stands apart for its sentimental handling of its cast, amid the unsentimental portrayal of their circumstances. A deftly written script that depicts the greatest wound of economic instability: not just lacking the means to get through today, but lacking the belief to get through tomorrow. The ending is satisfying while leaving its central conflict unsettled.

A furious and absurdist story of predators who have run out of prey to devour and now must subsist by sacrificing their own – and also some raccoons. SMJ's style is perfectly pitched to the high-strung tension of the alt right, with whip-fast pivots in the plot that will disorient even as they draw the audience further in, before a brutal ending. Funny, then scary, then both at once.

A play that whispers its secrets and lets them reverberate around the audience. An evocative, eerie story about the agony and ecstasy of acting on your fiercest impulses, and the dangers of declaring yourself to be the arbiter of who is beyond salvation. A play whose scope is both domestic and panoramic at once, with enormous opportunities for designers and dancers.