Recommended by Zach Barr

Absolute chaos. As queer and blunt as a brick thrown at a cop. I cannot stop thinking about the audience experience, bearing witness to this play: the intimate moments that are shown, the vulnerability asked of the actors, the huge swings the staging would require. An unforgettable read.

Moses' Oklahoma Cycle concludes (for now) with this intricately constructed love story, spanning four timelines and three Billies. A play where years of relationships can be understood in a few words, where all characters struggle with choosing between the life they know and the life that could be. Funny and fast, building to a breathtaking finale, the play's fluid timeline and high theatricality make for an unforgettable watch.

I appreciate how the ending of the play reframes all the romance that came before it – and gives a bittersweet edge to Jimmy's narration. Sweet and sad in equal amounts, it takes the basic plot of a romcom and raises the stakes through the richly painted familial relationships and tense political backdrop. Would be a delight to see actors bring their truth to this story.

Humorous and heartfelt as any family drama, "Arbeka" depicts the emotionally fraught, frequently comical, and historically rich experience of being Native today. Audiences of all identities will appreciate the blunt honesty of Moses' script: the ethical lapses the characters confront, the hard work of healing past wounds, and the enduring goal of preserving family connections. Add the unique sensory details of dance and food prep, and it's a vibrant play.

An astonishingly realized vision of the future, which invites an endless shower of questions about parenthood, identity, domestic roles, and the ethical limits of pursuing your own happiness. It kept me guessing and gasping the whole way through, with vividly flawed characters and a true dare of an ending. Produce it today – tomorrow is not guaranteed.

While necessary praise should be given to the brilliant parallels, in theme and in casting, I'm most drawn in by the play's layered take on trauma and forgiveness. How harm can be intended and bodily as well as passive and emotional, and how both leave traces not easily erased. How tattoo is a way of reappropriating the perpetually of pain in service of preserving memory and culture, rather than erasing it. The artform of tattoo could not ask for a better advocate than Guerzon's gem of a play.

Who gets to be a member of a culture? Who decides who counts as a member? How can you explain that culture to an outsider? How much of our identity is constructed in opposition to someone else's? And how can we meld the contradictory parts of ourselves into a singular personhood? Narratively and even metatheatrically, Moses' play is an active exploration of these questions. A dense Native American history, explored through a twisting, often shocking plot.

A simple premise provides the backbone for a grippingly well-written play about three relationships evolving into something more complex. I'm such a fan of all three characters Cameron has created here, each lovable and pokey in their own ways. A smart choice for anyone looking for a solid dialogue-focused one act!

"Funnie" balances precariously on the tightrope between laughing and crying, between hope and hopelessness, between the past and present. From a starting point of satirizing the struggles of women in comedy, the play barrels past that into a larger story of how the power dynamics of class and gender shape our ability to achieve, or even fight for, restorative justice. A moste merrie satyr play.

Spellbinding and complex in ways that will linger long past the gory final images, Guerzon's timely play dramatizes the breakdown of empathy across two generations, the teachers and the taught. Horrifically effective and insidiously paced, it bravely asks whether trying to care openly about a system designed not to care back is brave or misguided, then leaves the answer with audiences.