Recommended by Maximillian Gill

A wonderful play filled with magical moments and deep levels of understanding for young people who are trying to negotiate so many precarious situations on the way to growing up and understanding themselves. God is an amazing character, full of life and humanity.

Beautiful and enigmatic. This piece operates in mythic, poetic, and dreamlike spaces, but it is also purely theatrical and the characters' journeys vivid and intensely rendered. How Pankratz manages to pull all of this off in a single play is frankly astonishing to me. The use of personified dreams as aspects of consciousness is a masterstroke. A wonderful play that keeps you thinking.

A truly fascinating play. What starts out seeming like a "stoner" comedy takes a turn when a very unique and enigmatic but very present character shows up. And then we're off. Pandey interweaves themes of class, caste, the legacy of colonialism, and other culturally specific concepts in a way that never feels forced. The power of this play resides in ambiguity and inherently stage-worthy set pieces. It comes alive on the page, and I can imagine it being an indelible experience on stage.

A fascinating and absorbing piece. The writer uses the intriguing notion of a mystical connection between twins as a basis for exploring different responses to grief, including those that are far less than exemplary. I admire how Nozicka lets the characters be real and act in ways that are all too human. I love how the play keeps you guessing, just when you think you know what's going on it takes another turn. Gripping work.

A lovely and powerful play. One technical aspect I really admire is how carefully Maisel structures the story and dialogue so that we remain intrigued but are never lost as the complex tale plays out through generations. The ending is surprising, deeply moving, and effortlessly executed. It all rests on rich characters expertly rendered.

One of my initial thoughts while reading this piece was how could the writer possibly sustain this level of absurdity and keep us engaged for the span of a full-length play. The writer succeeded and more. The dynamics are complex and constantly changing; just as the characters can never attain any sense of complacency, neither can we. We end up hanging onto these arbitrary numbers as much as the characters do, even as we never lose sight of the hollowness of it all. Exhilarating work.

Mandryk's premise for this short piece is pure comedy gold: An exorcism performed good cop, bad cop style. The tropes of both the horror genre and the police procedural are interwoven in a consistently witty manner, and there's nothing funnier than watching a demon from the depths play victim. Super fun!

I was all in for a quirky comic piece with an especially dynamic and enjoyable character in the form of Addy, and then I got to the reveal, which turns everything on its head in a thrilling way. The deliberate pacing is perfectly timed and precise as we learn one chilling detail after another about what is really going on here. The characters are so finely detailed and complex that everything that happens is completely believable even with the fantastic elements. The last page is a gut punch.

Enigmatic, mystical at times, philosophical, and always very funny and engaging. This piece gives so much in a short time span. The reveal is one of the character's identity is a great moment that instantly kicks this one to a whole other level. Everything about this play stays with you, particularly the implications of the ambiguous ending. It somehow manages to be both unnerving and uplifting.

The way this piece creates intense, compacted meaning is simply breathtaking. So many moments pass in silence and gentleness, with visuals that evoke a raw sort of wonderment. Then there are moments that shock, that bring in visions of man and nature at their most violent. It's going to take me a while to think through what this play is telling me, but it is telling me something elemental and powerful. Astonishing work.