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Daniel Hirsch

Recommended by Daniel Hirsch

  • A Series of Inelastic Collisions by Eugenie Carabatsos
    25 Jun. 2021
    “ It was so satisfying to spend some time with a richly layered portrait of an American family in this current very troubled time in American life. Each character of Rain's clan felt fully realized and wonderfully complex. This play was at times moving, funny, and always tender. ”
  • The Dark by Serena Berman
    29 Aug. 2019
    “ This play was simply thrilling. It perfectly captures the abject horror of adolescence and that of an actually haunted basement. When I wasn't laughing, or cringe-laughing, I was white-knuckling my armrests in total terror. The production I saw at the 2019 Samuel French Off Off Broadway was elegantly and simply staged and I could see future productions doing great things with THE DARK. ”
  • Winner by Amy Berryman
    28 Aug. 2019
    “ I saw this play at the 2019 Samuel French Off Off and laughed out loud through all of it. But it was the kind of laugh that was rooted in an uncomfortable knowledge that a work of art is holding up a mirror to a community so that it may better see its worts. WINNER examines the nature of creative competition, racial politics, and asks what kind of art should be valued in "the current climate." It does so brilliantly, hilariously, and...winningly. ”
  • PARTNER OF — by Rachael Carnes
    28 Aug. 2019
    “ This short play packs a powerful punch that left me feeling haunted and troubled by an often untold moment of American history. I had the honor to encounter Carnes's work through the 2019 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival and I'm so glad I did. PARTNER OF is masterfully constructed and probing in its examination of race, history, power, and trauma. ”
  • ROUND by Johnny G. Lloyd
    25 Aug. 2019
    “ I saw this play at the 2019 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival and found it to be a deeply engaging, provocative piece of theater. It made me think about race and power and desire and how our objects of desire can so often harms us. That a short play can illicit thinking on all those themes says a lot about what Lloyd has put into this play. It's also bitingly funny and well-observed about the way gay men can talk to each other in transactional world of dating and sex apps. ”
  • Webster's Bitch (One-Act) by Jacqueline Bircher
    25 Aug. 2019
    “ I saw this play at the 2019 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival and it made we want to both hoot "Yesss bitch!" at the top of my lungs AND deeply interrogate the gendered and political valance of such a phrase. A play that makes one want to do both those things at the same time is a real gem. Bircher has created something that is deeply funny, intelligent, and political all at once. ”
  • After Eternity by Eugenie Carabatsos
    23 May. 2018
    “ In this surreal, dreamy play, we watch the the entire arch of relationship unfold—full of joy, claustrophobia, and revelations. Eugenie Carabatsos has created a simple, yet imaginative framework, to explore what is most elemental about being human. I would love to a see a production of this play and think it would be very fun to work on. ”
  • Umbrellas for Everyone by Whitney Rowland
    14 May. 2018
    “ In a country where every week there seems to a be another Pulse or a Parkland shooting, this ever-relevant play is a satirical gut punch that will make you laugh, cringe, and then haunt you for sometime after you've seen it. I saw it at CMU's Playground Festival where it was staged in a public space and the gathered crowd was mesmerized, shocked, and ultimately very moved. ”
  • GIANT SLALOM by Jess Honovich
    14 May. 2018
    “ A perfect example of how to find universal in the specific. "Giant Slalom" tells a story of teenage female competitive skiers—and does so with incredible authority and humor— but also one about the utterly complex and fraught dynamics of competition, friendship, and growing up. Whether or not you've ever taken a chairlift to the top of a mountain, this is a play that will grab you and move you in ways you may not expect. ”
  • You Are What You by Mora V. Harris
    14 May. 2018
    “ I saw a staged reading of "You Are What You" as part of City Theatre's Momentum Reading Series. Much like the object of a competitive eater's eye—just one of this play's beautifully complex, startlingly original characters—it was a smorgasbord to take in. Funny above all else, but also moving and dynamic and strange (spoiler alert- there is a Pot Roast and she is delicious), Mora V. Harris has concocted a well-balanced meal of a play that had me thinking about food as nostalgia engine, toxic American consumption habits, and what it means to be in a family. ”