Recommended by Heather Helinsky

Inventive. Physical explorations through playful games about the difficulties & challenges to connect---whether the literal eye contact, physical contact, or emotional contact---something all of us can understand.

I love that this play that explored what a male writer distilled to a sentence, Eugenie has exploded that sentence idea and showed us what's on the other side of the fun-house mirror: two women bonding. At GPTC, the audience loved the script's twists and turns; who we're siding with at any moment can change. These characters are aspiring to better themselves but more importantly, searching to fill this horrible empty feeling of being incomplete. A great piece for an intimate cast & on a practical level, works well in any space. Actors will love you, designers too.

Yes! I'm on the side of the aliens, that speaking human is an ugly language. This play is flippant, spirited, spunky, self-aware, playful, and full of irony. I would also love someone with the vision to produce this play in a planetarium as teenage Arugula and her father Nancy try their best to fit in. Full of twists and turns, I love the journey.

Once I started reading this one, couldn't put it down---gripping, suspenseful, and painful. I enjoy a good road trip play and this is a very tense drive down midwestern highways. Ben was a playwright at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in 2016 and he handed me this one afterwards, excited to see where it goes. HH, GPTC dramaturg

"Magic", "Collaboration", "Getting Stuck", "Public vs. Private", "Invisible", "Loneliness", and "Childhood vs. Adulthood" were all themes that resonated with audiences at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Don't underestimate this piece, it has some insightful things to say about gender in the workplace and the monsters inside of us. Mel's journey as a struggling legend questioning herself is clear and sharp. The movement/choreography opportunities in this piece will make it really, really fun and exciting to see staged. These two inside the monster are in limbo; and their journey touches both the kid inside us and adult realities.

There's no doubt this deeply theatrical and highly-charged play demands to be staged. Alex's desire to create something beautiful and invent new worlds for gamers and her regrets over her promises made to her sister are both exquisitely rendered and laugh-out-loud hilarious. The escalation of cyber-bullying is horrifying and real. The entire journey is satisfying---at Great Plains Theatre Conference we discussed, among other positive responses---the urgent need for plays that both examine how gender is presented and the troubling negativity within the gaming community---Gable gives us a story that delivers both extremely well.

I found this play about a long goodbye actually delightful and comforting. This quirky and clever premise about an alternate reality delivers an intriguing and satisfying emotional journey. Theatrically imaginative, refreshing voice, and good dialogue that sticks with you. The metaphors work well.

This play delivers a good emotional suckerpunch...or at the very least, a metaphorical bloody nose! Yes, there are family dramas aplenty set when a parental figure is dying, but this character-driven story about six half-sisters gathered together in their rural home one last time is fun, gritty, and tense. Would hate to see a story with six prime roles for actresses sit on the sidelines for too long---give it a chance, these characters are ready to get in the ring and duke it out about about family secrets and sisterhood.

I hope this script gets a production soon! I enjoyed the multi-layered characterizations of Shmuel and Zalmy, the young, passionate Lubovitchers driving the "Mitzvah Tank" on a mission through their Crown Heights neighborhood. I bought in very quickly to this story and personally find plays that examine doubts that arise from a tight-knit community dramatically compelling. As many scripts I've read this season have been mining the 1990s, Joelle is onto something here by investigating this moment--if you have a chance, give this one a look!

I really enjoyed the spiritual journey of these characters and the flow of this play between the two sets of relationships facing a crisis. There's a lot of nuance in the relationships, as each pair is struggling to understand the huge shifts happening with their partner. Plays, first and foremost, should lift us into poetry and this play does a fantastic job conveying metaphors while also writing with realistic specificity the difficult emotional inner life. I have faith that someone soon will recognize this playwright's skill and produce this one.