Recommended by Heather Helinsky

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.

Feeling nostalgic for the '90s? If so, not only will you enjoy this mean girl play, but the playwright does a great job taking off the rose-colored glasses and, through humor, makes this play very relevant. Not only a statement on high school bullying pre-social media, but the lessons these girls are learning both in their classrooms and their interpersonal lives make for good drama. The ideal audience would come for the laughs, and stay for the post-show discussion.

If you're looking to engage new audiences, read this one! As the dramaturg for Bella's reading at Great Plains Theatre Conference, we loved the compelling, high stakes problems that the characters are navigating. Bella is able to confidently guide the audience not only through all the math and science, but also the myriad of themes such as exploitation/labor, gender stereotyping, economic struggles and crowdfunding, discrimination, environmental disasters...the list goes on, you got to read this one! This is a passionately told play, it will sweep you away to another galaxy that mirrors our own world.

We often need plays that take us back to an earlier historical moment to understand the complex contemporary political and cultural violence. Christy crafts a delicate journey where brother turns against sister. Zahia's journey is one of those prime roles where the audience goes on a full ride of emotions and empathy. Saw the extremely moving reading at Great Plains Theatre Conference, hope this one has a future production life soon.