Recommended by Heather Helinsky

Gina Femia's plays are always intersectional and focused on characters who are working through traumas, but are not without humor, nostalgia, and playfulness. Dialogue over a forgotten form of communication (AIM) is well-crafted, poetic, and full of juicy subtext as the characters try to connect across the universe. The nuanced, sometimes awkward stories these characters tell are raw, honest, and shine like stars. And the theatricality of different fantasy worlds provides delightful opportunities for staging. As our society struggles to tell stories about mental health, I absolutely trust Femia's strong, thought-provoking writing to help create important conversations with the audience.

There are times when we think we know a historical person---but then a good playwright comes along and shines a light on a different perspective. Lojo has already done fascinating research in her role as the Laguna Beach Poet Laureate, and synthesized Williams' letters and journals to create this play. The imagery in this play was strong and compelling and I was absolutely along for the road trip. Place does shape who we are, and TW was transformed by it into the writer we know.

Exploring what our purpose is in life/what we're put in this world to do, can be a weighty challenge for any writer, but Jovanovich writes about this with such joy, buoyancy, lightness, and humor. Jacqueline's faith and optimism in humanity---and the system of democracy---is heartening when it's easier to despair in the current political moment we live in on Earth. The relationship between gospel writer Matthew and Jacqueline in the library, as well as the love story between Ur and Jerah, are the heart & soul of the play.

A mysterious and delicate dream-web of a play, challenging us to disconnect from technology and contemplate our place in the universe. In this play about heartbreak, the lovers try to follow a digital trail of each other and only find fragments, pictures, and phrases, but not the real self, and not real Love.

Sports put high demands on the physical body and spirit, and for these three young women who are attempting to make the US team, this writer brings great insights as their character is tested. Female friendship is also a fragile thing, and under the spotlight of competition, it makes for an exhilarating piece of drama. Cheering it on to production!

Theatre is a place where anything can happen, and in this apartment in Paris, Wilde is one revenging murder away from proving to God he can be angel. This is a play where reality shifts a bit every scene, but it’s well-structured so we’re aware we’re in a dream world where Lou & Sam keep waking up in their Paris sublet with something off-kilter. The clever dialogue in this play comes from the philosophic plesiosaur Loch Ness...need I say more? Someone should take a chance on this play, should be fun for the design team, memorable read.

I read this script during the development stage, and I encourage you to look at this piece, especially if you're looking for an all-female cast and realize that most theatre ticket purchasers are women. Hoke's dialogue is smart, funny, nuanced, and tense as she explores the fragility of female friendship. There are several events in this play that cause these BFFs to drift apart, and Hoke does a great job keeping multiple stories going at once. The family secret at the center is also the stuff of Greek tragedy...read & produce this!

This play, yes! This writer handles successfully and tactfully, with a great balance of light and dark, childhood and maturity, how eleven year old girls handle trauma. Her friends are a supportive circle and I also appreciate the presence of the parents in the play, and how well they are rendered. This is also an emotionally exhausting play (in all the good ways) that needs to be performed in communities. Even just on reading, it made me want to hug my dog afterwards!

Through dark humor, poetic speeches, and interesting theatricality, this writer has built a world for characters who need love and acceptance. Can a loner who likes the silence of the graveyard find love? Can a grieving mother learn to accept who her daughter truly is? And how can we ever learn to say goodbye to those we love? The living never have enough time to say what they feel, and I'm glad that even though time is fleeting, that Aubrey, Kitt, and Aubrey's mother Avery, go on this journey towards love & acceptance.

As a dramaturg who wants to see more complex plays about the disability experience getting produced, I definitely recommend this one! I love how Jason questions Robbie's use of language and has different definitions of beauty. I'm also on board whenever a play has a very specific relationship to place, excited that it's set in my hometown of Philly! There's also a lot of complicated conversations about care-taking, sibling relationships, and anxiety---great essential questions in here. I hope this play gets read, receives development opportunities, and produced soon! (Philly-based artists, read this one!)