Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

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    What revelations can you achieve in 26 minutes? How drastically can your life change from a chance encounter? What happens when the crumbling infrastructure of New York City Public Transit becomes divine intervention? Camryn Cox explores this idea through Jackson and Ellie, weaving together a play that brings together the stasis of a stopped train with the progress and growth the soul achieves when destiny meets us at a crossroads. Humorous, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful. A lovely work.

    What revelations can you achieve in 26 minutes? How drastically can your life change from a chance encounter? What happens when the crumbling infrastructure of New York City Public Transit becomes divine intervention? Camryn Cox explores this idea through Jackson and Ellie, weaving together a play that brings together the stasis of a stopped train with the progress and growth the soul achieves when destiny meets us at a crossroads. Humorous, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful. A lovely work.

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    Underneath the wit, miscommunication, and all of the hilarious fumbling to do things right is a sincere investigation and attempt at understanding the creation story at the heart of Christianity. Jon Herbert has combined the story with apocrypha (the inclusion of Lilith is such a delightful surprise) and mined it for comedy gold that makes this play both engaging and serious. I was left laughing and thinking throughout the play. An excellent satire that still holds an earnestness at its core.

    Underneath the wit, miscommunication, and all of the hilarious fumbling to do things right is a sincere investigation and attempt at understanding the creation story at the heart of Christianity. Jon Herbert has combined the story with apocrypha (the inclusion of Lilith is such a delightful surprise) and mined it for comedy gold that makes this play both engaging and serious. I was left laughing and thinking throughout the play. An excellent satire that still holds an earnestness at its core.

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    Forgiveness is difficult. We know we're meant to be the bigger person and show that we're beyond the pain inflicted on us by the abusive ones in our lives. And yet...it is just so difficult. David Adam Gill gives us a portrait of abuser and abused wrestling with a fraught past and finding grace in the hope of an innocent future and new generation. A beautiful, raw, honest, yet hopeful play.

    Forgiveness is difficult. We know we're meant to be the bigger person and show that we're beyond the pain inflicted on us by the abusive ones in our lives. And yet...it is just so difficult. David Adam Gill gives us a portrait of abuser and abused wrestling with a fraught past and finding grace in the hope of an innocent future and new generation. A beautiful, raw, honest, yet hopeful play.

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    Intense does not even begin to describe what it is like to experience this play. Heidi Kraay has created a theatrical journal of one woman’s story of survival and the horrors endured by those caught in the sway of the broken yet charismatic men. An ultimately uplifting, if bracing, work, Take Me Away encourages us to find the inner monster, who may yet prove less monster than protector. An unforgettable, richly sculpted play. A designers’ dream and an actor’s mountain to climb.

    Intense does not even begin to describe what it is like to experience this play. Heidi Kraay has created a theatrical journal of one woman’s story of survival and the horrors endured by those caught in the sway of the broken yet charismatic men. An ultimately uplifting, if bracing, work, Take Me Away encourages us to find the inner monster, who may yet prove less monster than protector. An unforgettable, richly sculpted play. A designers’ dream and an actor’s mountain to climb.

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    I will never not think of this play whenever I hear the word "Dreamboat." Daniel Emlyn-Jones captures all of the silly quirks of the American South--purple prose, flowery metaphors, and all!--and creates a hilarious conversation that echoes so many great comedies of this mode. Flowing throughout the play is a longing to find someone, that Dreamboat, but ultimately and hilariously, the play asks what the cost of seeing our dreams coming true really is. A fun, fun play.

    I will never not think of this play whenever I hear the word "Dreamboat." Daniel Emlyn-Jones captures all of the silly quirks of the American South--purple prose, flowery metaphors, and all!--and creates a hilarious conversation that echoes so many great comedies of this mode. Flowing throughout the play is a longing to find someone, that Dreamboat, but ultimately and hilariously, the play asks what the cost of seeing our dreams coming true really is. A fun, fun play.

  • Franky D. Gonzalez: Mature Audience by Maximillian Gill
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    Oh my God, I cannot love this wonderful little gem of a play enough. Maximilian Gill takes what feels like Pinky and the Brain but as little human kids longing for greater than their station. It flows with hilarity, wit, and no matter how clever or intelligent the children are, this play never loses the child-like wonder of young ones venturing into the unknown world of TV-MA content. A lovely play.

    Oh my God, I cannot love this wonderful little gem of a play enough. Maximilian Gill takes what feels like Pinky and the Brain but as little human kids longing for greater than their station. It flows with hilarity, wit, and no matter how clever or intelligent the children are, this play never loses the child-like wonder of young ones venturing into the unknown world of TV-MA content. A lovely play.

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  • Franky D. Gonzalez: Sit, Stay, Fetch by Barry Levine
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    In every single best way I was horrified and could not take my eyes off this play when I experienced it. It blends absurdity, revenge, and slapstick in ways I could never have conceived, but Barry pulls it off here in Sit, Stay, Fetch. Hilarious and mortifying. It embodies so many contradictions, and yet it works so very well in production. I could not stop saying, "Oh my God..." the entire time. What an experience!

    In every single best way I was horrified and could not take my eyes off this play when I experienced it. It blends absurdity, revenge, and slapstick in ways I could never have conceived, but Barry pulls it off here in Sit, Stay, Fetch. Hilarious and mortifying. It embodies so many contradictions, and yet it works so very well in production. I could not stop saying, "Oh my God..." the entire time. What an experience!

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  • Franky D. Gonzalez: The Grotto by Dana Schwartz
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    Dana Schwartz has created a play that is part reality TV satire, part meditation on aging, and the ultimate search so many of us are desperately undertaking: the search for love. Ultimately uplifting and always funny, The Grotto is such a fun and delightful play that also takes it subject very seriously. It pulls off a tightrope at that will leave you marveling at what you were given the privilege to witness.

    Dana Schwartz has created a play that is part reality TV satire, part meditation on aging, and the ultimate search so many of us are desperately undertaking: the search for love. Ultimately uplifting and always funny, The Grotto is such a fun and delightful play that also takes it subject very seriously. It pulls off a tightrope at that will leave you marveling at what you were given the privilege to witness.

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  • Franky D. Gonzalez: Lang Noir by DC Cathro
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    Collaboration or censorship? DC Cathro has created a play that reaches into the past to bring into sharp focus what many prominent artists are now up against in these very difficult and fraught times. Capturing the hallmarks of Fritz Lang's particular brand of noir, the LANG NOIR creates tension from the very first moment until the final line. It is gripping, intelligent, and captures with nuance and balance the pros and cons of the answers Fritz Lang must consider to the question before him.

    Collaboration or censorship? DC Cathro has created a play that reaches into the past to bring into sharp focus what many prominent artists are now up against in these very difficult and fraught times. Capturing the hallmarks of Fritz Lang's particular brand of noir, the LANG NOIR creates tension from the very first moment until the final line. It is gripping, intelligent, and captures with nuance and balance the pros and cons of the answers Fritz Lang must consider to the question before him.

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  • Franky D. Gonzalez: overgrown by Emma Durbin
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    overgrown takes the seemingly-mundane world of local mid-term elections and brings together titanic emotions and obstacles. The intergenerational divide, the gender divide, romance, politics, and the alienation between a father and child to name a few of the things this play explores in the span of one election day. Featuring an ensemble of at times zany characters, Emma Durbin is attempting--and succeeding--in threading that elusive needle of reaching across the political spectrum.

    overgrown takes the seemingly-mundane world of local mid-term elections and brings together titanic emotions and obstacles. The intergenerational divide, the gender divide, romance, politics, and the alienation between a father and child to name a few of the things this play explores in the span of one election day. Featuring an ensemble of at times zany characters, Emma Durbin is attempting--and succeeding--in threading that elusive needle of reaching across the political spectrum.

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