Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

Part reality-television, part-prayer to the great Latinas of history, part camp, part survivalist nightmare, part buddy comedy, part cryptid mythology story, and the list can go on and on. But what makes this play special is its heart. Iraisa Ann Reilly creates a satire that lampoons the white savior trope for the mess it truly is while delivering laughs with nearly every line. An absolutely unforgettable marvel and a rare comedy about the pandemic in a world with so many dramas and tragedies on the subject. I hope that this play can find a home everywhere when theatre returns.

It is not an over-exaggeration to say that in many Latinx households our greatest revelations and world changing moments can happen over chopping up the ingredients for sancocho. Everything from legacy, memory, trauma, comedy, failure, triumph, and--most importantly--love are explored all at once. There in that sacred almost spiritual realm accessed through the aromas and ritual unchanged over decades and experiences does Christin Eve Cato take us. She takes us through the titanic struggles of two sisters who try to reconcile the past while navigating a future after the passing of a patriarch. A structural marvel. Sancocho is beautiful theatre.

There are farces that push the bounds of physical comedy. There are farces that have complicated plots. There are farces that achieve certain degrees of humor and satire. There are even farces that have a lot of heart. It is rare that you see all of these elements come together in a single play. David Davila does this with this hilarious, tender look into the life and times of a hotel/drag bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The subtitle may be tongue-in-cheek, but don't be deceived. Hotel Puerto Vallarta is truly a dramatic work of legitimate theatre.

A play that explores and reveals the fault lines in a relationship. Susan Middaugh has encapsulated in ten-minutes the secrets, revelations, and even jaw-dropping surprises hidden beneath the surface with some and in plain sight with others. A breeze to read the first time, but this play will have you reading it again paying more attention the second time around.

Justin Maxwell has created a brash, irreverent solo show circled around the great artist and his passion, disappointments, and probably most importantly, their failures. Breaking the fourth wall in interesting and unconventional ways, Maxwell paints a brief but impactful portrait of Van Gogh through a lens we have yet to see in any previous dramatic interpretation (as far as I know). There's laughs and tears aplenty in this brief but poignant run through a tortured life and a wounded--if sarcastic--soul. Bonus, it doesn't follow any narrative structure (save the bookend scenes), which makes it a different play each performance.

You will go on a journey. You will go on a heartrending, hilarious, true, and beautiful coming-of-age story in a dystopia that daily looks less and less like fiction and more and more like our inevitable future. Scott Sickles has created at once a love story and an indictment of this country in MARIANAS TRENCH. More people should know about this play. More people should read this play. More people should be clamoring for its production. This play is a bolt of lightning and a call for us all to come to our senses before it's too late. Highly recommend.

CALLING PUERTO RICO is a richly human work.

It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. God, it will make you cry. It will grab you with its beautiful characters, with all their flaws, and all their spirit, and they will wring your soul until you feel drained of everything.

And yet you will still feel, despite all the trials you'll go through in this work, the peace at the coquí sound and radio static.

Read the play. Better yet, to all the Latinx theatres out there. Produce this play.

Barbot has connected the worlds of Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and the Merchant of Venice together to create commentaries that critique the Bard, our society, and an exploration of what it means to assimilate when one has been othered. Barbot's writing blends the Bard's own language into this new take on familiar characters that will make you laugh and cry. There are heartbreaking moments in this play that any minority in this society has gone through in some form. I've never felt so seen by Shakespeare's characters till reading this play.

There's an almost mythological quality to this story. As though I read an early story of the birth of love, of camaraderie, of jealousy, heartbreak, and violence. You see it moving. You feel the flow. There's a beauty to the understated direction, but you see it all unfold. A lovely, delicate piece from Matthew Weaver.

Deeply unsettling, wildly realistic, and mesmerizing to read. Deb Hiett has created a play that fits perfectly into the world of Zoom Theatre. Playwrights need to take note of this taut thriller. The subtle shifts in power dynamic here are masterfully done. As soon as you realize one thing, it’s too late. Amazing work.