Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

  • Stoo's Famous Martian American Gumbo
    24 Feb. 2021
    An inventive, immersive, and engaging way to explore immigration and diversity. Matt Barbot uses that connective tissue in all of our lives, food, to explore issues that adults love to overcomplicate. Best yet, he creates a world where everyone can take part in the wisdom this play imparts to children (and let's be honest, adults too). A fantastic play that will delight audiences everywhere. Barbot truly has a unique and creative mind and Stoo's Famous Martian American Gumb, that beautiful brainchild of his, is proof of that fact.
  • The Language of the Unheard (previously Inutil)
    24 Feb. 2021
    There have been so many beautiful things that have been said about The Language of the Unheard by the virtuosic Alisha Espinosa. It is timely (and sadly timeless). It explores trauma, the failed justice system, womanhood, black life, sexual assault and the great place of intersection for outrage and movement against all of the above: protest and art. Do not let the brevity deceive you. This play is packed full of commentary on so many social ills. You'll re-read it again and again and draw something new.
  • Coquito
    2 Feb. 2021
    Juan Ramirez Jr. is like an NYC Chekhov deftly taking us through the New Years drama, comedy, hopes, dreams, and romances of a single family drinking coquito. To be sure, there is plenty of misty-eyed moments in this wonderful play but what is rare and beautiful in this play is the exploration of Joy. In a world where so many Latinx stories are filled with trauma and sadness, Juan Ramirez gives us a respite, a moment, a drink of coquito made with mucho mucho mucho amor to give us relief in a world too often plagued by tragedy. A marvel.
  • Legends of Texas
    2 Feb. 2021
    Encapsulated in this battle over an inheritance are the major questions facing the Tejano border community today. If there were a play out there to undermine the idea of Latinx homogeneity in identity, beliefs, and ideals, this is the blueprint work. Equal parts serious, funny, melancholic, and heartbreaking. Nilsa Reyna invites us into the world of the Cruz family as a battle for the future is waged in the store turned into the legacy of a patriarch. There are no easy answers, but the most important of questions are asked here. Of tradition, of worldview, of our shared future.
  • The Jersey Devil Is a Papi Chulo
    1 Feb. 2021
    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.
  • Sancocho
    1 Feb. 2021
    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.
  • HOTEL PUERTO VALLARTA, a legitimate work of dramatic theatre
    22 Jan. 2021
    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.
  • Such Good Neighbors, a 10-minute play
    7 Sep. 2020
    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.
  • Exhausted Paint: The Death of Van Gogh
    7 Sep. 2020
    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.
  • Marianas Trench (Part One of The Second World Trilogy)
    9 Aug. 2020
    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.

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