Recommended by Asher de Forest

Whoa! This one breaks all the rules. The useless adults are so, so funny. The script itself, "an experiment in typography" in Walker's words, is queer AF. WOLFCRUSH is as stylish as it is sexy, as gleefully unhinged as it is deliberate, as large in scope and scale and eroticism and humor as it is intimate.

I saw this remarkable play earlier this month and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. It's as tightly constructed as can be, but you don't even recognize that until it's over because you're so caught up in four girls' hilarious tangents, righteous revenge fantasies, and wrenching realizations. And the fact that--outside of the aforementioned short fantasy sequences--you get all this in one real-time, continuous scene? Stellar on the page and the stage.

In the true spirit of Diana's heroes Divine and John Waters, Midnight Showing is deeply, wonderfully weird. It's also fully its own original creation. Unapologetic, unflinching, and unsanitized, the play portrays artistic successes and "failures," asexuality, mental illness, and death with humor and humanity.

A play about play! We Are the Forgotten Beasts is a thrill to read and would be a joy to watch. Christian St. Croix embraces spectacle while at the same time grounding his play, particularly through its well-drawn characters. Difficult conversations about race, sexuality, abuse, and brotherhood fit right in with swashbuckling, space exploring, and monster slaying adventures.

First of all, Ballad of the White Tiger is a sound designer's dream. Reading this play, I swear I could hear it.
Beyond that, the care Green has taken with this piece is so clear. History is messy. So is family. Somehow, Ballad of the White Tiger honors that messiness with clarity and love and legends brought to life, resulting in an imaginative new work.

This play has everything! Part Mount Olympus meets the #MeToo era, part throwback "Let's put on a drag show!" scheme, all fun. Though it never takes itself too seriously, FAG~GODS is whip-smart, surprisingly wholesome, and absolutely fabulous.

I don't know how to say this any other way, so please just know that I mean it as a huge compliment: the further you get into Alyssa Haddad-Chin's Off-White; Or the Arab House Party Play, the more your skin starts to crawl. The loving mockery of early 2000s teen culture paired with the uncomfortably familiar everyday prejudices of protagonist Leila's peers makes for a queasy, relevant dark comedy. It's boldly funny and quietly tragic. The final image will stay with me for a long time. Produce this play!

Ridiculous and hilarious. Delivers on the promise of "gay slasher parody," working in softcore spoofs, fourth wall breaks so (purposely) stupid they made me cackle, and a killer twist on the classic murderer's intentions reveal.

The Art of Floating is funny, sad, realistic, grounded... and then it starts to float. I don't want to give away too much, but the way Kokai infuses just the right amount of magic into the last few scenes of this already lovely play is beautiful. All that, plus great roles for older women, nuanced depictions of religion and struggles with faith, monologues and dialogues about mortality and illness. I want to see The Art of Floating onstage!

I love this play so much. I first discovered This Happened Once in last month's PWC streamed reading of it. The characters can be laugh out loud funny. The scenes are tender. The whole piece is both an appropriately complicated look at heavy topics (including sex, trauma, and abuse), and a collection of perfectly subtle glimpses into people's lives and the seemingly simple things--Disney movies, baseball games, porn, show tunes, one another--they fill them with. I could read this play again and again.