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Jillian Blevins

Recommended by Jillian Blevins

  • ANTIGONE by Marie Mayingi
    16 Jan. 2023
    “ In this furious, searing 10-minute play, Antigone and Ismene are Black women at odds over how to confront the injustice of a second familial death at the hands of racist police. Marie Mayingi’s ANTIGONE rages against her sister’s respectability politics in the face of systemic injustice, while a wearied Ismene’s experience has taught her to play by the rules. Mayingi takes no prisoners as she gets right to the heart of Sophocles’ tragedy, which proves to be a painfully perfect allegory for a very real debate surrounding #BlackLivesMatter. Would love to read a full-length version! ”
  • POST OVERNIGHT DISTRESS by Charles Scott Jones
    10 Jan. 2023
    “ I’m a firm believer that there’s no greater indicator of compatibility than a shared sense of humor. POST OVERNIGHT DISTRESS’ characters experience morning-after regret following their drunken hookup, but their absurdly clever/cleverly absurd acronym game makes it clear to the audience (and the pair’s unseen friends) that they’re a perfect match.

    Jones’ 10 minute love story is about an experience which very few rom-coms seem to capture: falling for someone’s brain. It’s a joy to watch Princess and Dude riffing together, as romantic as a tango. We should all be so lucky. ”
  • HisStory by Hilary Bluestein-Lyons
    5 Jan. 2023
    “ This taut and riveting one-act makes a family dinner party as high-stakes as a car-chase, barreling, in real time, towards an inevitable crash. HISTORY’s sci-fi premise begins with one question—“what would a world without men look like?”—which births a dozen more. (Would we still have to fight for reproductive justice in a matriarchy? Can one be an activist through art alone, or is it meaningless if you’re not willing to fight on the front lines? Is my Alexa sending my personal information to the government?) The ambiguous ending leaves us wondering long after the final page. ”
  • The Oktavist by Vince Gatton
    5 Jan. 2023
    “ Desire is more complicated than we want to believe; the feeling of want can be so powerful that it obscures what may have sparked it. THE OKTAVIST is an ode to the ecstasy and the misery of all-consuming, blinding desire.

    The setting—a Russian church 100 years in the past—would be inspiring to designers and directors alike, and has a moody specificity that carries Gatton’s metaphor well. Queer stories set in the past like THE OKTAVIST are an important reminder that we have always been here, and that we are part of the fabric of history. ”
  • The Next Time Portnoy Sneezed by Sam Heyman
    30 Dec. 2022
    “ Writing can be a lonely business. What if the characters we conjure in our work could see us, and the love we put into their stories could be reciprocated? Sam Heyman demonstrates effective restraint, suggesting a rich and specific world-behind-our-world, but leaving readers to decide both what it means, and what happens to its emissary when he breaks the rules by making himself known. PORTNOY ventures into the absurd and metatheatrical in ways equally disquieting and comforting. ”
  • Once Upon a Smorgasbord by Miranda Jonté
    30 Dec. 2022
    “ Miranda Jonte’s meditation on grief and healing achieves so much in its few pages. Her protagonist’s raw and poetic stream of consciousness instantly draws us into her longing, her pain, and her enduring love for her deceased husband, who appears to reminisce about their passion for charcuterie, and perhaps, to guide her towards a new future.

    Jonte’s evocative use of language and structure renders SMORGASBORD part diary, part elegy, and completely engrossing. Spare, melancholic, and lovely. ”
  • I'm Gonna Need You to Log off for Me by Daniel Prillaman
    30 Dec. 2022
    “ How can one ten minute play contain art-world satire, robots, a smarmy tech bro, an identity crisis, laugh-out-loud comedy, a brutal beating and a William Gibsonesque social sci fi premise? IGNYTLOFM manages it all, with a signature Prillaman twist. A satisfying read for artists of all kinds anxious and infuriated at the prospect of creativity being supplanted by an algorithm; Prillaman’s incomparable, brilliantly weird works are evidence that it cannot. ”
  • JACOB AND EBENEZER: A LOVE STORY by Adam Richter
    28 Dec. 2022
    “ JACOB AND EBENEZER’s titular characters are men building a barricade of wealth to protect them from a threatening world. The tragedy of Richter’s melancholy prequel is how they build a wall between each other, alternately attempting to break through and holding it in place, each longing for comfort while denying it to the other.

    Richter’s insightful and empathetic point of view renders his characters more three-dimensional than their Dickensian counterparts, while remaining squarely in the world of A Christmas Carol. I don’t think I’ll ever see Scrooge the same way again. ”
  • Toda /תודה (If Not Now) by Jacob Horowitz
    22 Dec. 2022
    “ TODA slyly riffs on the antisemitic trope of blood libel by imagining a meeting between two misunderstood creatures—a vampire and a Jew. No, they don’t walk into a bar, but a Chabad house, where the monster fittingly receives sanctuary (and education).

    All Jews know how it feels to be hunted, today and always. The compassion of TODA’s rabbi reveals a strange affinity with the despised monster, and his sense of responsibility for him is Tikkun Olam in action. In ten pages, Horowitz amuses, provokes, and terrifies—not unlike a good Torah parsha. Mazel. ”
  • Snow White, Rose Red: A Digital Love Story by Emily McClain
    20 Dec. 2022
    “ One of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the way it inspired theatre artists to explore form and reimagine what makes a play. SNOW WHITE
    AND ROSE RED is a compelling argument for such experimentation to continue beyond the era of Zoom theatre.

    Emily McClain reshapes the lesser-known, original Snow White fairy tale of two sisters and a bear-prince into a scathing critique of modern dating. Through FaceTime and text threads, we see the distressing juxtaposition of how one man treats a woman he’s decided is “good”, and another who he’s decided is “bad.” ”

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