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Jillian Blevins

Recommended by Jillian Blevins

  • Natalie Wood Was Not Puerto Rican by Matt Barbot
    10 Aug. 2023
    “ Matt Barbot’s intra-community debate about representation, stereotypes and appropriation is wrapped in a charming little romantic comedy that’s sure to make you smile—whether you love West Side Story or hate it. ”
  • DRAWBRIDGE by Mallory Jane Weiss
    10 Aug. 2023
    “ Language is alive in DRAWBRIDGE—not only for Mallory Jane Weiss’ characters, who discover the power of naming their feelings, but for us, as Weiss’ original metaphors and playful, almost vaudevillian dialogue remind us not to take words for granted. ”
  • Landis and the Bear by Cate Berg
    8 Aug. 2023
    “ In her portrait of two weirdos bonded in their weirdness, Cate Berg’s playful and powerful dialogue allows a grandmother and grandson to broach the difficult subjects of death, grief, and belonging through collaborative storytelling. The specificity of this intergenerational connection, and their mode of relating to one another, makes this play a stand-out among others exploring similar themes. LANDIS AND THE BEAR is also a wonderful vehicle for an older actress, an all-too-rare offering. ”
  • Camouflage by Peter Chansky
    8 Aug. 2023
    “ The beauty of Peter Chansky’s CAMOUFLAGE is how it gestures towards familiar tropes—the doofus husband, the exasperated wife—and then lovingly deconstructs them, exposing the tender vulnerability of real people fumbling towards a better understanding of themselves and each other. ”
  • God Gives Ryan a Very Important Job by Dylan MarcAurele
    8 Aug. 2023
    “ I lost count of the times I laughed out loud watching this witty two-hander, in which dissatisfied slacker Ryan (along with frequently sarcastic God) struggles to recreate the universe from memory. MarcAurele’s well-constructed comedy makes perfect container for the deeper questions GOD GIVES RYAN… sneakily poses: why do we remember the things we do? what’s really important in life? and how do we make meaning in a world that’s frequently disappointing? You’ll be laughing so much you may not even realize just how much this play makes you think—and I suspect that’s no accident! ”
  • The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames
    6 Aug. 2023
    “ With superb pacing and musicality (and surreal interludes including a game show and a full-on song and dance) Ijames’ Dickensian historical/political fever dream is as darkly funny as it is unsparing. Martha Washington’s deathbed nightmare is a chillingly perfectly allegory for America’s ongoing reckoning with systemic racism and white supremacy: we may benefit, but it’s not our fault! Why should we be punished for systems we didn’t create? And I’m one of the good ones, right?! Martha’s excuses, guilt, and willful ignorance reveal the inextricable link between America’s identity and slavery. ”
  • Spooky U: Dormmates by Christopher Soucy
    3 Aug. 2023
    “ Lovecraftian horror meets a university play? I’m in! Sign me up! Funnel every episode down my throat with a cursed beer bong! I can’t contain my excitement for the rest of this series—with so much lore to draw on, and tropes ripe for dismantling, the potential in this mash-up is huge.

    Rather than sweeping it under the rug, first installment of SPOOKY U wisely skewers H.P. Lovecraft’s deplorable racism in its central engine. A Black university student summoned to Mistatonik University prepares to encounter institutional racism in academia and dark forces and old gods. Yikes! ”
  • THE SOAPBOX NETWORK by Adam Richter
    3 Aug. 2023
    “ If anything is ripe for satire, it’s social media, and Richter hits it out of the park in THE SOAPBOX NETWORK. He takes a witty premise—how would our social-networking posts translate in “real life”—delivers with economy, and sticks the landing with a killer reversal that drives home the *real* reason we’re all leaving Facebook. Like, share, subscribe. ”
  • Lost Starlet by Scott Sickles
    2 Aug. 2023
    “ The CAMP! A delightfully bitchy send-up of old Hollywood studio drama, with touches of All About Eve and Waiting for Guffman. Scott Sickles' serious comedic chops and breadth of pop culture knowledge synergize into pitch-perfect satire which will delight movie fans of every stripe. The titles and clips from fictional movies Sickles has conjured up for LOST STARLET are comic delights. What I wouldn't give to see a team of skilled actors perform the drag-icon-worthy roles that this play offers up on a silver platter. ”
  • Search for the Interdimensional Bigfoot by Samantha Vargas
    31 Jul. 2023
    “ Sibling relationships are rich territory for exploration; we were shaped by the same events and the same parents, and yet we often perceive that shared experience in vastly different ways. Samantha Vargas’ paranormal family play takes this relatable brother-sister dynamic—-the question of “what really happened in our shared childhood?”—and blows it up to fantastical, cryptozoological proportions. With rich dialogue equally inflected with Spanish, the X-Files, and The Goonies, and some of the most evocative stage directions I’ve yet read (sound designers will thrill to create Vargas’ sci-fi soundscape), SFTIB is an adventure you’ll want to take. ”

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