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Ricardo Soltero-Brown

Recommended by Ricardo Soltero-Brown

  • Screen Play by David Hansen
    31 Aug. 2017
    “ Certainly the darkest piece from Hansen I've read, but I've been genuinely curious what he'd do in these waters. To be honest, this is more or less my favorite use of language. This is all about interpretation, subtext, implication, passivity, intuition, and more implication. You're not going to have an "easy" time with this one, but you're going to want to know who wins. You're going to want to know whose point gets made. Drama tends to end on one truth or another, and at the end of this conflict, dinner may not be the only thing that's settled. ”
  • KING KIRBY (co-written with Fred Van Lente) by Crystal Skillman
    29 Aug. 2017
    “ What surprised me was how accessible this piece is. It's essentially a story about artists, creators. Audiences will likely have all the popular knowledge necessary to follow and enjoy this play about Jack Kirby. Something else I never saw coming was the humor, this drama is incredibly funny, it's lively and spirited; I'm not kidding, it never runs out of gas. Also, the last thing which was completely unexpected was how poignant a commentary this is on racism. The casual and volatile anti-Semitism Kirby and his community deal with is still shocking, and so is how they deal with it. ”
  • Trigger Warning: Suicide, Misogyny, Racism, Sex by David Cote
    19 Aug. 2017
    “ David Cote's 'Trigger Warning' is a sly slice of satire, like a daring game of Truth or Dare fueled by college campus conduct, social censure, discriminatory inclusion, inclusive discrimination, and political correctness run amok. It'll make your eyebrows rise in the best kind of way, you won't know whether or not you should hide the open smirk that's formed upon your face. Clever how Cote slips in the theme and overall importance of humanism in this very form of art. ”
  • AN AVERAGE MAN by Stephanie Alison Walker
    22 Jul. 2017
    “ A fine brief piece about a humble man who braves an extraordinary act that so many people ordinarily daydream of. He and the woman he helps recount the incident concurrently but independently, painting a tale of heroic impulses and selfless resolution, the language written with a rather surprising, at times even startling immediacy. Themes of childhood, chance, and time imply the price of growing up, and the cost for a truly heartfelt moment. ”
  • RED BIKE by Caridad Svich
    19 Jun. 2017
    “ "Get on with it." So should any author's direction be. This is Svich's strongest play since 'Guapa' or 'Hide Sky'. Regarding recent, new work, even Caryl Churchill and Conor McPherson might take notes. There are only a handful of writers that would allow this kind of open interpretation to a play's presentation and design. Directors will be hard pressed not to take advantage of it. The words, like Crystal Skillman's, demand not only attention, but your imagination. Most impressive is the simultaneous intelligence and naïveté of the story's kid. I am only allowed 100 words; you, however, have the play. ”
  • EU and Us by Steve McMahon
    6 Jun. 2017
    “ Two characters who are essentially hyper-aware of the current world, perhaps trying to get away from it, find each other at a hotel bar, and both simultaneously seek connection and separation, judgment and opinion, allegiance and treachery. Diplomacy at its finest. ”
  • "Bury the Living" by Ashleigh Ann Gardner
    5 Jun. 2017
    “ A.A. Gardner's framework for Craig's journey is unbreakable. The shifts in her character's choices, efforts, and impulses, are cleverly designed, and skillfully structured. This ten-minute monologue comes from a brother to his sister's coffined body. Quite the accomplishment is Gardner's balance between the progression of her plot and honesty in her story, what's heightened or subtle, stirring and intimate. The titular passage is truly inspired, remarkable how it made me laugh, Craig's reproach of an objectively macabre modern tradition; it's a cathartic moment that's genuinely earned, with Craig exhibiting a new, more active courage, appreciation, and memory. ”
  • Rewrite by Sheila Cowley
    5 May. 2017
    “ Cowley's characters have a deft skepticism and beaten-down yet everlasting hope, the piece itself has a twisted sense of humor where art and life are not only confused, they're required to coexist, the whole thing playing like Sam Shepard in Hollywood. Fun stuff, and with the lovely attraction and necessity of older actors. ”
  • OPEN by Crystal Skillman
    17 Apr. 2017
    “ Skillman's hour-long one-woman script bravely allows its character, a magician, to display a vast and extraordinary capacity to learn, dare, and care, she evokes, and easily could have been found in, the beautiful and beloved shorter plays of Robert Patrick. Yet, this magician is not merely an empath, she's purposeful, with an upfront approach generating something between bidding and encouragement. The reason is she has a story to tell. Her trick is having engaged us. I'd almost think of this as the author testing our hope, belief, joy, and wonder, that is if the play weren't so genuine and giving. ”
  • "The Long Walk" by Ashleigh Ann Gardner
    7 Mar. 2017
    “ Containing some of the finest language Gardner has created, the final monologue, the last page, has worlds; it is packed with plenty to savor and think about; fully fleshed-out lives are hinted at and peekabooed throughout the entire script. There are quick but wholly integral lines, immense power is packed into a single sentence here. This is a dream short for actors, regarding both roles, one mainly internal, the other mainly external, both physically and poetically charged. ”

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