Recommended by Ricardo Soltero-Brown

The character relationships are as deep and real as any in any Edward Albee play. The dialogue is ripe with fire and pain. The best example of this is the relationship between Christopher and Jeff, a special achievement in this work. Filmmakers may want to take look at this script, not for posterity, but for cinematic accomplishment. The play requires a great deal of vulnerability from all its actors. There is a beautiful unfurling which occurs in all of Jeff's asides and particular care should be given to them. There is an incredible internal dynamic centered on secrets and truth.

Enough has been said about the concept, enough to make Caryl Churchill proud, so, what I'd like to continue to highlight is Kantor's gift for dialogue. The natural rhythms and idiosyncratic touches that are so common and peculiar to millennial speech. Children of the 90s these are (whom I identify with), as can be seen within Amelia's and Jac's, like, innocent exaggerations, down from the descriptions of class curriculum to the remnants of a nihilism that almost never existed. Living in America is a strange occupation, because you cannot run away from political life. You sign up for it here.

Anyone will get whiplash no matter who you identify with and golly is it a rush. A fantastic endeavor into perspective, Blevins keeps the show alive with her natural yet rhythmic dialogue and constant unfurling of the stakes. So much of the action has you chest-deep in its planning that one wonders, as an audience member, whether or not they're an accomplice and how complicit we are in wanting to see ribald comedy. Of course, this is a fairy tale and plays by different rules. Blevins makes this clear by getting to the bottom of deeply human issues using magic.

Once the first complication towards any climax introduce itself the laughs start spitting. The pettiness and bickering between these two is hysterical. But what's gotta get done's gotta get done. I'm not saying I've been in this situation, but, well, I've been in both their shoes and, so, sigh, I get it. Jokes aside, this is a successful romantic comedy in every way, the same way any rom-com is a fantasy or porno is a laugh-riot. Connection is hard and the way Kantor navigates its difficulties is charm city.

Kantor has a writer's and performer's knack for comic timing and this short is a good introduction to that. Also, as can be found in her other writings, once we think we know what's going on, we don't and it's a ton of fun, that is, after we go through the nanosecond and ferris wheel of emotions and thought processes. Her writings have a wonderful sense of What If that, along with her dialogue, is at the top of her gifts.

Absolutely stellar dialogue. Rare to find stuff like this, so alive you can easily see the performances in your head, but open enough to certain iterations of the subtext. Precise but open to interpretation, like the Google searches. Strange situation to be simultaneously confessing to a stranger who isn't a stranger. Frankly, this is the wackiest love story I've read in a while and I loved it. The serious part of me wants to say there is a message about patriotism and dissent, but I'm too busy laughing.

Jillian Blevins' dialogue offers so much in its own performance that just reading the play is an extraordinary experience. This is some fully-realized stuff. The craftsmanship provides rhythm, character, insight for each of these pas de deuxs. But most importantly there is real empathy here. These are real people with real problems and their issues aren't treated with mistake, with pettiness, with undue irony. Musings on self-actualization, purpose, self-care, harm, authenticity, humanity and happiness are what make up some of the themes in this triptych. Very excited to have discovered Jillian Blevins' work. Produce on a budget and lite set.

They say ghosts need to solve a problem before they rest in peace; the world eats itself in the circle of life, ugly though it may be at times; one hand washes the other. These and more ran through my head while reading this beautiful one-act which belies a plaintive premise with such breath of life. The landscape of this play appears to be betwixt time. Extraordinary how Philip Middleton Williams makes reminiscing feel so immediate. At once painful and charming. The musings on age and aging are particularly poignant. Structured like an investigation, the play itself becomes the answer.

Devastating monologue which requires a tremendous amount of vulnerability from an actor spending every moment attempting to establish what should be a basic human connection.

Clever concept centered on an exotic island inhabited mainly by wildlife and likely tourists being the only humans around for the most part. The island is overrun not by cats or monkeys, but by herons and their previous abode is in shambles due to the very reason they are not allowed to stay. Therein lies the conflict. Charming and comic flourishes in the dialogue unique to Lawing's style make this piece work out of anyone's mouth, younger or older.