Recommended by Diana Burbano

Honest, clear eyed and painful. What are we asking teachers to do, just walking into their classrooms? This monologue digs deep into the motivations of a substitute teacher, and makes you listen.

Hits you like a ton of bricks. Especially if you have a child. Powerful.

Hilarious, but biting. This piece has a lot to say about perception vs reality when speaking about Latinidad. Elizabeth is such a strong and fierce voice, and she's unafraid to skewer sacred cows.

Beautifully written. Wonderful to see the cleverness of the young, curious woman and how she gently leads the older woman to question everything she thought she knew. The ferociousness with which the elder Tamar seeks to be known and remembered is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Learning to see history from the non-dominant point of view is so important, and Goldman-Sherman crafts the story with style and wit.

This play is powerful. It takes the war in Cambodia and educates us in a way we are almost not ready to hear. Heartbreaking and wild. And it rocks, super, super hard. One of the best new plays I’ve ever seen.

Violence as poetry. A clear eyed gripping story, terrifying in its details. You find yourself hoping for Lenny and Lindsey, in spite of their flaws and foible, but is redemption possible for this kind of crime? A powerful work.

Delightful, thoughtful, absurd. The room may be big, but the people in it are beautifully life sized. The narrative runs true for any of us trying to balance our lives.

This play. This play made me cry, scream, rage. There are points in it where I stopped breathing. A necessary narrative, masterfully told. Produce it. NOW!

Savage, hilarious and rings oh-so-true if you are trying to get your work produced. I recognize these people!

The early Christian era reimagined, Valentine's story is given scope and depth in Boyle's play. Ferocious roles for actresses, and a huge story that is distilled into 5 very human characters. Boyle is very good at showing us historical context for modern mores. There are many surprises along the way as the story twists along the fallible human path. I love big gutsy stories like Valentine that blow apart historical figures and help us to understand them better.