Recommended by Lana Scott Stringer

UM this is so so so interesting and good and I’m about to talk about this constantly to anybody who will listen. Just as much an exercise in digital/historical preservation as it is in structural innovation, and it’s shockingly, almost eerily prescient - the further we get from the source material, the emotional relevance has increased and will only continue to. Gagged

A great, focused play about learning to be alive in a new way than you’ve done it for the lion’s share of your life. Anger lives in the same room as understanding, and characters and audience alike learn a lot and question a lot.

This is SUCH a cool play! The structure itself and the way it plays with the concept of audience and integrates them into the storytelling is so creative and effective. The playwright’s tone is forthright and candid about themes that are alarmingly present and urgent. I would love to see this production.

The hilarious circumstances of this play are at turns hairy and awkward, and warm and fuzzy. With a truly inventive reimagining of the setting and context of the events of the play, along with a feminist reframe of the characters, Kantor makes Lysistrata (a play I truly and famously hate) glitter. I know Aristophanes is choking that a woman did it better than him.

A funny, compelling innovation on a classic. This play reframes The Misanthrope’s themes in a way that is more inclusive and empowering, which ultimately makes a modern audience better able to engage with the text. All the benefits of the script being a treat rather than a chore, but it packs the same intellectual punch as the original.

A thought-provoking commentary on the relationship between art, visibility, and longevity. Like that of his recent Theaterlab play, the metanarrative of this play is engaging, exploratory, and lends itself to mutual discovery without being prescriptive. Shore asks his audience to think and learn along with his characters. The prose poetry is also profound.

A piercing and nuanced, yet balanced and often funny, examination of the ways for-profit prisons strip people of their humanity. Also a compelling example of how climate change MOST impacts people with the least footprint. Gorgeous language, a thoughtful, motivated story, and a range of interesting perspectives and characterization.

By turns hilarious and profound. The emotional range Twiss is able to fit into 10 pages is incredible without feeling crammed in the least. Well done!!

Goosebumps! This play is at turns hilarious and disturbing, absurd in a funny way and absurd in a horrifying way. No matter what, it’s compelling. I’m reading this not even a month after the Supreme Court of my home state, AL, set a precedent that an embryo is a life. I remember thinking upon hearing that news: this precedent is dangerous, and I also can’t imagine the feeling of loss that accompanies this category of “clerical error.” Grieving an expectation can feel like grieving a death. It can be its own kind of death.

A really interesting reflection on the strike and examination of the guilt that comes with not making the most, creatively, of your free time - even when that free time is forced and traumatic. I love the line the playwrights walk of what it means to be a human creative. If we wholly abide by a certain “algorithm” of industry requirements and requests, we lose our ability to create freely and to produce beautiful art.