Recommended by Larry Rinkel

"And just how do you (Dwight David Eisenhower) propose people would have gotten to Levitt’s houses in my (Henry Ford's) cars on Firestone’s tires without your help?" Four capitalist/corporate miscreants await trial for their "contributions" to modern America and their roles in fomenting climate change. Here in 2020, one can easily think of other names - equally destructive, equally clueless - who could be added to the cell along with these four. The sharpness of Philana's language saves the play from being didactic debate, and it looks like something that would be fun to see performed.

This should be beautiful in performance, incorporating elements of dance, music, and ritual. A young girl breaks through her contemporary American world to discover truths about her Nigerian ancestors. Just lovely.

Emily Hageman has a lot of fun parodying this little-known ancient play, and in doing so scores some telling points against the original. For kids of all ages to whom the very name of Shakespeare is synonymous with hifalutin boredom, this amusing send-up will serve as a painless introduction. "Possibly improved?" Well, let's leave that as a question mark, but it's certainly "abridged," and even the purest of Shakespeare purists deserves a wittily Hagemanesque tongue-lashing if they can't let down their hair and thoroughly enjoy it. Best moment: watch for the appearance of 2B-or-not-2B.

Like Long Island iced tea, Kentucky lemonade is not just a sugary drink. Julie Zaffarano's c. 90-minute play will attract theaters looking for all-female casts aged 50 or more. For much of its length until the explosion in Act Two, the dialogue is low-key but always holds our interest as the four well-differentiated characters confront a secret that threatens to disrupt their relationships, but is resolved so as to pull back from the brink of disaster. Suffice it to add that the "secret" is likely to be less shameful for younger women today.

The names - Sammy, Jerry, and their unseen spouses/BFF/SO Blair and Chris - are cleverly chosen as to be all gender-neutral. But co-workers Sammy and Jerry are clearly close enough to confide details of their unfulfilled personal lives in a manner that goes beyond typical workplace distance. And so in this gently teasing comedy, they break the ice and agree to share Platonic hugs at specified intervals. No problem with that: as theater people we're all used to hugs with no sexual implications, and so the author insists. But then again, this is Valentine's Day . . . .

To begin, this extraordinary play is for theaters willing to take risks with serious, edgy material. It is the kind of play that doesn't give up all its secrets on initial reading, and I will want to turn to it again. It inhabits the worlds of myth and dreams, with sometimes horrific images of death, madness, and dismemberment. One feels when reading it to be drawn into a world of Mexican culture unfamiliar to the average American, and the role of Birdie in particular would be a great opportunity for a gifted dramatic actress.

A sweet play for and about teenagers, teaching them the possibility of accepting someone whom one character thought she knew, but who was in fact headed in a totally different direction. The metaphors of the Japanese tea ceremony and the ballet help save the play from didacticism, and the ending, where the girl Lauren finally speaks the male character Mike's name, is perfect.

Do not expect a literal re-telling of the Persephone myth, with the heroine spending six months for eternity in the underworld and six on earth. Instead it is a tale where the deceased Persephone guides her best friend and her widowed husband to a new beginning for both them and her little boy Sam. It is a story of hope and renewal, with beautiful language and touching characterizations. Persephone may never return to the land of the living, but Ellen and Laurence will carry on. If only, that is, Persephone can get her comically annoying mother out of the way.

Very interesting study in how to create an action entirely without dialogue. We don't know anyone's name, voice, manner of speech, but their relationships are defined as if through mime or something close to ballet. It's the presence of the girl that sets the plot in motion; had she not entered, there would have been some foreshadowing of the conflict between Boys 4 and 5, but it would have not erupted. I won't give away the ending, but it is unexpected and far from innocuous.

I had expected to see a staged reading of this play around this time (April 2020), but the virus prevented that. Even so, I can only add my own endorsement to the many this piece has received. For all the harrowing subject matter (incest, illness, murder), the play always delivers on the comedy as well, especially the fighting and quarreling between the three women who are all aspects of the author. Comedy is in fact the play's great strength, without which it could easily become a tearjerker which it decidedly is not. "Oddly uplifting" is the author's apt description.