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Larry Rinkel

Recommended by Larry Rinkel

  • A VERY STABLE GENIUS (Co-written with Sharai Bohannon, Ben Brinkley, Diana Burbano, Greg Burdick and Jordan Elizabeth Henry) by Rachael Carnes
    7 Jan. 2019
    “ This is so funny. You just have to read it. Beiieve me. There have been Trump-inspired plays, but this trumps all. I don't know even how to describe it. Ever heard of a disembraining machine, getting your brains schlorped, and a bear named Beatrice all set against an assassination plot? Now you will. Make sure not to miss Scene Eight and Eleven-Sixteenths; it's the best of all. Theaters, get busy casting, 'cause you'll need the entire French and Russian armies. ”
  • The Bookstore by Jennifer O'Grady
    4 Jan. 2019
    “ What do the books we see in our local Barnes & Noble (or insert bookstore of your choice) really think about us and their own fates? What if you're the poetry book sitting on the shelves passed over, unread, and unbought? And who has it worse - you, or the YA pop culture action thriller who'll sell in minutes only to be forgotten, donated, or even recycled? In O'Grady's clever little play, I guess when you're the smart unpopular kid (I mean "book"), you don't mind shaking things up a little for the dumber popular kid (I mean "book"). ”
  • Words Are Hard by Shane Strawbridge
    3 Jan. 2019
    “ How do you handle your parents' death when they've left you nothing and have asked you to burn all their possessions? How do you handle things when your best friend is helping you pack and chooses this inopportune moment to come on to you? This touching short needs careful direction, as both young men's speech patterns are fragmentary, with a lot left unsaid. ”
  • TOILET PAPER by Emma Goldman-Sherman
    31 Dec. 2018
    “ I can only start by remembering the times where I took my mother for granted, but unfortunately she's gone now so I can't make amends. A wickedly funny but uncomfortable piece about how the bovine males in the family can do nothing for themselves, expect mom to do everything for them, and barely notice when she packs up and leaves. Some funny stage business too where the actors "perform" directly for the audience. And how son Rodney's taking a shower when no toilet paper is available, is a place I don't want to even imagine. What's next - "Toothpaste"? ”
  • Emily's Room by Jennifer O'Grady
    30 Dec. 2018
    “ Though this touching, elegiac play gains resonance the more one knows about Emily Dickinson, everyone can grasp the idea of a great, original genius working reclusively with little hope of recognition. O'Grady dramatizes how the apparently illiterate maid Maggie (unlike Emily's more literal-minded sister Lavinia) grasps the ambivalence between Emily's overt instruction to have her poems burned and her deeper desire to have them sent out like letters to an understanding world. Maggie's boyfriend Johnny adds a sympathetic note, but the focus is on the fine roles for the three women. ”
  • Ask Me Anything by Philip Middleton Williams
    23 Dec. 2018
    “ What people will do to get a job these days. And a data entry position in accounts receivable at that. I mean, I could see the interviewer's outrageous and totally illegal tactics if the guy was going for a job in payables, but receivables? After you've enjoyed the "interview," there's the twist at the end that makes the whole thing funnier, and I daresay more believable. ”
  • Hotter Than Thoreau by Julie Zaffarano
    23 Dec. 2018
    “ In Julie Zaffarano's hot little play, the two young men are at first wildly infatuated with each other's sexual beauty, but then Coke freaks out at a slight physical imperfection in Denny. Are looks all that matter to gay guys? Farcical mishaps ensue involving a glove and a scarf as Denny tries to hide his "rash," but to both boys' surprise, they get past their initial fears to realize a common love for the great American prophet of independence and unconventionality. "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ”
  • All Together Now by Philip Middleton Williams
    22 Dec. 2018
    “ In this sweet and gentle family drama, precocious teenager Fox turns up at the home of gay dad Paul who never knew his son existed. Complications ensue as to who will bring the boy up, with everyone from Paul's boyfriend Adam to his parents Jim and Dorothy to Fox's mother Julie wanting their say. And Fox wants his say too. There are bumps along the road, but eventually a resolution is achieved on all sides in this pleasingly written play, which makes subtle commentary on what it means to be married, a parent, and a teenager today.
    ”
  • Happiness is Homemade by Quinn Xavier Hernandez
    22 Dec. 2018
    “ An entertaining tasting menu of appetizing 2-handers, all centered around food (cooking show, yogurt shop, dinner for the big date, food court samples at the mall, and peanut allergies). Quinn Hernandez knows his food, and you might even want to cook the delectably named Martha Marmalade's chicken recipes. There are five 2-character vignettes here that are in most respects independent of each other, but the play most thoroughly develops the story of superficially perky but frustrated cooking host Martha, a wacky Julia Child for our times who is upstaged by her unnamed guest assistant. Bon appetit! ”
  • Take the K Train by William Triplett
    21 Dec. 2018
    “ You will enjoy how Bill Triplett gradually screws up the pace and tension in this exciting little short, with passenger Winston taking a "surreal Kafkaesque journey" in the company of two eccentric fellow-travelers and not knowing where his train is heading or even in what decade. The allusion to Kafka is explicit (there's your K), but even more this piece reminds me of a miniature Twilight Zone episode. Very stageworthy as Rachael Carnes notes in her review. ”

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