Recommended by Larry Rinkel

  • TAINT
    2 Jan. 2021
    Say it t'aint so! Scott has lived up to his name as the (sick)-est member of the NPX crowd! One fears for the stage crew and costume shop that would have to clean up the mess after each performance! But do not let that dissuade you from enjoying this terpsichorean-anal-fecal noir extravaganza. "Nothing human is alien," said the Roman poet (even a play about food poisoning and diarrhea). So stay away from the shrimp at the buffet, and as they say in the world of dance, "Merde!"
  • MY PARADISE ISLAND
    24 Dec. 2020
    Well, you can't always get what you want, even if you've been married 40 years and hubby finds the ideal desert island that wifey has always desired. This play would be fun produced, but it would be a shame not to read it as well, since the private notes from playwright to director add to the hilarity. As does the fact that none of the characters are exactly the sharpest tool in the box.
  • Fridge
    17 Dec. 2020
    Adorable. Think about all your relationships to people and possessions you're used to, and how you would never sacrifice or replace them however unreliable and difficult and just worn-out they sometimes seem. And then think how different, and less subtly effective, this charming play would be if Fridge were actually a person and not just - a "fridge."
  • Desserts
    29 Nov. 2020
    The title is of course one of my favorite words in the language; the concept makes the last act of "Titus Andronicus" look tame; the situation would be ideal for the next baking championship on the Food Network. But if 2-6 pallbearers are needed, how much did Friedrich weigh for a replica of him to be turned into . . . . well, you'll have to read the play to find out. I hope they pass out slices to the audience, so they can share in the characters' grief.
  • Angler Light
    12 Oct. 2020
    (2nd rec, full play) An exuberant folktale of a feisty talking disabled chinook salmon who enlists a suicidal teenager to drive him to Canada, so that the fish can spawn in his natal waters and then die. Obstacles everywhere, each one overcome until the bittersweet ending, and a bond formed between boy and fish despite their many conflicts. Throughout the play is imbued a sense of the web of nature and the importance of fulfilling one's destiny. In San Luis's wonderfully written tragicomedy, Prince Two-Gill would be a great part for an actor who can convincingly portray a disabled fish.
  • Un-Selfportrait. A mannered monologue.
    24 Sep. 2020
    Superb, in its combination of painting, music, and skillfully rhymed poetry, as well as its gentle satire on sex roles as inhabited by the cross-dressing novelist George Sand. Be sure to read the epilogue before Googling this fictional portrait by the superb Vigée-LeBrun. And though this monologue for three characters (one silent, one unseen) will play beautifully on stage, the artful stage directions confirm my belief that a play is as much a work of literature as of theater. Well-crafted, Mr. Kurtz!
  • You're Working the Checkout at Albertsons
    22 Sep. 2020
    Who is ever so anonymous as the cashiers working the checkout at [name your grocery store]. In about a dozen vignettes all starting with the same phrase - a challenge to the actor's sense of pace and variety - St. Croix creates a portrait that is alternately touching, zany, and funny. Who ever thought such thoughts would go through our grocery checkers' minds.
  • The Boy
    15 Sep. 2020
    There's love here, but also a lot of bitterness from the dying man (Richard) and resentment from the younger (Devon), and where the love ends and the other emotions begin is a blurred line that's impossible to define. Richard's emotions are the more immediately understandable, but don't count Devon out; he's passed the first bloom of youth, so that the ending suggests he needs Richard as much as Richard needs him, and will be devastated when he loses him.
  • A Plant on a Shelf
    12 Sep. 2020
    A charming and touching monologue about the need for all beings to feel wanted and appreciated, even in a time when only toilet paper seems to be in demand. Think about how you'll want to stage this (as a buyer eventually comes along to water the plant and take it home).
  • Writer (short play)
    7 Sep. 2020
    A lovely short play that subtly sends up all those plays about playwriting we so often see ("There are a lot of those." "Right? And never so beloved as by those who they are about"), while affectionately celebrating this sub-genre. But the loveliest spot is the expansive acknowledgment towards the end of how important the writer's companion is to them (I'm deliberately keeping my pronouns gender-blind), and how the writer needs the support and encouragement of their muse.

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