Recommended by Matthew Weaver

There's a whale on the beach, and Tom and Jerry are expecting a pretty important package ... Feels like a Williams classic, a tale of a longtime couple never very far apart, even though they're also never on the same page. A great showcase for a couple of your favorite veteran performers in your acting troupe.

It would be interesting to sit in an audience during a production of WILD TURDUCKEN and watch as families grow more and more uncomfortable as they recognize more and more of themselves in Fenton's timely holiday story. The shared history, the long-standing traditions that don't quite make sense, but that's all right, they don't need to. And then the lingering questions about right and wrong and why people believe what they believe, and the aftermath they leave in their terrible wake.

Chilling and chillingly timely, with Bluestein-Lyons doing an effective job of showing how bloodcurdlingly banal true evil can be. Audiences will go home talking about how well this play drops the floor out from beneath them. And then they'll fall into an unsettled silence ...

Heyman with his signature thoughtful take on adult relationships, here two adult siblings reunited after their separation by divorce. Virtual strangers find their way back to their younger selves and try to make sense of their shared history via their differing perspectives. Are they older? Yes. Wiser? Who is? More mature? Thankfully, not. Is there a path forward. In Heyman's capable hands, we will it to be so.

Effortlessly chilling. Sickles is a master of dread, unease, the sorts of words that make your skin crawl ... But he also makes these words inviting ... appealing ... downright seductive, which makes them even more unsettling.
Which only begs the question, "Why hasn't your theater produced his words already?!!"
In a world full of all sorts of unspeakable horrors, Sickles delights in delivering characters that would give nightmares to the things that give us nightmares.

Sickles leans into a decidedly vernal theme with a horror story that could be all too true, even including the more fantasical Cronenberg-esque elements. A powerful big pharma and agro billionaire's missing child comes home and speaks truth to power, and then some. (Does power speak back?) Zombie ant fungus? An automatic read.
This being a Scott Sickles play, of course it arrives thoroughly researched, deeply disturbing (not a prerequisite BUT SO MUCH FUN WHEN IT HAPPENS) and masterfully told.

Gatton is a very good humanist playwright - this is important work! - and here he has honed/refined his sensibilities into a play that allows each character a moment of dignity, even amid their flaws and looming darkness. BETTER is delicious, poignant, compelling, hopeful despite an overwhelming amount of evidence, unnerving and unfortunately timely. You will love these characters even as they unsettle you; more importantly, you will understand them every step along the way.

Applause, applause to Moore for exploring the boundaries between sexuality and shame, and being brave/bold enough to center her play on a lusty Bible study group. Dot is feeling a lot of complicated emotions, trapped in purity culture. Moore lets her characters have the grace to engage in full, fascinating, spirited debate. These are conversations that young people/everyone should be having!
Every theater should produce this work. Be sure yours is one of the brave ones that actually do.

Irresistible from the discovery of the adult videos in the box, watch this become a mainstay on theatre stages across the country. It has everything - meaty roles for senior performers, quick wit, loving bonds that cross generational lines and a love story at its center.
I was fortunate enough to watch a reading of DISCARDS at The Sauk Theatre in Jonesville, MI, in July 2025, and I fully expect it will receive a full production given the audience reaction. Weibezahl is a gem of a writer/human!

A struggling comic sorts through traumas past and present through his act, aided by his deceased roommate. Kane deftly maneuvers sensitive subject matter with humor and grace, keenly examining both sides of the comedy/tragedy mask. A very human look at grief and the way it affects us all.
I had the pleasure of watching a reading of this script as part of the Sauk's Plays in Development program in Jonesville, MI, in July 2025. If you get a chance to work with Rebecca, leap at the opportunity!