Recommended by Matthew Weaver

Dellagiarino Feriend likes to challenge herself, in this case, by writing a two-hander set in a single setting, and in so doing, challenges her fellow playwrights to up their own writing. Fortunately, there is no such challenge to the audience, for THE HOT TUB PLAY is irresistible, adorable, a 40s screwball comedy without ever leaving the hot tub, a perfect re-meet cute.
The truly diabolical part is she makes it look so easy, while we in the know can revel in the craft it took to make it so.

Oof. Compelling, gripping, maddeningly relevant. Sickles is Cassandra, shouting furious warnings to we in the audience as his ever-thoughtful words depict the walls closing in all around us.
I attended a reading of TESSERACT through Playwrights Thriving. One of the performers of that reading is in a Bible study, and its members were in attendance. Their pastor: "This WAS Bible study." Amen. May all audiences be paying as close attention, before it's even more too late.

Partain is a master of the monstrous and the humane, and exploring the beauty of where those lines cross and blur. I love that she returns Mary Shelley's original tale to strong, complicated women - the perfect marriage of classic source material and a VERY GOOD contemporary writer. Harriet & Edmond are your favorite performers' new dream roles.
It's such a … heartbroken play, in such a good way. The original story was heartbreaking but Partain draws it out of the cobwebs and shadows so well.

A tour de force. Theaters should be tripping over themselves to produce this play, ESPECIALLY RIGHT NOW. It makes all the necessary points about women’s rights, and it does so in such a hilarious way, navigated by characters who are just absolute messes, yet full of heart, which makes the satire land that much harder.
***gestures at everything*** is so STUPID right now, but Dellagiarino Feriend’s words are a lighthouse, a beacon, an oasis, a salve and an inspiration.

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend plays are hilarious. Every. Single. Character. Has a rich inner life and hopes and dreams and disappointments and is a fully-realized, three-dimensional human being. The humor is 3,000 miles a minute and full of zest and zip and vim and vigor.
This is NOISES OFF-level writing, with bonus points for its vibrance and freshness, and should be performed equally often, if not a little bit more.

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend plays are irresistible. Here she takes a real-world examination of Jesus appearing to Marina, asking her to be his prophet on climate change and get a few moments with the governor.
The hilarious, adorable banter between the characters helps further land the real-world concerns throughout (this is NOT a preachy play, therefore it should be produced as much as possible everywhere on Earth Day and any other environmentally-conscious calendar date).
And then.

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend plays are thoughtful and layered. On one level, this is a light-hearted play about a young woman’s struggles to find love. It’s also about her friends and their own disappointing relationships. And her new love interest and his life and his own romantic turbulence (and the creeping sense that he might be a bit of a douchebag). All the while, the spectre of Jacob Romano lingers … Realistic, hysterical and made even better by its profundity and well-earned melancholy.

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend's characters are never flat. They do not lie still on either page or stage, but arrive fully formed, fresh and vibrant and full of life – even in the middle of such seemingly desolate surroundings!
Reader, do yourself a favor and spend a few days immersed in Dellagiarino Feriend’s words. You will emerge reinvigorated, hopeful and wondering why theaters would ever want to produce anything else.

Gonzalez plays with shadows, light, tension and grief in a high-wire act of a play, replete with his signature lovely dialogue and imagery. Heartfelt, layered and beautiful, a must for any theatre -- as are any of Franky's words.

When I say that Emily Hageman's words are going to save the world, this is exactly what I mean.
Hageman writes very lovely plays, whether they are funny or whether they are serious and, heartbreakingly, when they are furious, and this one may be her angriest of all. May her rage spread like wildfire, may it make the wrong people furious; may it show the people who are already furious that they are not alone in their fury.
Hageman's words should be required damn reading in every damn classroom.