In addition to reading ~60 books last year, I also read 51 plays.
Standout scripts (that are not Silk Moth plays, but I would love to do somewhere) include:
- Romeo and Her Sister by Jillian Blevins
- Sunny Days by Reina Hardy
- Birds of North America by Anna Ouyang Moench
- Things that are Round by Callie Kimball
- Bad Books by Sharyn Rothstein (they’re doing this at Round House in Bethesda this year, and you should go)
Additionally, I saw 56 plays in person. That’s more than a play every week! They were at elementary schools, universities, community theaters, and Broadway—and I saw stand-outs and snoozes at every level.
Here are just a handful of my favorites:
- Romeo and Juliet, Faction of Fools. If you ever get the chance to see Faction’s commedia Shakespeare, don’t miss the opportunity. Solid textual work, and beautiful physical work. We laughed, we cried, we wanted to see it again.
- Romeo and Juliet, Synetic Theater. Yes, I took my kids to see two different (very different) R&Js in a three-week period. Synetic’s wordless Shakespeare is so deeply informed by the text, I love how they make the metaphors physical. They make me understand the words I know so well in a new way.
- Knight of the Burning Pestle, Meadowlark Shakespeare. This production of the Mary Baldwin University Shakespeare and Performance program MFA class, directed by Constance Swain, was one of the best things I’ve seen in the Blackfriars, possibly ever. Physical, funny, imaginative, and greatly responding to the space.
- The Human Museum, Rorshach Theatre. Directed by Randy Baker. This script is so tight, I can’t stop thinking about it, and the production was so beautiful and immersive that when the inevitable twist hit, I literally said, “WHAT” aloud. I think about this production at least weekly.
- Webster’s Bitch, the Keegan Theatre, directed by Susan Marie Rhea, gives us a behind-the-scenes at a world-famous dictionary at the center of an internet culture war. The script was smart, and the production was smarter.
- The Orphanage , Studio Wayne. Middle and high school students, directed by Lesley Larsen and Corey Holmes, told the story of children in an orphanage in Warsaw, in 1942. Their performances were powerful, brave, and funny. I would have cried even if my kid wasn’t in it.
- Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting, Contemporary American Theater Festival. Directed by Oliver Butler, this play takes us into the world of an autistic teenager, who shows us his world and his family through his camera lens. The production design was stunning (the audience literally applauded a set movement), but beyond that, the story and the acting were grounded and powerful.
- The Notebook on Broadway. I kind of saw this production, directed by Michael Greif, on a whim. I didn’t expect much from it. I mean, Nicholas Sparks, right? Y’all. The directing was so smart and the acting was so honest and the design didn’t show off but supported the story and Ingrid Michaelson wrote the music, which I didn’t know going in, and I literally wept.
- What the Constitution Means to Me, Eunoia Theater. Directed by Becca Stehle and starring Holly Hanks Wanta, this was an absolute tour-de-force. I took my kids to see it right before the election. They were absolutely furious, which was the desired effect.