←The Depot for New Play Readings

In “Machines Eat People” Max Gill delivers a nuanced and multi-layered drama about two families whose interactions one weekend change the way the characters think about themselves and each other. With great restraint, Gill builds tension and holds emotions taut. Everyone who attended the Depot reading was affected by it. The stakes felt so real, one actor vowed to avoid the mistakes his character made. A beautiful unfolding of one specific moment after another straight to the poignant end. Strongly recommended.

David Brodie addresses the history of the abuse of native children in Catholic-run boarding schools in his heartbreaking “Save the Man.” Daniel, a Shoshone teenager, escapes his school and hides in the barn of a family of Sikh farmers. The family's humanity cannot undo years of trauma, though. With fully developed characters, heartbreaking scenes, and multiple languages and cultures, "Save the Man" left the Depot audience speechless. A powerful play with timeless themes. Strongly recommended.

In “Alicia” J. Lois Diamond dramatizes the career of the great Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso with cinematic scope. We meet Alicia, old and blind, and, as she talks to dance students, through flashback, recounts her life. Choral roles populate scenes with multiple characters, while Alicia’s dancing comes to life in beautifully crafted dialog. In Diamond’s telling, Alicia wanted only to dance, no matter the cost to others or to herself, and despite her willfulness, sympathetic. Highly recommended.

In January, 1882, Irish poet Oscar Wilde, 27, visited his literary hero, Walt Whitman, 62, in Philadelphia. Little is known about what transpired, but in the two-hander “Wilde about Whitman,” David Simpatico delivers a dramatic answer. Over two acts, Simpatico’s vividly drawn poets tango in a dance of desire and rage. At stake is Whitman’s legacy: will he accede to demands he cut twenty-five erotic poems from Leaves of Grass to prevent its being banned? With witty repartee, double entendre, and haunting recollections about the Civil War, the play swings through a gamut of emotions. A gem. Highly recommended.

In “The Springvale Armadillo,” Donald Loftus explores the little known history of leprosaria, medical colonies for the care of patients with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. This absorbing play focuses on Ruby, who lives in an institution based on the historical Carville. The dialog crackles, and Loftus deftly employs flashbacks and dreams for heightened emotional effect. Mystery hovers throughout the action, giving the play a slight gothic feel, without the typical trappings of the genre. In the end, Ruby’s life and stoicism are poignant and moving. Strongly recommended.

Jack Rushton’s “The Wheelhouse” is smart, witty, and alarming. Set in an unnamed corporate meeting room, the play examines systems: how to manipulate them and the people in them. In this world, where a shadowy regime concentrates power in a few hands, everyone is expendable, and no one escapes the tentacles of a soulless technology: two employees wrestle for supremacy in a menacing meeting room where no one ever wins. A fascinating story that will keep audiences gnawing their nails. Highly recommended for evenings of shorts with a sharp bite.

John Mabey’s “Buried Treasures” brings us two characters searching for the past, for something they are missing, something that was taken from them. The language is particular, familiar but surprising, and the setting, beside a river that rises and falls, reflects the play’s undercurrent of emotion. While realistic in its portrayal of sibling love and rivalry, “Buried Treasures” moves the audience with its lyricism and the power in what is left unsaid. The play is ideal for children’s theater and would be a welcome addition to any evening of short plays about family.

Joan carries a suitcase of a purse, a sign of her well-organized “stuff,” yet somehow in the last year she’s lost contact with her son Matt. After Matt seemingly wills himself to death and donates all his organs, Joan searches the ICU for the recipients to find answers, to find the question, to find Matt. Alex Dremann’s “The Cure” aims to make us laugh and break our hearts at the same time. With naturalistic dialog, a simple set, and unforgettable characters, “The Cure” trades easy answers for mystery and lyricism. A powerful play. Highly recommended.

In Stephen Kaplan’s “Un Hombre,” a widowed mother, Rebecca Wolfson, and her son, Josh, are frozen in grief. While Josh struggles to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, Rebecca hides in her basement studio where she unintentionally sculpts a golem. The new heart in a wounded family, the golem communicates in Hebrew, Spanish, and English and sings licks of musical theater, both to console Rebecca and Josh and to help them reconnect to each other and to living. Poetic and theatrical, “Un Hombre” examines timeless philosophical questions with humor and tenderness. The final scene will break your heart. Highly recommended.

Mary and Bill have been married for twenty-four years, and Bill wants to celebrate with a game of “H-O-R-S-E.” Good-humored but competitive, Bill attempts to teach Mary, an unathletic librarian, how to shoot a basket, and with each pass of the baskektball, the dynamics of their marriage emerge with ever-increasing clarity. That we love this wife and husband is testament to Kathleen Cahill’s comedic writing; “H-O-R-S-E” is a wildly entertaining riff on the adage that we can know someone for decades and still have more to learn. A swish through the hoop never sounded so good. Strongly recommended.