For those eager to keep up with the best in contemporary drama, I have good news: Great work is headed our way.<\/p>\n
The two best plays I saw last year, Bess Wohl\u2019s \u201cLiberation\u201d <\/a>and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019 \u201cPurpose,\u201d <\/a>back-to-back winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, are part of the Geffen Playhouse\u2019s unmissable next season. And Center Theatre Group announced that \u201cJohn Proctor Is the Villain,\u201d<\/a> Kimberly Belflower\u2019s bewitching modern riposte to Arthur Miller\u2019s The Crucible,\u201d has a place at the Mark Taper Forum next spring.<\/p>\n This season has featured several recent Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, including Jackie Sibblies Drury\u2019s \u201cFairview\u201d <\/a>(in a Rogue Machine Theatre production at the Matrix), Sanaz Toossi\u2018s \u201cEnglish\u201d<\/a> (at the Wallis) and Eboni Booth\u2019s \u201cPrimary Trust\u201d <\/a>(at the Mark Taper Forum).<\/p>\n At a time when drama has come to depend on celebrity leads and commercial hype, this bounty of understated excellence is heartening. But it\u2019s also made me hungry for more. <\/p>\n Always on the lookout for new plays, I\u2019ve compiled a list of works that I\u2019ve read for award consideration or seen elsewhere in the last year that deserve Los Angeles productions. I recommend these scripts to artistic directors and literary managers still fighting the good fight. Smart, entertaining and surprising, they offer reassurance that adventurous playwriting is not only alive and well but branching out into uncharted territory. <\/p>\n Joanna Gleason and Andrew Barth Feldman in Manhattan Theatre Club\u2019s production of \u201cWe Had a World\u201d by Joshua Harmon.<\/p>\n (Jeremy Daniel)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Family strife is front and center in Harmon\u2019s personal drama, a portrait of an artist as a young grandson. The grandmother in the spotlight, a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker named Renee, exposes Joshua to the joys of the Big City when he visits from the suburbs. She\u2019s like an Auntie Mame, only her version of extravagance is peanut butter sundaes at Serendipity 3, a course at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and tickets to see Diana Rigg on Broadway in \u201cMedea.\u201d <\/p>\n Joshua is in heaven, but he finds himself caught in a long-standing feud between his mother, Ellen, and his grandmother, whose drinking problem has resurfaced. A memory play of quiet complexity, \u201cWe Had a World\u201d is a moving meditation on the challenge of appreciating our imperfect yet irreplaceable loved ones in the time that\u2019s available. <\/p>\n Author of \u201cBad Jews,\u201d <\/a>\u201cSignificant Other\u201d<\/a> and \u201cPrayer for the French Republic,\u201d Harmon has written a work that may seem uncharacteristically modest in scope. But the drama, which had its world premiere off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club\u2019s NY City Center Stage II, is extremely supple in its construction. And the emotional crux of the story maps onto larger concerns, such as how to properly mourn a world that\u2019s rapidly disappearing through the depredations of climate change, a passionate cause for Joshua, whose elegiac love for his grandmother has heightened his sense of the transitory nature of existence. <\/p>\n John McCrea as Prince George; Mihir Kumar as Dev Chatterjee in \u201cPrince Faggot.\u201d<\/p>\n (Marc J. Franklin)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n An audacious fairy tale about a prince who happens to be the first openly gay heir to the throne in British history, the play took a cast of queer and trans performers in New York on a vertiginous meta-theatrical ride, inviting them to imagine a fictional version of Prince George of Wales in 2032 as a sexually liberated twink. Tannahill doesn\u2019t pull any punches; nor did the thrilling production, which pulsated with the feverish energy of an after-hours club under the direction of noted playwright Shayok Misha Chowdhury (\u201cPublic Obscenities,\u201d \u201cRheology\u201d)<\/a>. A brilliant ensemble, which included downtown eminence David Greenspan, injected the royal family with radical swagger. <\/p>\n While meticulously crafted, \u201cPrince Faggot\u201d isn\u2019t for the faint of heart. But there are unusual rewards for an intrepid company willing to test the boundaries of political and artistic morality. <\/p>\n Oghenero Gbaje, left, and Essence Lotus in \u201cBowl EP\u201d by Nazareth Hassan at the Vineyard Theater in Manhattan.<\/p>\n (Carol Rosegg)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Sometimes a talent comes along that renders old paradigms obsolete. Hassan is such a talent. Reading these two new plays this year, I was struck by the stylistic vigor and structural fluidity. Playwriting for Hassan is a new form of jazz. <\/p>\n I served on the Pulitzer jury that chose \u201cBowl EP\u201d as one of the finalists for this year\u2019s drama award (won by \u201cLiberation\u201d). The play, which had its premiere off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, is a freewheeling love story, set in a skate park in the middle of an urban wasteland. Two rappers, one trans, the other bisexual, trade lyrics in their frenetic pursuit of an elusive, authentic sound that can release them from the shame of a world that affords so little space for their identities. <\/p>\n Ronald Peet in \u201cPractice\u201d by Nazareth Hassan at Playwrights Horizons.<\/p>\n (Alexander Mej\u00eda, Bergamot)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n \u201cPractice,\u201d which had its premiere at Playwrights Horizons, is a more epic work that closely tracks the perverse power dynamics of an avant-garde theater troupe. Determined to stretch the possibilities of contemporary performance, the company blows past the limits of acceptable process in an off-kilter \u201cpsycho comedy.\u201d Art isn\u2019t easy, as Sondheim famously put it, but must it be so cult-like and self-punishing? <\/p>\n I\u2019ve not yet seen productions of either of these plays, and I wonder who in L.A. would have the temerity to tackle them. But Hassan, an insurgent dramatist with a lyrical voice like no other, is shaking up the art form in ways that can\u2019t be ignored. <\/p>\n Will Brill, from left, Tamara Sevunts, Andrea Martin, Raffi Barsoumian and Nael Nacer in \u201cMeet the Cartozians\u201d by Talene Monahon.<\/p>\n (Julieta Cervantes)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Another finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, \u201cMeet the Cartozians,\u201d a play in two acts set 100 years apart, looks at the racial politics of our immigration system through the Armenian American example. The first half, which takes place in 1923-24, revolves around Tatos Cartozian, a prosperous rug merchant living with his family in Portland, Ore. After his citizenship is revoked, he is conscripted to be part of a legal challenge contending that Armenians are \u201cfree white persons\u201d and therefore eligible for naturalization given existing law. Tatos and his family are coached to perform \u201cwhite identity\u201d in a comedy that would be outrageously hilarious were it not inspired by historical events. <\/p>\n The second act takes place in 2024 in Glendale, where community members have gathered to be part of a reality TV star\u2019s public embrace of her heritage. The luminary in question isn\u2019t a Kardashian, but she might as well be. What begins as a history play transforms into a sharp-eyed satire about the cost of assimilation in a society where money, power and white privilege remain stubbornly intertwined. <\/p>\n Alana Raquel Bowers, from left, Andy Lucien and Crystal Finn in the 2026 production of \u201cCold War Choir Practice\u201d by Ro Reddick.<\/p>\n (Maria Baranova)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n This shape-shifting play, shot through with music, is set in and around a roller disco in Syracuse, N.Y. The year is 1987, the Cold War is raging and Reaganomics is leaving poorer communities behind. Meek, a 10-year-old Black girl, is grappling with her fears of nuclear Armageddon as more prosaic domestic concerns kick into high gear. Her right-wing, Washington power-broker uncle, a Clarence Thomas figure, rekindles old disputes when he brings his sickly white wife to be looked after during the holidays. Reddick loads her genre-blurring tale with outlandish intrigue involving Soviet spies, a capitalist cult and a roving choir that doubles as a Greek chorus. The play, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize this year, entices on the page despite seeming overstuffed and curiously decentralized. But it was helpful to see Knud Adams\u2019 <\/a>nimble production after it transferred to MCC Theater \u2014 an ideal introduction to a startlingly original playwright at the dawn of a path-breaking career. <\/p>\n David Greenspan in a \u201cI\u2019m Assuming You Know David Greenspan\u201d by Mona Pirnot.<\/p>\n (Ahron R. Foster)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n A solo show that Greenspan himself performed at Atlantic Theatre Company, this eccentric play was one of the most unexpectedly delightful works I read all year. Inspired by the sensibility of a tantalizingly idiosyncratic writer-performer, the play offered Greenspan the opportunity to star in a Greenspan-esque work not of his own devising. Pirnot pays homage to a queer maverick who has kept a safe distance from the mainstream. But she\u2019s also examining the precarious economic plight of artists similarly pursuing their own alternative paths in the American theater. Not afraid of being too inside baseball, she turns a spotlight onto the backstage realities of an endangered cultural scene that, by the evidence of this play alone, is too wonderful to abandon. <\/p>\n Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in \u201cLittle Bear Bridge Road\u201d by Samuel D. Hunter.<\/p>\n (Julieta Cervantes)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n After seeing \u201cLittle Bear Ridge Road\u201d on Broadway in the fall, I immediately requested a copy of the script, wanting to spend more time with the hauntingly unresolved characters. The gaps in the story are as compelling as the personal details. <\/p>\n Ethan (played by an excellent Micah Stock), a gay man on the lam from his past, has arrived at the home of his aunt, Sarah (given life in a vintage Laurie Metcalf performance), a crotchety, isolated nurse in rural Idaho, to settle his dead father\u2019s affairs. There\u2019s too much family trauma to make this a sentimental reunion. But forced to watch hour after hour of escapist television together during the dark days of COVID, they can\u2019t help but attend to old wounds even as they open new ones. Metcalf, finding the hidden emotion in Sarah\u2019s burned out inner life, delivered a stripped-down tour de force. As Ethan, Stock was as perversely alienating as he was poignantly alienated. I doubt whether this production, impeccably directed by Joe Mantello<\/a>, could be equaled. But these two figures, created by one of our most keenly observant writers, deserve to be interpreted anew. Hunter\u2019s drama, named best play this year by the New York Drama Critics\u2019 Circle, marks an important addition to the playwright\u2019s voluminous body of work, which includes \u201cThe Whale,\u201d<\/a> \u201cGrangeville\u201d <\/a>and (coming to indispensable Rogue Machine<\/a> in September) \u201cA Case for the Existence of God.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those eager to keep up with the best in contemporary drama, I have good news: Great work is headed our way. The two best plays I saw last year, Bess Wohl\u2019s \u201cLiberation\u201d and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019 \u201cPurpose,\u201d back-to-back winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, are part of the Geffen Playhouse\u2019s unmissable next season. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2493131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2493130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8-splendid-plays-that-beg-for-an-LA-production-ASAP.com2Fbc2Fb32Fed33034240a69c421ca5fe59.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493132,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493130\/revisions\/2493132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2493131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018We Had a World\u2019 by Joshua Harmon<\/h3>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/dc564ec\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4002+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe3%2F47%2F20b8ac684728a01470780aff8841%2F2-prince-faggot-by-marc-j-franklin.jpg)
<\/picture>\n\u2018Prince Faggot\u2019 by Jordan Tannahill<\/h3>\n
![\"Oghenero](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/aebed76\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fef%2Fb4%2Ffff660914c22b1f80b687dc630da%2Foghenero-gbaje-essence-lotus-in-bowl-ep-photo-by-carol-rosegg.JPG)
<\/picture>\n\u2018Practice\u2019 and \u2018Bowl EP\u2019 by Nazareth Hassan<\/h3>\n
![\"Ronald](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8cd95e1\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1920x1280+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F35%2F79%2F86ccf1ce469398691c6e42427d3a%2Fpractice-52.jpg)
<\/picture>\n![\"Will](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/2a2499b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8502x5668+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8d%2F1f%2F3dd417a34a56b193a63afa24d656%2F2-will-brill-tamara-sevunts-andrea-martin-raffi-barsoumian-nael-nacer-in-meet-the-cartozians-photo-by-julieta-cervantes.jpg)
<\/picture>\n\u2018Meet the Cartozians\u2019 by Talene Monahon<\/h3>\n
![\"Alana](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/e5cef86\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5476x3652+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffa%2F9b%2F54a3fc9748a3b3f4835461a7b3b5%2Falana-raquel-bowers-andy-lucien-and-crystal-finn-in-the-2026-production-of-cold-war-choir-practice-photo-by-maria-baranova.jpg)
<\/picture>\n\u2018Cold War Choir Practice\u2019 by Ro Reddick<\/h3>\n
![\"David](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/d4a5f3b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7736x5157+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F4d%2F4f%2Fdcc6c4764de09310ec0adfe83f53%2Fgreenspandress-0793.jpg)
<\/picture>\n\u2018I\u2019m Assuming You Know David Greenspan\u2019 by Mona Pirnot<\/h3>\n
![\"Laurie](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/4a794d5\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8260x5507+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F92%2F53%2Fdfae20e244a89294d5ec04726b1a%2F22little-bear-bridge-road-22-laurie-metcalf-and-micah-stock-photo-by-julieta-cervantes-3.jpg)
<\/picture>\n\u2018Little Bear Ridge Road\u2019 by Samuel D. Hunter<\/h3>\n