Student Blog: The Play You Should Read According to Your Zodiac Sign

Every theatre student is always told to read more plays, but oftentimes, it's difficult to find something that holds our attention or seems right for us. After examining this trend among my fellow college theatre students for some time, I started to cobble together a list of play recommendations specifically tailored towards something all of us are very interested in: our zodiac signs! Now, I (a Scorpio) have offered a play recommendation for each of the twelve signs based on what I think they need most, so find your sun sign, check out the description, and happy play reading!

Aries: Sweat by Lynn Nottage
Aries are stubborn and fiery, and holding their attention can be difficult. That's why Lynn Nottage's Sweat is perfect- it's a fiery show filled with stubborn and headstrong characters, and Nottage always manages to pace her plays perfectly so that even those with the shortest of attention spans will be rapt from beginning to end. Sweat focuses on a group of working-class people in Reading, Pennsylvania, setting the entire show in a bar. The characters, rehashing events that occurred eight years prior at a factory for which they all worked, explore themes of manager/worker division, failing friendships, racial tension, and deindustrialization in modern America. Sweat also opened on Broadway on March 26th, 2017, which is during Aries season, so it's no coincidence that this is the play for them.
Taurus: The Cake by Bekah Brunstetter
Every Taurus has a soft heart, whether or not they choose to reveal it, and The Cake is meant for the soft-hearted. Centered around two young lesbians about to get married, The Cake is short, sweet, and lovely. Brunstetter intertwines light romantic comedy with the heavier themes of homecoming and acceptance. Jen, a young woman, asks her late mother's best friend Della, a renowned baker, to bake her wedding cake, but Della balks when she finds out that Jen is marrying Macy, a young black woman. As much conflict as this creates, the dialogue is nonetheless funny and the ending happy. Tauruses, being the sweetest Earth signs, will love this sweet show.
Gemini: Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Ah, yes. Geminis- the chaotic and argumentative air signs- often end up at the center of conflict or causing conflict, whether or not they mean to, so they should check out this play about family conflict. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins writes sharp dialogue, similar to how sharp-tongued Geminis tend to be, and he certainly never sugarcoats in his storytelling, something Geminis aren't always ready to handle but sometimes need. Appropriate is centered around three estranged siblings returning to their deceased father's home to clean it out before selling it: eldest daughter Toni, who refuses to hear anything negative about her beloved father, middle child Bo, happily married with two young children, and youngest son Frank (newly rechristened Franz), the ex-convict/ex-alcoholic who represents the family's...messier side. Throughout the play, these siblings are forced to confront disturbing truths about their father as well as sort through mountains of accumulated clutter, both physical and emotional. Geminis, with their aversion to acknowledging any heavy form of truth, won't be able to help falling in love with this razor-sharp and honest play.
Cancer: Lunch Bunch by Sarah Einspanier
Cancers are the biggest criers of the bunch, which is why Lunch Bunch is perfectly suited to them, given that Lunch Bunch isn't written to induce tears despite not quite being a comedy. Instead, it lays a series of existential thoughts on the table, ready to be consumed (just like a barbecue jackfruit sandwich with an arugula pear salad on the side). Einspainer, utilizing an unorthodox, overlapping dialogue format vaguely reminiscent of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, seats seven attorneys at a lunch table for an hour to discuss their carefully chosen vegetarian lunches, and the beautifully prepared food is a stunning juxtaposition to the daily bleakness these characters face as public defenders for the other twenty-three hours of the day. Lunch Bunch is a wonderfully weird way of portraying just about any ordinary human. It's an example of how we all will seek something to look forward to when we work such draining jobs, even if it's as simple as steamed kale. Because Cancers are people who tend to do well in seeking comfort and joy, they'll especially enjoy this kooky piece.
Leo: Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl
The thing about Leos is that they're very self-assured and always want to stand out in some way, and Dead Man's Cell Phone is quite a standout play. It also can cause even the most assured person to question everything, given how outlandish this play is in every element. The ever-brilliant Sarah Ruhl uses the incessant ringing of a cell phone to pull ordinary woman Jean and the audience into the world of a now-dead man with quite a few loose ends. Some highlights of this collection of oddities include: a mother who consumes an entire steak every day to keep her iron levels up, black-market organ selling, an insecure and grieving widow, the letter Z, and a bowl of lobster bisque. Sarah Ruhl always makes her audiences really think, ask existential questions, and second-guess what is ordinary or extraordinary, and Dead Man's Cell Phone is no exception. Dead Man's Cell Phone makes you wonder whether technology is causing us to lead more isolated or united lives, and it makes us wonder what we would do in such situations. Leos need something every once in awhile that makes them question or calm their fire, and this play does just this.
Virgo: Dance Nation by Clare Barron
The hardworking Virgos need a play about hard workers, which brings us to the ensemble of adolescent dancers in Dance Nation. No one is more power-hungry yet insecure as a thirteen-year-old competitive dancer, and Clare Barron writes a dance team filled with some of the most driven and angsty thirteen-year-old dancers around; they're learning a jazz ballet tribute number about Gandhi meant to bring them a win at nationals. The characters are all archetypes you'll find anywhere from a local storefront studio to the Abby Lee Dance Company. Amina is the classic cream-of-the-crop star, with Zuzu as her best friend/second-best. Eldest dancer Maeve fantasizes about flight, while token male Luke is the most honest and connected to reality. Vanessa is the injured dancer who "could have been a phenomenon," and Connie, while talented, is a little delusional at times. Levelheaded yet depressed Sofia and darkly imaginative Ashlee complete this team led by victory-fixated dance teacher Pat. As driven as all the dancers are, each and every one of them is just as preoccupied with their own thirteen-year-old thoughts about their changing minds and bodies, which lead to discussions both honest (sometimes messy) and hilarious. Dance Nation is a gift to Virgo nation; it represents both their need to always feel useful and their fast-paced minds.
Libra: The Flick by Annie Baker
Oh, Libras. Lovable, long-winded, irresolute Libras...their defining qualities are all brought out in this lengthy drama about three movie theater employees. The Flick takes place in an old movie theater near Worcester, Massachusetts, and it turns their seemingly mundane dialogue and activities into a sort of movie of its own. The reserved new employee Avery is a well-dressed avid cinephile is a stark contrast to veteran soda-machine-cleaning-aficionado Sam, who has a very basic taste in movies but very deep affections for Rose, the sexy green-haired projectionist whose tough-girl exterior masks a fear of vulnerability. Annie Baker truly creates her own kind of time in this piece, where sweeping popcorn and swapping film trivia are far from tedious activities- they're marks of honest existence. Clocking in at 177 pages (performed, it runs about three hours), The Flick is far from being the documentary of underachievers it appears to be. Rather, it's a celebration of coexistence and simply being. It's not a piece where you're supposed to "root for" any one character or concept, which can be a lot for our indecisive air signs. This is why I'd give The Flick to any Libra.
Scorpio: Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties by Jen Silverman
The phrase "intense and full of walled emotions" can be used to describe both Scorpios and Collective Rage. This is a play about five drastically different New York women, all named Betty, and the intersection of their personal journeys through an attempt at devised "thea-tah." Betty 1 is a rich housewife, Betty 2 has no friends and has just discovered her...anatomy, Betty 3 is a sexy femme bisexual who works at Sephora, Betty 4 is a sweet butch lesbian with tattoos, and Betty 5 is a genderqueer boxer. Their "devised" production of A Midsummer Night's Dream opens the doors for their internal and external discoveries, and Jen Silverman's dialogue, while funny, is rooted in raw experiences and emotions that many women and queer people have but rarely have voiced. In one scene between Betty 4 and Betty 5, Betty 4 says, "Nobody's ever asked me what I have to say. Especially not before something happens." Betty 1 and Betty 2 both have monologues later on in which their long-withheld rage is released, and these are just a few examples of how this text just blazes. Collective Rage is fierce, blunt, and shocking, but it's also oddly clever- perfectly designed for the Scorpios. (And I, a Scorpio, consider this one of my favorite plays of all time.)
Sagittarius: Exit, Pursued by A Bear by Lauren Gunderson
You'd never guess it by looking at them, but Sagittarius are absolutely crazy. They'd definitely devour a play involving a deer carcass, an abusive husband being duct-taped to a chair, and the threat of his being mauled by a bear, which is why they should all read this one-act whirlwind of a revenge comedy titled after Shakespeare's most famous and outrageous stage direction. Nan, a vet, is tired of her abusive husband Kyle's behavior, so she, along with Sweetheart, her actress/stripper best friend, and Simon, her flamboyant male cheerleader friend, set out to teach him a lesson once and for all. Lauren Gunderson's ability to pace this wild play at the speed of lightning puts one in mind of having a conversation with a Sagittarius, and it's very likely that main character Nan is probably a Sagittarius herself considering she came up with this elaborate revenge plan. Exit, Pursued by A Bear makes anyone laugh, but it touches on much heavier emotions too; don't we all sometimes fantasize about letting terrible people get mauled by a bear? Sagittarius people are the kinds of people to form opinions based on emotion, which is why they'd enthusiastically laugh with and root for Nan, Sweetheart, and Simon as they execute this revenge on the sleazy Kyle.
Capricorn: The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman
Capricorns are always trying not to show their emotion, which is why they should all read The Children's Hour- it'll be impossible for them not to show emotion after reading this. The Children's Hour was well before its time, having been written in the 1930s about two headmistresses of an all-girls boarding school being accused of having a lesbian affair. Mary, a disobedient and malicious student, tells her indulgent grandmother that Karen and Martha, the two headmistresses, are having a lesbian affair just because she doesn't wish to return to the school. Mary's grandmother is a financial supporter of this boarding school, and she immediately contacts the other students' parents which results in all of the students being pulled out overnight. Not only are these women horrified that such a destructive rumor is being spread about them, but this rumor is dangerously close to the truth for both of them. From beginning to end, this play is fraught with strong emotions, which Capricorns are always trying to repress, but repressing won't work this time. Additionally, Aline Bernstein, the original Broadway set designer for The Children's Hour, was a Capricorn herself, so once again it's no surprise that this one should go to the Capricorns.
Aquarius: All We Know is Not Enough by Darcy Parker Bruce
Aquarius is the sign that is more detached from emotion as opposed to suppressing it, and they tend to like ideas and concepts as opposed to feelings. They also love humanity as a whole as opposed to individual humans, and that's why Darcy Parker Bruce's All We Know is Not Enough is just what every Aquarius needs. Bruce skillfully utilizes the far-off idea of magical realism to tell a powerful story about human connection, survival, and love. Romeo, a trans boy, and his astronomy-loving, ham-radio-toting sister Charlie have just arrived at a seedy motel while on the run from a hate crime. An ocean away, Syrian refugee Nasrin is lost at sea, and she connects with Romeo through the ham radio. And running between the two is an enigmatic white dragon who seems to always be passing objects in between the two places. Charlie and Romeo have a highly realistic sibling relationship, and the connection between Romeo and Nasrin is nothing short of lovely. To any Aquarius' delight, this play is built on concepts such as the power of white holes and black holes, what it really means to have a connection, and how there's no such thing as distance or time when it comes to love. And yes, even the most non-emotional Aquarius won't be able to resist shedding a tear or two over this piece.
Pisces: Belleville by Amy Herzog
Finally, it's time to assign the Pisces their piece: Amy Herzog's quietly powerful psychological thriller about how things are beautiful until they aren't. Belleville explores the unraveling of young couple Abby and Zack's marriage. Pisces are the kind of optimistic people who tend to live more in fantasy than reality until it's no longer humanly possible, and Belleville forces you to look at the signs and look at reality whether or not you want to. Abby and Zack are young, only five years married, and they moved to Belleville, Paris where Zack wants to pursue pediatric AIDS research and Abby teaches yoga. It doesn't take long for the ugly things to come to light: they're four months behind on rent, Zack has been smoking weed with the landlord, Abby is off her meds and wants to go home, and Zack has an attachment to a large carving knife, whose presence alone cuts deeper and deeper into this failing marriage. Belleville is so simple yet highly suspenseful, keeping anyone practically breathless until the heartbreaking final scene. So while this play serves more as a reality check for our beloved Pisces, they'll still manage to fall in love with Amy Herzog's brilliant writing, careful characterization, and ability to make someone feel like they've been on a thousand journeys without ever leaving the room.

*Although I chose these plays for each sign specifically, I would recommend any of these plays for anyone. It's true that reading more plays never hurts!