I’ve written a short piece for Rupert Goold’s Decade, which will be presented by Headlong Theatre in London in September. To book tickets, click here.

Joshua Sanchez‘s movie of my play Four has started shooting! Wendell Pierce, Aja King, Emory Cohen, and E.J. Bonilla star.

Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald: Finely shaded. Shinn’s characters are naturalistically drawn but flecked with heightened awareness of their long term predicaments.

Geraldine Worthington, Oz Baby Boomers: This deceptively spare work addresses the major themes — truth, love and loss — and is set against a backdrop of imminent change that technology will bring.

Kevin Jackson, Kevin Jackson’s Theatre Diary: Constructed beautifully, the play unravels in halting, haunting conversations, counterpointed with pauses and silences, that demand – you – the audience, fill in thought gaps and endow emotional compassion.

Ian Meadows and Cheree Cassidy

M. Lance Lusk, D Magazine: A tense and touching drama.

Elaine Liner, Dallas Observer: Intense and unsettling.

Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice: Meaningful and contemporary.

David Novinski, TheaterJones: Difficult to watch and compelling at the same time.

Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News: Complex and puzzling.

Grace Heid and Rhett Henckel

My short play Falling Away will have its world premiere as a part of Sixty-Six Books, the Bush Theatre’s performance cycle comprised of sixty-six theatre pieces based on the books of the King James Bible. To book tickets, click here. To see a list of all the writers involved, click here.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see it! If you missed it, check out the photo gallery here.

Picked plays through the 22nd! Get tickets here and read reviews here.

Michael Stahl-David and Donna Hanover

Two student productions of What Didn’t Happen recently completed runs, at Columbia College and Rose Bruford College respectively.

Columbia College

Rose Bruford College

@jonnysilver: Heartfelt, sympathetic, disturbing.

@fireflyinc: Had us up talking of the vicissitudes of acting and life.

@ixla: Thought provoking with very honest acting.

@TheNYGalavant: Crisp, unobtrusive dialogue.

@ChadKaydo: Totally sucked in.

@Jake_Brunger: Very thought-provoking.

@Powhida: Wonderful meta narrative about successful failure.

@michaelelyanow: A moving play. Join the party!

@ABrightMonster: Absolutely fabulous play.

@MoxieStreet: A probing look into the pitfalls every actor faces.

@PaulWinklerNYC: Absolutely terrific.

@roninnewyork: Brilliantly written.

Adam Green: Fiercely intelligent, ineffably sad.

The Brow: Filled with fascinating ideas.

Diana Barth: A compelling production.

F.A.M.E. NYC Magazine: Mature, conscious theatre.

Reviewing the Drama: An interesting look at an actor preparing.

Wolf Entertainment Guide: Credible, low-key observations of character.

Leonard Link: Entertaining and thought-provoking.

Donna Hanover, Michael Stahl-David, and Tom Lipinski

UPDATE: Picked has extended through May 22!

Ben Brantley, New York Times: It is refreshing to see an actor drawn with the subtlety and sympathy that Christopher Shinn brings to his thoughtful new work about a young man teetering on the cusp of stardom. Picked is also better than any play I’ve seen at finding the natural existential anxiety in the frustration and powerlessness of being a movie actor. Impeccably observed.

Scott Brown, New York Magazine: Picked is smart, sinuous work from a playwright who writes with unshowy depth and unforced menace on a challenging subject, the splintering of identity.

Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press: How an earnest young actor deals with huge disappointment is the premise behind Shinn’s thoughtful and humorous new play. Makes sly points about the ironies inherent in the profession of acting and the difficulties of creating a “true” experience in the totally artificial medium of film.

Matthew Murray, Talkin’ Broadway: A powerful character study about how easy it is to accidentally handicap ourselves on the threshold of our greatest triumphs. Picked illuminates humanity’s hunger for acceptance and perfection, and satiation on compromise, with artisan-level accuracy. Genuine and honest.

David Cote, Time Out: Sensitively weird. Shinn territory is a land of bruised souls sharing awkward silences, their subtext and inchoate impulses placed carefully between them. A dramatist who writes from an intensely interior zone.

Oscar E. Moore, Talk Entertainment: A heady, well-written new play. Actors be forewarned: it might send you directly into therapy or over the precipice.

Michael Stahl-David and Liz Stauber; photo by Carol Rosegg