Recommended by Andrew Martineau

This play is so sweet, but not in a saccharine way. It is rare to read a play for seniors that is not about illness or neglectful children. The skateboarding references alone stole my heart. I would love to see this performed. A dramatic Valentine’s card for the mature set still looking for a little romance!

There are so many strong beats in this short play for college age actors to play. Jaxson Mackling has created a complex trio of young people with high expectations for a special moment in time that steers off course and attempts to wind its way back to where things used to be. It’s also the story of the precipice of something new and uncertain, but simultaneously thrilling. Well done!

I enjoyed the humor of this short play between a father teaching his son to drive, not just as part of a father’s obligation but as a dad who is an actual driving instructor. The stakes are high here, obviously, and we learn some of the dad’s shortcomings from the son’s perspective with every criticism the dad makes. Clever and fun!

The beauty of this monologue is that the details are like brush strokes that reveal character, emotion, longing and regret, and it is as if we are using a magnifying glass to see the artist’s process and are then illuminated by its stunning impact. I was enthralled by the drive-thru experience but happily could not tell where it was headed, and then I felt like a voyeur peeking into the motel window as I was living through it in my head. Amazing monologue.

COLD CALL makes us realize that telemarketing is a tough job but that telemarketing in the arts takes it to the next level of difficult. I love the character who calls her coworkers’ rejection numbers and actually does one of them a favor, presumably. by helping to prevent a divorce! The overlapping dialogue keeps the tension high and the humor on point. Excellent!

Hyacinth is homeschooled because she is a bit of a nudist. This is just one example of the inspired lunacy of the frightening letter to the uninitiated babysitter! While some of the directives are grounded in good parenting (no takeout food or use of the word “fat”), there are also some unexpected dangers lurking here, such as giving Hya one tablet of a sleep aid ever hour until she falls asleep! I enjoyed this very much, and it made me grateful not to be in Brooke’s predicament.

Timothy Gadomski is so skilled at creating original, complex structures of short plays. I greatly admire the mind-blowing, Pirandello inspired quality to this work set in late nineteenth century London. It is suspenseful and unpredictable. I would love to see this performed onstage.

A great monologue can reveal character in just a few seconds and give an actor a real person to embody, and wow, Nora Louise Syran does that in spades with Edith! I love that she gives the Kondo
Method of tidying up a try and trips up (literally) on her indulgences. The lint vacuuming by Hank is hysterical, as well as Edith’s disgust in his practicality. This monologue definitely brought me joy!

What makes this short play so spellbindingly unique is that it challenges our assumptions of what candy is and what it is used for. I for one have always thought of confections as one symbol of what makes life worth living. Hannah Lee DeFrates takes that treasured feeling of blissful indulgence and turns it upside and offers a mysterious, surreal feeling of grief and distorted reality (if we even believe that reality to be distorted). This is the kind of theatre I love—so theatrical, so visceral and so unabashedly absurd. Delicious!

Few events in life are as life-changing and life-affirming as the birth of a child. Marj O’Neill Butler showcases the fears, the joys, and the regrets leading up the big moment. I loved the unusual, unexpected friendship that evolves in a few minutes in the waiting room between a jittery new dad and a grandma feeling left out of her own grandchild’s delivery. Wonderful dialogue and heartwarming ending!