Recommended by Andrew Martineau

This is such a unique and moving play, and I was a struck by how life-affirming it is. Ian Donley has done an amazing job of using a theatrical conceit to give us a profound message of how certain people in our lives change our trajectory forever. I will be thinking about this play for some time, which reinforces the theme of how memories mold our consciousness. Quite astounding!

This comedic fractured nursery rhyme is masterful! From the use of the word crown to create a whole conflict around a speech problem to the written problem of words not rhyming, Norkin has penned a fantastic comic gem. This is a gift for actors and audiences alike. Bravo!

The pain of loss and the changing numbers and positions in a family reveal a profound complexity of emotion in this beautifully poignant short play. Arianna Rose gives us a rollercoaster of anguish after a family member goes missing, and it’s heartbreakingly real. The theatrical and poetic style of the piece make it transcendent.

I hope anyone who faces mortality with a terminal illness has a good friend like Claire in their lives. This is a wonderful short play for two older actors, and the message of facing our fears to help us to breathe through the most frightening moments is an important one. Susan Middaugh doesn’t just give us a lecture, though. The bridge scene is theatrical and dramatic. Excellent work!

This short two-hander has a strong, clear contrast between the somewhat jaded New York performer and a naive young aspiring theatre producer who has a lot of confidence but a little anxiety about riding the subway. It reminds me of “On the Town” a little bit with a contemporary spin. Nice dialogue!

AFTERMATH gives us a timely, unique perspective on the issue of gun control, parental responsibility and the unfathomable grief that two sets of parents are grappling with following a school shooting. Jeffrey James Keyes provides us with so much rich subtext in his sparse dialogue. There is a roller coaster of raw emotion in this brief play centered around letters with no clear cut answers, and it’s brilliant.

There is a genuine feeling of compassion and pathos in this brief play, sprinkled in with a welcome dose of humor, which shows how much we sometimes need a face-to-face connection in times of sadness and grief. I watched a very good production of it online by Theatre Odyssey, and it’s much to Greg Burdock’s credit that it worked so beautifully.

Can the recurring dreams of a child following an accidental tragic loss heal the wounds between grieving parents or perpetuate that grief? This short play offers no easy answers, but Arthur Jolly creates the emotional hurt in such a dramatic way to reveal how that the mother’s nightmares haunt the couple and might possibly tear their relationship apart for good. Spellbinding work.

Vivian Lermond has an incredible talent for making her characters’ way of speaking fit perfectly with their personalities and experiences. In just a couple of pages, we know who Andy is by how he speaks, and yet we don’t know the specifics of where his story is going. That kind of delineation between concrete characterization and a surprising plot twist shows some expert writing skills that make this monologue truly wonderful!

This is a captivating short play about two cousins who are dealing with strong emotions and hormones, as they discuss the similarities between the girl and the boy's mother, who is apparently undergoing shock treatments for her anxiety, a sad, disturbing reality back in the 1950s. Debra Cole has written a brief drama with naturalistic dialogue of that era and an intriguing premise. It reminds me a little bit of John Irving's style, which I have always enjoyed. Very nicely done!