Recommended by Daniel Prillaman

Oh, I just love this play. A brilliant, laugh out loud funny, and grounded in character microcosm of the batshit, insane struggle of growing up in the church and realizing you're gay as hell. These characters (even the mean ones) are infectious from their first lines of dialogue, and young actors will excitedly take to the challenge Assaf offers. Add in the fun design opportunities and an act break that really GOES there? God, I hope this play has a long life in front of it, because it's worthy.

THIS IS THE FUTURE LIBERALS WANT! An elegant and unsettling satire, this. The comparisons to Twilight Zone and Shirley Jackson classics are well-earned, as Bluestein-Lyons’ short play stands tall with them. This one will sneak up on you and stick with you long after you’ve finished. I imagine seeing it live would be the talk of the night.

Not going to lie. I read the logline and thought, “I’ve read this play before.” Reader. I hadn’t. Jolly’s play gives us a Ouija scene you haven’t yet encountered, and it hits HARD. This is a delightful, sharp short horror grounded in the just the right amount of character, and a perfect example of perhaps why there is only one golden rule in all of horror. Don’t. Fuck. With Ouija boards. This is how you do it.

If you've been waiting for a camp, swashbuckling, and queer AF epic to Jolly your Roger, prepare to be boarded. SMJ's play is about to blow you away. yo ho. is hot. It is fun. It has opportunities for your fight choreographer to have the time of their life. Amidst all these, it is deeply human, rooted in nuanced exploration of gender, dysphoria, and questioning, while also being a “criminal” on the high seas. I’ll never play Marco Polo again without thinking of this. Somebody do this show.

There is a unique grief to losing your religion, whether you can pinpoint it to a single moment or it’s a life-long slog. Add a sister onto that? Oof. Catholicism at its most absurdist. Donley’s play is a beautiful, irreverently hilarious vibe, careening the audience through a spiral of dream-states and limbo-like fourth wall broken madness. But we never feel out of control or like there isn’t a guiding hand. Also, some great monologues and scenes in here for actors to latch onto. So much fun.

For an ND whose primary de-stressor is gaming, Friedman's short hits close to home. Everything in moderation, certainly, and it's more than possible to spend too much time online. But what's the quality of the time spent? And is it, in fact, a way to connect with others (or family) despite preconceived notions? This is a lovely play on how the unexpected, if we are open to it, can bring us closer to one another. They're not all sex & violence. Sometimes it's screaming for onions in Overcooked.

Through every coming-of-age we undergo and every ambition towards which we embark, there are those we leave behind and move away from on the journey. Barbot's moving collision of siblings' deep yearning to escape their circumstances (and each other?) and magical realism is a play unlike any other. It's an absolutely beautiful script, with a pained and reluctant acceptance in it that cuts straights to the heart. God, I'll be thinking about this one for ages.

A tremendously fun and zany triptych of horror tales that even youths will get a kick out of. Wittman's titular playhouse is one I could easily see touring schools, doing the two birds one stone wonder of getting kids into both theatre and spooky stories. There's also a lot of exciting physical comedy in here to mess with, and actors will have an absolute blast performing this.

Twisted, alluring, and foreboding. Cross' unique short horror is dream-like in the best ways, as a parable of nightmarish greed stacks itself on student presentations and Elizabeth's court. I've never been so disturbed learning about gold.

Thunderous. A perfectly paced premise gives way to a tense and charged thriller, where we discover to what lengths parents will go (or won't) for their children. I love how far into this script we get with uncertainty reigning in the air. Is the truth mixing with infallible memory? Intentionally or unintentionally? Who's wrong? Who's misremembering? Who's lying? This is a knockout ensemble cast populating an incredible (and uniquely American) script, and we should be producing it everywhere.