Recommended by David Hansen

We want to believe that there is something uniquely magical about theatre, above all other forms of performance. And perhaps there is, but not the way we think. In this brief place, Salsbury the artist mentors and debates a young woman who is justifiably suspicious, even as she is eager to learn. It is an elegiac moment of wonder and grounded reality which leads the reader to ask the better questions about why we do the work we do. Highly recommended!

St. James’ story is one of loss and longing, and the walls both real and imagined that separate us from our loved ones. What of the new lovers who have been trapped together? And those who have been quarantined alone? This is a non-binary love triangle that celebrates the joy of coupling, but also the ennui of sameness. Google the phrase “time passes so strangely these days.” It is a refrain in this script, but also the subconscious mantra for our time. St. James work is eloquent, it's ecstatic, it truly is the freakiest show.

This is a beautiful play about a beautiful couple who are entirely there for each other emotionally and sexually, and also about some truly amazing lube. It's a lovely, short piece about compassion and communication.

"Because vaccines!" Two years ago, Swanson penned this remarkably prescient play, perfect for progressive high school theater troupes (and other venues) highlighting the maddening, puritanical double-standard regarding the HPV vaccine, and the distrust for medical science in general. It's also a very funny inter-generational story of tenagers and their parents, and how relationships never really get any easier as you age. Also, it's got Arthur Miller in it. Great fun to read, and would be a gas to see realized on stage. Highly recommended!

Rosenberg's "Last Halloween" (written last Halloween) is eerily prescient, depicting a not-too-distant future when trick-or-treat has been made illegal, presumably as another childhood freedom rescinded in the name of safety. In the era of COVID-19 (and today is five days to Halloween 2020) teenagers and children, cooped up on Oct. 31 is all-too-depressingly real, and someone at the door can be a very real threat. The writer creates a rising sense of tension and unease in a short time which ends on a note of near-terror. It's also very funny. Highly recommended!

This evocative guided monologue is a sensuous reminder to engage with and exist in our world, remembering to observe and appreciate what is around us where live. It is also a crafty COVID piece, whose design works perfectly in this modern moment. More than a guided meditation, “You Are Not Alone” unites us with its message and how it tells it through character, sound, space, and the imagination and willingness of the lone audience member.

Rinkel paints an exquisite portrait, an intersection of privilege and class, mental and physical health, the strength and fragility of the human condition, an uncomfortable and hairy situation transformed in an opportunity for connection and compassion. A beautiful brief, piece for older performers. Recommended!

Martin here crafts an exhilarating two-hander for women, packing the wildly varying and diverse emotions of pregnancy into a compact ten minutes. There is no one path through motherhood, and yet they are all the same path, flipping through aggression and joy and doubt and self-hatred and awe and love, and the playwright remarkable paints two very different characters who share this uniquely common bond. It is active, proactive, humorous, pointed, thoughtful and touching. It also inventively utilizes video conferencing for performance, proving once again that “Zoom Theater” can be outstanding theater. Highly recommended!

From an ancient parable about the capacity of and necessity for forgiveness, Martin has expanded and elaborated on the theme with this marvelous, touching short play about the bond between siblings, and the importance of that bond to their parents. The scribes illustrates each brother’s motivations with clarity and understanding, their father’s joy a capstone to the argument. Elegant!

Squirrel and Possum have a conversation which could be interpreted as a debate on the meaning of life in this vignette which would be a philosophical primer for children. Recommended!