Recommended by William Triplett

Yes, she's part camel and part girl. At least that's how she's been making a living, convincing paying audiences to see the freak of nature she claims to be. Then a reporter shows up wanting to expose her con. But who's really getting conned? And who is the real human with a real soul? These and other questions fly about in Deb Cole's wonderful short play, which I had the pleasure of attending a public reading of at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. So pleased to recommend this gem.

This on-target satire is laugh-out-loud funny about a movement that is all-too-serious in our national culture right now. Like all good satire, it is sly, too, making you think amid the guffaws. Enjoyed it immensely at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. I can't imagine an audience that wouldn't!

Another terrific play I caught at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. Two characters, seemingly mismatched, with clashing ideas of their future take us on a ride with lots of alternating funny and poignant moments. Both Liz and James are endearing in their own very different ways, and you can't help but want to know what will happen to them. Easy to stage -- should be done!

Saw a reading of this touching piece at the 2023 Midwestern Dramatists Conference and was taken by the characters and their situation. Death hangs in the air but it doesn't cast a pall -- instead, it makes the characters seem more alive and honest than they would normally be. The short play makes you think as well as feel, and that's quite an accomplishment in just ten minutes. Bravo!

A lovely and poignant piece that is part elegy and part celebration. I was among those fortunate to attend a reading of it at the 2023 Midwestern Dramatists Conference, and like many others I could easily see this on a stage -- and indeed wanted to -- because it's touchingly funny as well as deeply melancholy. The dialogue flows, the characters etch themselves into your heart, and the story envelopes you. Well done!

The more I read this sly and sinister piece, the more I felt the ghost of Kafka hovering over the proceedings, and I loved it. With his playful wit Philip Middleton Williams makes it all his own: By turns funny and creepy, the play unfolds with deceptive simplicity that leads to an ending as fitting as it is surprising. Easy to produce and great roles, to boot! Well done, PMW!

This exquisite fright of a short piece put me in mind of art-horror films like Georges Franju's stunning "Eyes Without a Face." The Noh-style presentation enhances the eerie atmospherics, and the legend that is the source of the play -- and that comes to life -- is truly disturbing. This is a wonderful example of artifice creating its own reality, and an extremely theatrical one at that. I can't imagine anyone who would not want to see this staged.

Chance and adolescent shenanigans can have profound impact on a young life, but mystery still plays a big part -- and can even have its own gravitational pull. The revelation of one answer can also evoke a new question, and, as this compact, terse and theatrical tale might suggest, such is the stuff myths are made of. Solid roles and easy to produce. Would love to see it done!

Jean Ciampi has such a talent for delivering sharply drawn characters caught in befuddling situations that bring out the best and the worst in them in ways that keep you smiling -- when not laughing out loud -- from start to finish. They're flawed, like just about everyone, but they're trying to do good, and I found myself sympathizing with all of them as I wanted to know how everything would turn out. This is a smart hoot of a play, full of meaty roles, and simple to produce. Would love to see it staged!

Reading this, I felt drawn in -- lured, really -- by the lovely theatricality blended so finely with the characters' hopes, regrets, desires, and, ultimately, their almost unconscious need for meaningful connection. Lyrical and haunting, not to mention so easy to produce, and so wonderfully human. Nicely done, Mr Bray!