Recommended by William Triplett

I'm a sucker for whip-smart satire, and this had me from "go" at the 2019 Midwest Dramatists Conference. A teen girl hoping to get into Smith College, an ancient warrior princess looking for her successor, a muck-encrusted sword at the bottom of a Swedish lake, and the promise of super powers (and help with the college application) -- all these wonderfully disparate elements combine in Joshua Cohen's hands and become a laugh-out-loud romp through millennial angst, contemporary society...and beyond. Wonderful!

I found myself absorbed by Philip Williams's portrait of a gay couple about to enter a retirement community. In a very short span of time he manages to convey a long history of a relationship and what keeps the two men together -- and what now challenges them both. A quietly moving piece. Even today, a few days after I saw the play presented at the 2019 Midwest Dramatists Conference, Williams's characters and their fated, poignant lives still linger in mind.

A high school English teacher and a 17-year-old girl who "admires" him a little too much for her own good. And his. Think you know what's going to happen? Maybe. Maybe not. Aleks Merilo's play -- by turns funny and discomforting -- may flirt with forbidden attraction, but issues of class as well as minds that are narrow in more ways than one are exposed as well. A real page-turner that could be very economically -- i.e., easily -- staged. And should be!

Rachael Carnes has a gift for turning the flotsam/jetsam of pop culture and pop sensibility into deliciously barbed humor that sort of gently rips our times. Wonderfully absurd on one level, yet perfectly logical on another, this short piece will make you laugh, cringe, and ponder -- sometimes in the same moment. Forget trials without charges or waking up as an insect; the real Kafkaesque nightmare is contemporary language. Take a ride on this surreal train -- you'll be glad you did!

What a bittersweet comedy Doug DeVita has written about growing up gay in 1970s Long Island! The fully drawn characters all live and breathe from start to finish in a poignant tale that takes on family dysfunction, adolescent sexuality, friendship, and secrets – and dazzles you with witty and sharp dialogue all along the way. All that, and meaty roles for actors, to boot. So well done!

Loss, grief, re-entering the dating scene, and single-parenting...of a teenage daughter. Not exactly the ingredients you'd first think of for a deeply felt comedy, but Allyson Currin mixes it all up and comes up with a delightful and moving piece. I found myself smiling, even laughing out loud in places, and then feeling my chest tighten at the heart-rending moments. And the ending got to me more than I could have ever anticipated. A lovely play, and very deserving of the attention it's getting.

There's a lot going on in this engrossing play, and Joe Martin keeps everything moving with a sure hand. Along with a pressing concern about fair and equal access to quality health care and health insurance, the action involves people struggling with love, loss, guilt, responsibility, fear, and their own destinies. Interlaced throughout the earnest seriousness of the play are some wonderful -- and wonderfully human -- moments that made me smile and even laugh out loud at times. And all of it powerfully theatrical.

Yep, both characters are 14, but the needs and fears they're experiencing will resonate with adults, for sure. Scott Sickles's triumph in this charming piece is to convincingly present a child worthy of your contempt, and then evoke your sympathy for her -- while making you laugh along the way. If you've ever felt lonely or unloved, even just briefly, you'll be right at home with Miracle and Bud...and the true nature of magic. Not hard to see why New York's Nylon Fusion Theatre produced it.

Think people have a hard time with intimacy? They got nuthin' on black holes. I don't know of another playwright who can infuse astral phenomena with human qualities -- fear and insecurity, specifically -- and make it not just whimsical, but sly and smart. Not to mention funny. Then there's the loving send-up of theater itself. Carnes has a unique gift of being quirky and crafty in the same moment, and "Ripple" is a perfect example of that. Wonderful piece!

If you're a fan of wry humor with snappy repartee -- and I certainly am -- then this is definitely a play for you. This would be so fun to see staged, not to mention that it could be easily/simply staged. A taut satire of routine and habit with a dose of irritable colleagues arguing over who is the more irritating. Well done, Larry Rinkel!