Recommended by Paul Donnelly

As someone who has made that call and learned that the answer was no, I was shaken to the core by Dzubak's raw and powerful work.

This charming and witty vignette offers a salute to the creative spirit while also acknowledging the dispiriting lack of creativity in much of contemporary popular culture. And it's much more fun than my description makes it sound!

If you want to conjure dark spirits of the universe, you got to focus, people. Focus. The failure of three of this hapless foursome to focus on the ritual at hand is hilarious. Although I don't think any of them are prepared for the outcome of the ritual. This is a darkly funny and thoroughly engaging portrait of four people who end up in over their heads.

The course of true love ne'er did run smooth ... especially not if it's married love. As Romeo learns just a beat too late. This deliciously cynical comedy turns Shakespearian romantic tropes on their deserved heads.

Rent-A-Stiff is deeply, darkly, hysterically funny. From the novel premise to the startling resolution, this play is thoroughly engaging and full of off-kilter wit. It is indeed ideal for performances dedicated to "Halloween, horror, or simply the strange and unusual."

Charming and very theatrical. Fiona and Amy are sharply drawn characters and the progressively more surreal advice Ranger Phil offers for dealing with bears is quite engaging. It's heartening to see Amy and Fiona in a better place after their encounter with a bear.

This play offers a clever conceit wittily rendered. Poor Spill Chick's poor spelling and the intrusions of autocorrect lead to a cascade of double entendres that both enhance and hobble the developing connection. Much as I enjoyed reading it, this piece would be really fun to see on its feet.

Midge has lived and has the scars and life lessons that result. I can't help but think that Eloise isn't going to hear a word Midge says despite its truth and reason.

An honest recognition of a painful truth informs this moving short piece. So much joy and pain commingle in a lovely and compelling way.

This play really captures the pain and frustration of the hourly worker. Stuart is infuriating is the most credible way. There is enough moral ambiguity in the narrative to keep the reader deeply engaged until the chilling end.