Recommended by Greg Burdick

Roy has made a mess of things with his wife, Charlize. And despite her best efforts, cleaning things up in the wake left behind is a seemingly impossible task. Strayer gives us a taut interaction between a couple standing on the dangerous edge of a precipice... and her ending, while providing a surprising release from the tension, shows us that sometimes you just can’t scrub all the filth away.

Burlesque and The Food Network deliciously collide in this smart and sensual monologue by Rachel Bykowski. Lizzie proclaims her agency as she (nearly) reveals the secret to her grandmother’s culinary masterpiece. She recognizes the power she now wields, and won’t surrender it easily. A bold and satisfying piece of writing!

The imagery employed in Goldman-Sherman’s “wombshot” will crush you. This piece, depicting a young woman’s desperate choice in self-aborting a pregnancy, is an important and timely rallying cry for meaningful conversation about reproductive rights. Haunting visuals, thoughtful tempo in phrasing, and carefully chosen symbols, will linger long after reading.

Karen has painted herself into a corner in this excellent one-act by Bultrowicz. Her existential crisis will be all too familiar to anyone with artistic inclinations... the self-doubt, the crippling need to cling to the familiar, the fear of venturing out too far where the water’s too deep. Part monologue, part Jungian analysis, “Karen Paints Koi” soul searches for what motivates us, and what doesn’t. There’s a fantastic opportunity here for a costume designer to help realize Marlin, Karen’s koi fish co-star. Break the cycle of other plays you’ve been reading, and try this one.

This thoughtful, absurdist piece set at the end of the world puts our collective self-absorption front and center... (where, we’re all certain, it rightfully belongs.) Grega times bits between the Pilot, Writer, Editor, and Miser perfectly. And while these characters successfully waste their last 10 minutes, they’ll give audiences something to think about on the ride home.

Living in a political climate that is fraught with daily deception, denials, and bald-faced lying, our art demands us to be unashamedly honest, open, and forthright. In “Pussygrabber,” Gina Femia bravely answers the call. The truth hurts, and this piece will make you uncomfortable... but we all need to hear it. A daring and fearless work.

Asher Wyndham understands characterization. He displays it masterfully in this compelling monologue. Leena’s coarse, and gruff exterior is a stark contrast to the delicate, methodical work she’s doing at the sewing machine. And thematically the entire piece works much in the same way: on the surface he gives us a brief snapshot of prison life... but throughout Wyndham widens his lens to show us ourselves, and how we all fit inside this tiny story. Actors tackling Asher’s work need to bring their chops, because he’s certainly brought his.

I had the pleasure of seeing this play read at Studio Theatre Tierra del Sol’s “Scripts From Scratch” festival. Leavengood gives us a quirky corral of outlandish archetypal characters, and sets them free in a wild Shakespearean farce for our times. Loaded with plenty of physical gags, and fast-paced dialogue, “A Superior Shakespeare” delivers the laughs. Looking forward to reading more of this playwright’s work.

It’s been said: never meet your heroes... they’ll always disappoint. But what can you do if your hero happens to be a member of your own family? Hageman’s exquisite play “Blue” shows the inescapable truth behind the saying, yet how a young woman won’t allow her journey through time and revelation to tarnish the memory she holds so dear. This is a beautiful piece of writing.

Gardner has captured a conversation that has played out countless times, one can imagine, since the very dawn of humankind. We see very clear motivations driving the characters’ infidelity, and their collective struggle to overcome where to go from here. The image drawn to explain “Her’s” philosophy on the inevitability of stagnation in long term relationships is succinctly realized in a single line. CYCLE is yet more proof of Gardner’s mastery of sketching complicated characters in just a few strokes.