Recommended by Donald E. Baker

It's a play from the off-kilter mind of John Busser, so you know you're going to get a feast of giggles, groans, and guffaws. All the well-honed tools from Busser's bag of tricks--the sly wordplay, the outrageous puns, the creative anachronisms (because, why let chronology interfere with a joke?), the odd pop-culture references--make their appearance in dialogue guaranteed to delight any reader and any audience. Vintage Busser and therefore terrific.

There's lot going on in these 11 pages. Gina wants to be on a TV reality show. Buck doesn't want her to go to Los Angeles for the required two months. As he gives her every excuse for her to stay with him, she gets more determined to leave. The tension builds throughout, and the realization of what their dynamic really is, is devastating. A super play in a small package, with roles the actors can really dig into.

After a snowboarding accident in a Michigan blizzard, David makes his way to a tavern presided over by a clairvoyant bartender and occupied, despite the weather, by a quirky group of friendly regulars. He slowly realizes that "it's dead in here on Tuesdays" is to be taken literally, and the tavern is a sort of purgatory where everyone, including himself, is awaiting the next step in their afterlife journeys. In this enjoyable short play, Alles has given us characters with depth and heart.

This is a fast-paced fantasy play with quirky teenage characters whose reality has changed overnight. Advanced high school or college-level actors would have a great deal of fun with the quirky characters and the situation, but the lighting designer will probably have the most fun of all creating a new dimension in which the features of the natural world--sky, trees, ocean--change from one vibrant color to another with each new day. Nice work!

The world didn't know it needed another slice from the case files of Joe Pie, P.I., but it got one anyway and I'm glad. Again Plumridge and Norkin have thrown a mishmash of puns, song lyrics, movie quotes, and meta self-references into their magic script blender and managed to come up with a comedic noir that will keep the reader chuckling, groaning, and guffawing from start to finish. Pi as a number is infinite. With any luck, Pie as a source of theatrical enjoyment will be as well.

A young White convict, Stu, new to the penal system, has become the cellmate of Vince, an older Black convict with a violent history. Through sly dialogue and monologues, Vince skillful plays on Stu's fears of what will happen to him if the gangs get hold of him. Once Stu is thoroughly terrified, Vince makes him an offer. It's never stated openly, but one can guess. Is it an offer Stu can't refuse? Vince is one of the most chilling characters you'll ever encounter. A devil indeed. Good work!

Although it is set in 2004, Ken Love's play touches on issues prevalent today--including an aging politician hanging on to power. In a close election for the U.S. Senate, the young, Black, female challenger has a very personal weapon that could destroy the old, white incumbent. Audiences will figure it out pretty early on, but the question is whether, in a close campaign, will she use her information or not. Will she go high, or go low. An excellent, timely play with six memorable characters.

When it comes to depicting the dynamics of "ordinary" families, no one does it better than Philip Middleton Williams. The people, the situations, the emotions are always recognizable. In this lovely short play, a son has disappointed his father by not loving the same books he did. Generations do go their own ways. But once the father is gone, the son finds the books--and the reading of them--have gained importance as a remaining tangible link to their relationship. Well and warmly done.

When I want punny wordplay and quirky characters, I turn either to John Busser or Morey Norkin. A collaboration between the two had to be hilarious, and it is. Somehow the agent for terrible Greek comic Cicero Lipschitz manages to get him a dream booking--at Caesar's Palace--the original one! But when they cancel him in favor of a young fiddler named Nero, he turns to the ancient world's best entertainment lawyer, Brad Shoenstein, who lets loose his greatest weapon, not The Kraken, but The Karen. Cicero's booking is restored and his appearance is a triumph. Read it and laugh.

When I want punny wordplay and quirky characters, I turn either to John Busser or Morey Norkin. A collaboration between the two had to be hilarious, and it is. Somehow the agent for terrible Greek comic Cicero Lipschitz manages to get him a dream booking--at Caesar's Palace--the original one! But when they cancel him in favor of a young fiddler named Nero, he turns to the ancient world's best entertainment lawyer, Brad Shoenstein, who lets loose his greatest weapon, not The Kraken, but The Karen. Cicero's booking is restored and his appearance is a triumph. Read it and laugh.