Recommended by Donald E. Baker

If you only know Scott Sickles as a writer of (magnificent) fear-inducing end-of-the-world plays, then treat yourself to this introduction to the sweetest couple you'll ever meet. Isaac and Bascom both cope with the world differently than most people, but they discover on their first meeting that they understand each other very well. This is a meet/cute even cuter than most, and you'll be cheering them on and wanting a sequel to see where they go from here. But wait! There's more! Another delightful little play called "Pompadour." The saga continues.....

OMG. When the audience figures out exactly what these toys (or "appliances") are, there will be ripples of giggles all around the theater. Who knew that dildos and vibrators sometimes experienced identity crises? And that there were group therapy sessions to help them? A wildly off-the-wall concept that George Sapio brings to life with his consummate skill and sly humor. Hilarious. And for many people one suspects, educational, too.

You have to work out a lot of courage to put yourself out there on an internet dating site. Henry finally does, but will he recognize his soul mate when she's sitting there right in front of him? A sweet rom-com meet-cute audiences will love.

Bernie and Sol are two old Jewish guys who've known each other all their lives and owned a hardware store together. No doubt they were bickering the whole time. The situation is absurd, the costumes--especially in the Texas scene--are walking sight gags, and the dialogue, full of malapropisms and affectionate digs at one another, is hilarious. These are roles two older comedic actors will have a ball doing as the audience laughs from start to finish.

One scientific survey found that 87% men who dress in women's clothing for psychological fulfillment are not gay. They are straight and most of them are married. Zoe's discovery that her husband Doug is one such man is painful, but as they talk, really talk for a change, she begins to understand who he is when he's not hiding an essential part of himself from her. With his usual skill, Mabey has here produced an emotion-packed play full of love and empathy.

Busser is a master of offbeat comedy, and here he gives us a hilarious Monty Pythonesque sketch of an actor's worst audition nightmare--sides to which they haven't given even the most cursory glance, an enigmatic and elusive director whose instructions are almost incomprehensible, a play stuffed full of the weirdest and most unlikely characters and no clue about which one they're reading for. Anyone who ever feared going into a job interview woefully unprepared will recognize the situation. It should be a great time for the audience and the on-stage actors alike.

This little gem is a terrific example of how structure can serve and enhance content. George and Hal's relationship failed in large part because they couldn't communicate what they expected of one another. And Heyman doesn't allow them to do so here either. Instead, they simultaneously air their grievances, self-justifications, and misunderstandings to third parties on a split stage. Their dialogues overlap, interject, and conjoin in such a way as to grab the audience's attention and hold it to the end. It's a brilliant piece of work.

Eugenia works full-time as a public school science/biology/sex ed. teacher. You can imagine what she has to contend with from administration and parents. Well, if you can't, she'll tell you in this no-holds-barred monologue. To make ends meet, she moonlights in an STD testing facility. Oh, and she's a lesbian. She has a lot to say in this short piece, and every word is worth listening to. Great commentary on the world we live in today, executed with the mastery we have grown to expect from Asher Wyndham.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Scott Sickles does it again! In this marvelous little satire, he takes the dirty political tricks we see on the national stage--attacks on the press, the Big Lie, money laundering, petty burglary, name calling--and employs them in service of an intrigue to extend a contestant's reign as the perennial winner of the Klonopinto County Chili Cook Off. For example, a rival is forced to leave town when a rumor is circulated that she puts beans (gasp!) in her chili. Never fear. The Klonopinto County Picayune reveals all. Read it and laugh.

If all you know of Martha Jefferson is Betty Buckley's soaring voice singing "He Plays the Violin" in the musical "1776," then you must read this play. She was a complicated woman married to a complicated man amid a myriad of complicated relationships--husband and wife, master and slave, husband and slave mistress, wife and husband's slave mistress, mother and daughter, mother and too many deceased children. Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend breathes real life into people we encounter only as white marble statues, and other people we rarely encounter at all. It is a rich and rewarding--and yes, complicated--play.