Recommended by Donald E. Baker

Alterman masterfully plays with audience expectations throughout the course of this ominous little bench play. The dialogue, peppered with allusions to John Lennon songs, is light and bright, until it turns heavy and dark just before a big reveal changes the whole direction of the piece and alters our conception of the relationship between the two characters. Excellent and engaging work.

A different Christmas Story indeed! When the surviving members of a dysfunctional family gather to observe their family Christmas traditions, there are secrets to be aired, a black sheep to be corralled, a new girlfriend to fit in, and a mysterious stranger whose identity and purpose will keep audiences guessing all the way to the end. It's a piece worthy of "Masterpiece Theater" that is definitely up to Lermond's high standards. Theaters should find it a popular change from the usual Christmas fare.

You'll never know when you've had that last experience of intense physical intimacy. For three ladies at the Ranch Felicidad care facility, such experiences have been replaced by Scrabble, and at least two of them are not happy about it. But then they discover they may be the only residents who aren't "getting any," and they set about to rectify that, with hilarious results. "Wrinkle Ranch" will be the centerpiece of Debra Cole's forthcoming collection from Next Stage Press. I can't wait to read the others.

Imagine finding yourself in a room, Brimstone Hall 664 (666 is occupied by VIP's), you and two other recently deceased souls, confronting a former golden-age movie star now demon. She has a proposition: the person who finds a hidden object can pass on to heaven, but only if they choose to consign the other two to hell. If that were your choice, what would you do? The stakes couldn't be higher, and the conflicts, internal and external, are compelling. During the game, much is revealed about all four characters, and the suspense continues to the final page. Great work.

Back in the years BDA, Before Dating Apps, I had to kiss a lot of frogs before finding my prince. Interesting to see in this delightful play that the apps have only made the list of frogs even quicker to go through. Actors will have a good time playing Barber's characters, and (spoiler alert!) the Lifetime/Hallmark happy ending will be a crowd pleaser. It's great fun, and more than just one of those things. Highly recommended.

Two suburban housewives attempt to keep their children and spouses corralled while at the same time comparing gossip about their friends and their places in the poolside pecking order. The dialogue is sexually explicit and delightfully catty and, one suspects, only slightly exaggerated. It would be a hit in any evening of short plays.

A most timely work in this era when robots with sophisticated artificial intelligence--who don't demand high wages and health insurance--increasingly threaten to replace human beings in the workplace. In this case, the robots may have turned out too sophisticated by half. Great work.

This is a wonderful example of a play that doesn't go at all where I smugly expected it to. Nice work with a great twist.

This one will shake up your next festival of short holiday plays. There are wonderful sly allusions to the traditional Christmas story (three "wise guys"--in the gangster sense--show up) and Christmas songs (there is an irritating drummer boy offstage)--but putting it into the milieu of a dangerous mafia family gives it a whole new life. It's a delightfully creative re-imagining with a strong female character.

When a "helicopter parent" lands in an HR director's office to question what SHE did wrong writing her son's job application, she learns a lot about the job, and about letting go. A nice little play that perhaps doesn't go where you expect it to.