Recommended by Donald E. Baker

Second only to how to hang a toilet paper roll, how to hang tinsel on a Christmas tree has to be one of the great sources of friction between couples. Here Christopher Soucy sends such a dispute over the edge and over the top, involving not only the couple but their families. Then he packages it like a retrospective on the History Channel. It's hilarious. It would be the perfect spark for a holiday short play festival.

The most golden thing about the golden years is having close contemporary friends who understand what you're going through as you age and perhaps lose a spouse. The questions seem endless. Should I sell the house and move into independent or assisted living? Am I ready to seek a new relationship or accept one that may come my way? This old man appreciated Marj O'Neill-Butler's sensitive treatment of two old friends having an essential conversation about these issues. It's realistic but not at all grim. Quite the opposite. It would be a popular addition to any short play festival.

Keeping up appearances is important to the wealthy summer people in a Michigan resort town, but that means keeping secrets. It may be cooler by the lake, but things heat up when a provocateur prompts six men to reveal their secrets past and present. Williams is a master of depicting inter-personal relationships, and the relationships here were and are very personal indeed. Resort to a copy of this play and prepare to be drawn into the world of a fascinating group of characters.

Even our best and longest friends may have no idea about the secrets that underpin our existence. This play begins with a meet/cute among five-year-olds, takes them through junior high and into high school, and ends with a shattering conclusion when one of them can no longer bear the secret they carry. The build is skillful and logical, but audiences will still be discussing the ending long after the final blackout. Excellent work, and a terrific opportunity for three actors to display their range as they play their characters at different ages. Bravo!

In the beginning, one might think this is another play about high school bullying, and that's an important part of it. As is the issue of how kids fare in foster care. But at this school the bullying isn't limited to the students in the halls and cafeteria. If anything, even worse bullying occurs in the teachers lounge. A timely reminder that bullying is a problem that carries on into adulthood and needs to be combatted in that arena as well. Excellent work.

As a sign in the set says, "Toughest Job in the Military--Army Wife." This play sears the emotions with the turmoil of an army wife back home who has heard her husband's unit in Iraq has been attacked. Unable to contact him, she can only communicate with the parts of him that exist in her dreams, her memories, her hopes, and her fears. The two characters who tell this story are wonderful opportunities for actors to carry an audience into a world of sacrifice too often left unacknowledged. Wonderful needful work.

When I was a young lad just coming out as gay, there were only three letters: GLB. Then T was added. Now in an attempt to be broadly inclusive more have appeared. Even so, as the characters in John Mabey's wonderful play discover, attempting to pigeonhole our dearest friends, or even ourselves, into that spectrum can be precarious, and acceptance doesn't come easily. His dialogue is true to life, and its moments of overlapping conversation are technically brilliant. It deserves attention and production.

On the day he becomes a man, Larry's family life is complicated, his "performance" is a syllable shy of perfection, and it seems he's only getting savings bonds instead of real presents. But there are also the beginnings of feelings that will shape the rest of his life. A sweet and ultimately heartbreaking memory play. Lovely work by Bruce Karp.

A man nervously awaits the woman with whom he has arranged an assignation. When she appears, she's okay with his being married and with the idea that his wife might be observing them. But what is really going on? Wait for the final twist to find out! Delightful!

When the performance note says all props will be replaced by bananas, you know you're in for a good time. This play is hilarious. Two women frantically playing 18 roles, spoofing every super hero convention and then making fun of itself for doing so, the stage hands doing cameos, the audience encouraged to participate with boos and cheers, and a terrific twist at the end, all of it streaming from the delightfully quirky comedic mind of Sawyer Quinn Brown. What more could you ask to insure a rollicking evening filled with groans and belly laughs?