Recommended by Donald E. Baker

Frank Sinatra sings, "Regrets, I have a few, but then, again, too few to mention." Well, goody-goody for him. As Scott Sickles reminds us in his touching little memoir, many of us have regrets that haunt us for a lifetime. Many of them, as here, involve ill-timed moments of fear that result in chances not taken or words not spoken. This monologue is totally relatable. Read it and perhaps shed a tear for Scott's regrets and perhaps your own.

One of the best-realized, most disturbing dystopian plays you're ever likely to encounter, with a final twist worthy of "The Twilight Zone." This play would challenge the actors, the designers, and the audience, and it would be well worth the journey and the effort.

What is more dangerous than a horny teenager with a fake i.d.? Harry finds love for the first time in a long while with the much younger Jim. Unfortunately Jim is even younger than Harry realizes--too young--and their affair results in Harry's losing his reputation and, nearly, his freedom. Five years after their breakup they meet again. Can they resume where they left off, or, as in one of Harry's beloved three-hankie classic movies, must they part forever? A memorable, emotionally charged work by Sickles, available from Next Stage Press.

Red, young-ish entertainer, seeks career advice from Scooter, a has-been director twice her age. He is reluctant to help her, and when he does dispense his words of wisdom, she is reluctant to hear him. Their rapid-fire inter-generational sparring uncovers more about their pasts than either one intends. Scooter's live-in office is equipped with an electric train set that dispenses Irish whiskey and participates in card tricks. But do the furnishings also include a "casting couch." Get a copy from Next Stage Press and find out. Highly recommended.

The concept for this hilarious little play is brilliant. What if a "Jew-will-not-replace-us" white supremacist believes he is literally being replaced by a feisty Jewish lady armed with--what else?--a "portable Jewish space laser"? Sometimes the best defense is to hit your opponent in the funny bone and in "The Replacement" Norkin hits his target perfectly. Very highly recommended.

Scott Sickles continues his masterfully written dystopian vision that began in "Marianas Trench." Lincoln and Anzor, now Andy, lost contact when they were eleven and Anzor managed to escape the fascist red-state New Confederacy. Now as 38-year-olds they finally reconnect, in Antarctica, where Lincoln is a researcher and Andy is an astronaut on a top-secret project. There they have a front-row seat to witness the beginnings of environmental Armageddon. Does the earth have a future? Do Lincoln and Andy? Do the penguins? Powerful as part of a trilogy, "Pangea" also stands alone. It's unforgettable.

This stunning little one-person play with flexible casting ends with a light-and-sound effect that'll knock an audience's socks off. It'll also leave questions about the speaker that they'll be debating over drinks afterwards and breakfast the next day. It must be produced.

Producers, if you're looking for something different for your Halloween programming, here's a terrific alternative to the usual fare. It has everything to please an audience--mystery, comedy, and a variety of supernatural beings and clueless humans. Set designers, costumers, and actors will all have a ball doing this one. Highly recommended.

Historical dramas, especially ones in which revered figures such as Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln are characters, can too easily become two-dimensional pageants. Kaminski handily avoids that pitfall in this terrific play about the struggle to prevent Illinois from becoming a slave state despite the prohibitions of the Northwest Ordinance. He presents our founding fathers, known and unknown, as real people with fears, doubts, and contradictions whose ideals sometimes outstripped their abilities and their courage. In the process he introduces us to an almost forgotten hero whose achievements deserve wider recognition. Great work that should be performed throughout Illinois and beyond.

Five people occupy an isolated room, a mix of military, paramilitary, and drug cartelists. As the characters' backstories are revealed layer by painful layer, it becomes obvious their training and life experiences have drained them of their humanity. Empathy, loyalty, and truth are weaknesses. The only virtue is ruthlessness. Each becomes potential collateral damage in the others' struggle to survive. Only one of them leaves the room alive. But which? One of the most disturbing plays I have ever read or seen, bar none, because one fears such people are really out there. So emotional. So frightening. So well done.