Recommended by Donald E. Baker

Rauch and Asche are small cogs in the Holocaust, driving a box truck transporting Jews to their fates. Asche assuages his conscience by treating the "cargo" as human beings. Rauch attempts to distance himself by treating them like animals. Both fear what will happen to them if they refuse to collaborate. But what will sear your soul are the sounds that emanate from behind them when the Jews realize the truck is a deathtrap. This harrowing play is stunning in every sense of the word.

If you think of John Busser as mostly a writer of low humor, then this play will change your mind. Just when you think you know where this father-son interaction is going, Busser takes it in a direction you never expected. It's an insightful and emotional look at one family's dynamics with characters that will stay with you. Beautiful work.

Wyndham's summary says the US Ambassador to Ukraine "makes some strange demands on behalf of POTUS." After the events of February 28, the demands in the monologue no longer seem so exaggerated, and it's all too easy to imagine our transactional POTUS making them directly and aggressively to the President of Ukraine. It's a prescient work and another example of Wyndham's mastery of the monologue form.

For those of us who may think of John Busser primarily as the high wizard of low comedy, this poignant play demonstrates that he is equally adept at drama. Many of us can relate to this hospital deathbed scene of a parent who is following their lost memories into the void. John captures the frustration and tenderness of the young watcher beautifully, and the twist at the end is stunning. Lovely writing.

People, places, events, actions taken or not taken, these are the shadows that slip unbidden into our dreams and memories. In an amazing feat of concept and imagination, Ian Donley produces a series of short--sometimes very short--vignettes suggesting just such shadows. Some audience members might dismiss them as "weird," but others will be haunted by them as they question and discuss this marvelous and surreal play for days afterwards. Put me in the latter category.

A discussion of how the American judicial system functions at the nuts-and-bolts level could be dry as reading a lawbook, but Williams humanizes it by creating two flesh-and-blood characters. They come from very different generations and life experiences, but they've both had some trial exposure, one as a juryman, the other as a defendant. By the end, they each reach a fuller appreciation of the nuances of the "system" and of each other. Both learn something, and so does the reader. Great work!

Who but Scott Sickles could combine a gruesome death scene, two investigators whose divorce is so recent their conversation is intimate but awkward, a phone opened by putting it in front of the corpse's face, a porch pirate, critical discussion of boxed turkey stuffing, and hilarious sound effects, and bring a convoluted mystery to a satisfying conclusion in just ten minutes? I hope it gets into a lot of holiday festivals. Audiences won't have seen anything like it. Bravo!

When you're down in the dumps you need a friend you can rely on for comfort. For some, that's Sara Lee. For Debbie, it's the Entenmann family of products. Except that when Mark barges into her apartment he finds she's so far down she's left the dumps way behind. They have a wonderful dialogue about reaching the point where carrying life's burdens is just too much, and ultimately Mark sits down to share Debbie's cheese danish. This is a very effective and affecting play and a little gem by Soucy.

Love and sex in various forms, and infidelity of course, are standard summer activities at a wealthy, white enclave of oversized summer "cottages" on a Lake Michigan bay in the turbulent 1960's. Teenagers, the heirs of privilege, engage in earnest philosophical and political discussions during which some of them question the value of their lives of entitlement. Then the Vietnam War takes one of their number, secrets are revealed, and futures are altered. Another superb play by Williams.

Caleb, a gay man, is estranged from the church. His mother attempts to lure him back by presenting him with a miracle, the appearance in her backyard of his dead father in the form of a "half-and-half" cardinal. Caleb poo-poos the notion, while his mother is adamant about what she saw. By the end, it doesn't seem Caleb is any closer to returning to the church, but he has grown a little closer to his mother. That's miracle enough.