Recommended by Donald E. Baker

I don't know how many times I've stood facing ten pins down the length of an alley, never considering they might have hopes (of keeping my score under 100--they often succeed), fears (white pins/black ball--constuct your own metaphor), and individual personalities, genders, and sexual orientations. All this has occurred to Gene Kato, and from that material he has produced a smashingly funny and oddly thought-provoking play.

Betrayals are awful, and betrayals by family and friends with good, if selfish, intentions can change one's view of his whole life. "Phillie's Trilogy" is a master class on how to make three short plays feel like one integrated whole. Incidents in one become significant memories in the next. Seeming throw-away leitmotivs such as a recurring jar of olives become important. A great read that would play beautifully.

"With every bed of roses, you're bound to find a few thorns under the mattress." So Fanny tells her new friend Peter after they meet at the gravesites of their respective spouses. Aided by commemorative wine and margaritas, and with the help of their younger selves, they explore their memories of their marriages, thorns and all, but with occasional flashes of humor. There's a lot of emotion here, nicely wrought.

Recently widowed at 83, Morris checks into assisted living, his "last new home." There he discovers his roommate Jack is determined to find sexual adventure among the women of the establishment. Morris is skeptical about the prospects, considering the female population is all over 90. But then an attractive physical therapist enters his life. Will they maybe get physical after the therapy is over? A sweet play that poses the question, is there life in assisted living.

Who needs catapults or shield walls when you have The Karen in your arsenal? Alexander the Great releases the very personification of privilege against Tyre and the city's Assistus Managemus doesn't stand a chance. A fun read full of humor high and low--mostly low. I laughed all through it.

You can make a baby, even if it requires the help of a turkey (or maybe tofurky?) baster. But how do you make a family? Three generations try to work that out in this lovely, lovely play full of heart and affectionate one-liners that will leave you a little misty-eyed by the end.

The dialogue between an assassin and his victim in a company restroom is oddly civilized, which makes this play all the more unsettling. Occasional humorous lines only heighten the tension. Super writing.

That rarity, a Civil War play that centers women, nurses, as full participants. The enlisted men of the "Irish Brigade" at their camp near Gettysburg are "ready to spill our guts for a country that hates the very look of us." So is the wounded African-American who turns up and whom the nurses must keep hidden from their cowardly commanding officer. The play deals with questions of duty, power, religion, and race, and each character's inward and outward conflicts and relationships are well drawn. A nice contemporary play in period dress.

If you want to see Marie Dressler act, check out "Tugboat Annie." If you want to get to know her, read this lovely monologue. At the end of her life, Marie has no illusions about herself, her career, or her fate. Diana Burbano has given us a fine work of self-acceptance.

This amusing two-hander for an older actress and younger actor would add a little something unexpected to any program of short holiday pieces. Stephen is gay, but his grandmother is the drama queen. She threatens to cancel Christmas if Stephen and his partner don’t tell her the secret she knows they’re hiding from her. Goats butt into the dialogue throughout, and in the end kids save Christmas. No goat rodeo, but an enjoyable ride for actors and audience alike.