Recommended by Donna Latham

The stunning opening launches a gripping and theatrical horror play that kept me on the edge of my seat. Darkly comic moments and riveting monologues create an intense, haunting exploration of trauma. Two gifted actors will kill in these powerful roles.

A speedy and hilarious two-hander that barrels down the tracks with escalating misunderstandings until its laugh-out-loud conclusion. Perfect for short-play festivals!

This charming twist on Cinderella from the young prince's POV is funny, authentic, and relatable. When Cinderella makes her hasty departure, the clumsy prince accidentally tromps on the glass slipper left behind. But he's determined to find hope in the shards. A delightful comic spin for a young actor.

A beautifully inventive, resonant dark comedy with poignant messages about Earth and the timelessness of storytelling. Exciting expandable possibilities and delicious characters create a piece that’s truly for all ages. I love it!

I’d love to see a production of Benjamin Peel’s CHILDREN OF GOD, a taut psychological drama. Amid enforced celibacy, stigmatic markings, and fervent belief they are led by “God’s perfection in female form,” deeply indoctrinated followers confront their own beliefs. A stranger washes up on their isolated shores and is mistaken for the Second Coming in the sect’s New Jerusalem. His arrival launches an increasingly fraught reckoning. This powerful historical horror with rich language and meaty roles for a multi-age ensemble boasts a sense of impending doom that kept me on the edge of my seat.

John Mabey’s gripping, taut drama begins in media res. Although we don’t know the precise circumstances that brought two radically different characters together, but we can imagine their encounter. The short play is layered and nuanced and powerfully explores fleeting moments of connection and humanity. A balm for the soul.

I’d love to see this chilling exploration of Autumn’s psyche. A powerfully theatrical ensemble piece about mental health, domestic violence, and childhood sexual abuse. Autumn’s trauma-bonded to her abusive boyfriend. He lures her with love-bombing and escalates abuse: Isolation from her flawed but devoted friend Kasey, beatings, rape, a knife to her throat. Autumn murders her abuser in self-defense. Manifestations of coping mechanisms, a trio of characters (excellent roles for women), swoop to her aid. Autumn discovers the long-secret story of her childhood abuse and truth of her mother’s weakness for monstrous men with beautiful eyes.

Gripping and theatrical. This haunting Southern Gothic play’s desperate outliers break your heart. I love the audacious hope in pre-teen Rudolph’s aching need to fulfill dreams of becoming the first Merman in an underwater show, as he struggles to overcome loss and grief and discover what actually occurred the night his mother died. The trailer park setting at the edge of a canal, elements of magical realism, and richly drawn characters offer delicious staging possibilities and multi-generational casting opportunities.

Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos is a world-building wonder; see her other works. From the play’s first moment, she immerses us in an atmospheric, surrealistic world. The unfolding relationship between crazy-cat-lady-with-a-gruesome-past Bunny Maybrick and creepily intrigued schoolboy Theo Voss is chilling and compelling. His morbid fascination with a murderess is riveting, and I did not see the delicious and spine-tingling twist coming. This play is a designer’s dream. An actor’s delight, it offers an exceptionally rich roles, including one for a mature woman. Highly recommended!

Rich in subtext, this play boasts multidimensional roles for women. Foul-mouthed, tart Lucinda suffers no fools and sips spiked lemonade. She meanders in and out of realism, ever connected to a long-lost love. Daisy, a reporter for a mega-church, is ostensibly a dutiful Christian wife and mother. She carries secrets of an intense affair and a love child. Dialogue crackles with tension and wit. Though they hold opposed viewpoints, the women grudgingly cobble a friendship. A poetic parallel structure reveals clandestine love affairs in which the women engage—and ultimate realizations secrets won’t provide consolation at life’s end.