Recommended by Danielle Mohlman

Lauren Gunderson is a master storyteller and Natural Shocks is no exception. The climactic moment of this one-woman play will take your breath away, leaving you questioning everything you've seen up until that moment. Gunderson's protagonist tells us a story before lying and warping it, playing with truth and memory until all we're left with is "To be or not to be." I'm so glad that this piece is being read nationally on April 20. It's urgent and necessary.

Madhuri Shekar has a gift for world building. Her words transformed eight actors into a 1600s harem. Shekar created a village filled with duty, betrayal, and romance. At the end of the play, I was left with one resonating thought about this harem: it's badass. And before House of Joy, I had no idea a harem could make me feel that way. I was fortunate enough to see a reading of House of Joy in Seattle last night and I cannot wait to see this play fully realized -- fight sequences and all.

Soldier Poet is a beautiful and urgent look at U.S. involvement in Syria told through the lens of Ben, a young female Army Ranger with a bum ticker and a generous spirit. Her father thinks she fixes cars for the Army, but the reality is much more nuanced than that. Darcy Parker Bruce tackles violence with poetry, creating a more layered and detailed Syria than the one we see on the news. And don't even get me started on her image of chlorine gas. It will stick with you for months.

Remember the moment you lost the magic of childhood? Danny and Samantha of Scott Dunn's Origin Story certainly do. We workshopped this play in 2014 as part of Field Trip Theatre's staged reading series in DC bars. I selected this play because I love the way Scott created a intense and colorful world using just two actors and a bare stage. Because of the way Origin Story jumps between childhood and adulthood with nothing more than a jolt of dialogue, Scott's characters are the very definition of multifaceted. They contradict themselves. They're human. I cannot wait to see this produced.

I had the pleasure of seeing performance hi's workshop production of I Love Sean in Vancouver and was floored by Adrian Einspanier's incredible text. Their dialogue is full of sentences that are half-realism, half-experimental, and 100% genuine. If you're looking for a play that explores a love of reality TV through a feminist lens, this play is for you. If you're interested in the weird things couples do, what women talk about when they're not talking about their periods, and whether or not unprotected sex is a relationship step, this play is also for you. I too love Sean.

You know that feeling where your cheeks hurt so much because you just died laughing? That's how The Mystic makes me feel. We workshopped The Mystic at the 2016 Sewanee Writers' Conference and the way Edith marries the language of the 12th and 21st centuries is astonishing in itself. But add to that the bite of this play's humor and a dash of Christopher Cross and you have The Mystic. I cannot wait to see this play produced and I am eagerly anticipating the second and third parts of this triptych.

Dragons! Ham radios! A pay-by-the-hour motel whose sign boasts "RemeMEber, God Loves You!" Is there anything this play doesn't have? We workshopped All We Know Is Not Enough at the 2016 Sewanee Writers' Conference and it was absolutely wonderful to experience the celestially obsessed and brutally honest sibling relationship that Darcy has created between Romeo and his sister Charlie. Throw in otherworldly communication and a suspect dragon and you have Darcy Parker Bruce's All We Know Is Not Enough.