Recommended by Susan Middaugh

Caring Dad visits his alcoholic son in the early stages of rehab. Son is of course vulnerable, so is Dad. You realize Dan, the son, will persist in recovery just as he persisted in learning to drive a manual transmission. There's an endearing twist at the end. Good job, Philip.

How empathic Roland is in creating a character like Maureen who can imagine a character like Jim to be other than his rude self. Despite a big difference in their ages, they dance a tango, have a date. If only his life had turned out differently. Fanciful. Sad. Wistful. Haunting. Loved the line about "sturdy-but-original plumbing." Roland creates a world with minimalist strokes.

A middle-aged mother who has followed "orders...my whole life" participates in a nonviolent BLM protest in her neighborhood. She is also very upset with her teenage son who gets arrested for looting and for listening to a stranger who goads him to steal a pair of basketball shorts. The conflict she feels is local, personal and maternal. While the police invade her street and hurl a paint canister at her, she frantically searches for her son and laments "the racist virus that no one cared enough to make a vaccine for." Can this be happening? Powerful, relatable!

The background music, Love Me Do by the Beatles, sets the tone for this short rom-com about a first date fraught with complications from page one. They get stuck in an elevator, he has a panic attack; she talks about her ex-lover and her UTI. Is there even a chance for a second date after their vulnerabilities are exposed? Warm, honest and appealing. Fun.

Susie is disenchanted with her boyfriend's approach to love making and plans to dump him. She broaches the idea of what an alien's approach to sex might be -- fingers touching -- but her fried Mandy nixes that and suggests she stick with the same guy but go about what she wants in a new way. Patience mixed with vodka!

When a condo association president insists on giving a couple a hard time because their Christmas decorations are still up in February, the wife, nice as pie, comes up with an argument that makes the condo president do an about face. Clever wife, clever writer!

Middle aged boxing coaches/referees Sully and Doris offer advice to Anthony and Haley who are having their first date. What's the best way to "engage" -- with aggression or break the rules and be yourself with a dose of humility? Clever and fun!

Something out of Alfred Hitchcock. A wife, frustrated that our detective husband misses so many meals, takes revenge in her own way. Funny, also chilling.

Jackie has great insight into the female culture: a remedy for the need to be perfect in more ways than one. And insight to the culture at large: just take a pill to help you relax, in fact, many of them.

A touching play about a homeless man, a badgering female angel and a boy who wants to do a good deed, in this case, offer the man his greatest wish -- a pastrami sandwich. Bruce has come up with a funny, unique and eye-catching sign for a homeless person to display: Homeless. Hungry. Trying to buy back my yacht.