Recommended by Rebecca Kane

This was the first time in recent memory I felt satisfied to read all 120 pages of a piece of playwriting! What an enjoyable smattering of bite-sized scripts. I was a particularly big fan of the quick & clever theatricality of "Screw the Critics!", the relatable humor in "Baby's First Kombucha", and all the monologues, at turns touching, funny, and biting. This was like going to a restaurant or bar and ordering a flight of Hayley St. James instead of whiskey or something -- and it was a very fulfilling order.

I applaud Hayley for managing to get so many layers into such a short play. The characters were engagingly realistic and the ending was satisfying and touching. When Luca said they just wanted to stay and look at the moon for a while ... who can't relate? Even without much familiarity with these characters, I hope they get the reunion they're wishing for, which speaks to St. James' ability to hook the reader in such a short time.

Plumridge does an amazing job of taking a familiar nursery rhyme and a pretty slow-moving animal and making a super fun, fast-paced one act out of the unexpected combination of farm animals and modern humor. I bet it would be incredibly endearing to see some character actors bust out their best "moo"s in this play. Would be a great fit for any comedy or one act festival.

Leave it to Alexander Hehr to effectively weave dry wit, tear-jerking moments, and an existential crisis (as well as an existential resolution) into a play less than half hour. Even that is to his benefit -- this short play manages to have a pleasingly fast pace without feeling rushed. I never thought I would so badly want to see a character described as "Any singing Breadstick" in person.

I am floored by how much emotion and depth were captured in this piece in a relatively short amount of time. The animals' stories were told with such effectiveness, woven into Colleen's love and pain, so palpable you could almost touch it, and this is just reading the words on the page. I imagine this play to be a highly emotional experience in person.

I thought I hated hearing plays described as "more relevant now than ever," until I finally read one that it actually applies to -- if a theatre company doesn't think it's time to do Affinity Lunch Minutes, they don't have a finger on the pulse of what theatre needs now. Watching a reading of this made me feel unexpected sympathies and a range of new perspectives on race. However, the value of this play is not just that it's timely, but that as these issues develop, the play will become more relevant over time.

Speaking as someone who doesn't engage with sci-fi works too easily, I LOVED this piece. The technological information and ideas were very accessible, never distracting. The end was one of the most satisfying I've seen in a one-act in ages. Loved this fresh take on the A.I. ideas. Also would follow the character of Abigail to the ends of the Earth.

This was such a funny and fresh take on all these tales. I saw it multiple times from the same theatre company and found something new to laugh at every single viewing. I was particularly charmed by the revamped Brothers Grimm as narrators, informative without being expositional, funny without being distracting, moving at just the right pace. And on top of all of the solid comedy, a director has some major opportunities for horror and a delectably spooky tone-- especially at the end (Michael's Red Riding Hood is haunting my memories to this day!)

Michael Hagins shows masterful range in this work. There are countless moments blending his sharp wit with just the right amount of sentimentality. One paragraph, I'm laughing out loud, and the next, his description of sadness is so succinct and realistic that I have chills.
Michael is a true storyteller; he hooks you right away and the pacing is spot-on. And on top of everything, it's difficult to maintain energy with one character handling most of the dialogue, but Michael makes it seem easy and natural. This play is a force to be reckoned with.