Recommended by Rachael Carnes

Training a bright light on an oft-ignored yet utterly shameful - and lengthy - and *continuing* chapter in American history, the Eugenics movement and forced or coerced sterilization, this play grounds a horrific concept in the physical, in the emotional, creating a world that builds, pressurizing each moment to a crescendo of fear and pain and loss. I had the pleasure of seeing a reading of this work at the 2021 Great Plains Theatre Conference, and I cannot recommend this play more highly. Miss Cora, Uncle Jesse, Arthur and River, in particular, are indelibly beautiful, and deeply felt. Stunning work.

Asking big questions in a warm, relatable, smart way, Hoke's exploration of the almost-afterlife is a keenly theatrical, deeply-felt ensemble piece. Like 'Bus Stop' -- with donuts. Another gem - with a strong lead role for a woman - from a master writer. Check it out!

Eggnog as fodder for encumbered relationship drama! Yes! at once poignant and hilarious, this super-short gets at the heart of what we say and don't say to the ones we love. This would be a great addition to a wicked night of holiday shorts! And Eggnog season is, like, September - February, so that's pretty much all the time. So fun!

Hahaha - Did Richter and I have the same forced you-will-read-the-Greek-Classics college curriculum? It's high time someone take on these two titans, and I nerded out reading this delightful piece that pits two great minds in a dialogue more Abbott & Costello than fancy philosophizing. Seeing it performed on Zoom would lend another layer of the absurd. I'm seeing many erroneous filters and virtual backgrounds. Just remember to always back up your files! Or put it on the cloud!

Ooooooh fun. 8th-century Vampire Vikings?? Are you kidding me? Okay: YES, PLEASE, THANK YOU: What a fun premise, so theatrically devised. Prillaman's keen visual sense transports the reader into this intense world, but it's the dialogue that holds us in tension. Not easy, in a short play, to balance world-building, high-stakes, character and plot, but here ya go, a great example of bold thinking, and a refusal to make another play that takes place in a living room. (Although a living room with vampire Vikings could be great, too!)

This play combines two of my favorite things: Pirates and absurdism. What a freaking DELIGHT! All the pirates be multifaceted, the plot be cracking and the pacing yar! And when ye realize were written wit' de able help of the ship's automatic data validation function commonly found in word processors and text editing interfaces - Aye laddies, you'll be impressed with Cap'n Busser. ARRRRRRR.

Can a play be funny, have delightful characters, a cracking plot AND be written in rhyming couplets? The answer is YES! This charming play invites a theatrical hand - it's paced for action, and audiences would be surprised and drawn in, I'm sure, by the language play that dances between high aesthetics and profane. Haha! Such fun.

Wow! Delightful language play skitters across waves of raw sensuality in this evocative, provocative piece. Jonte's formatting is sexy. How can words on a page *do* that? I don't know - But the layout's divine, each word pealing like laughter or thunder, depending - This would be a treat to see performed, and if I were an actor, a dream to share with an audience. I am not an actor, and even just reading it, I think I'm blushing a little. A monologue at once alive, and timeless.

A beautiful play that brings together the existential crisis of part of a six pack, the celestial heavens, and nature herself. Gah! I love this. Gill invites us to explore and consider the tiny and the infinite, all at once.

Deeply-felt, linguistically rich, populated with multifaceted characters, this play drives at the heart of being human, finding it... in a bowl of Fruit Loops (TM). A brilliant ode to love, loss, and the things that make us.