Recommended by Rachael Carnes

This play won over the reading committee for "The Best Weird Plays of 2020" anthology. With turns humorous and heartfelt, Burbano gets at prickly subjects with a breathtaking honesty and artistic aplomb. I always admire her writing, hiding nothing, accessible, but without treacle or artifice. There's a rivulet of emotion that threads through each line, yet it's never sentimental or maudlin. This play is just... Perfect.

So delighted that our reading committee decided to feature this play in a collection of plays called "The Best Weird Plays of 2020" - (Soon to maybe be renamed 'The Best normal plays of Really F'ing Weird 2020') Antone writes with such energy, combining an acerbic wit with devastating commentary to create a piece that feels theatrical and real at once. Cannot WAIT to see this play onstage soon, and in print sooner.

Everything spills out here, despite, or maybe because of the holidays, and Donnelly artfully asks us to bear witness to tremendous layers of familial pain and dysfunction. These characters are so tightly constructed, that in just a few pages, we see them fully, we'll see people we know tucked within their flaws and fissures. Where the majority of ten-page plays point to a moment in time, isolated from the others, this one not only scratches below that surface, it finds a multi-generational taproot of fear, retribution and even hope. This would be so dynamic on its feet. Bravo!

This play approaches a vital topic in the best way - with enough humor to draw you in and keep you in the orbit of these finely-crafted characters who gnash over topics both woefully timely and timeless. This piece would be a great addition to an evening of short plays on women's rights. Maybe we need a festival that pivots to different places and times? This one anchors the Texas state capitol, 2013. Took me right back. Damn. Good work, Davilla!

Since I've already watched all the precious episodes of "Slings and Arrows" twice through, this hilarious comedy from Busser is a good fix. I love inside-track winking theatre escapism, the knowing commiseration that is really not about the genre or art form, but about people, and the way they will universally trip themselves up, or knowingly or inadvertently, sabotage the team. Busser's nutty play would be a perfect kick-off for a short play festival, and for this theatre-starved weirdo, this is balm for the soul.

"Does getting left ever get easier?" -- Wow. In just a few brief pages, Bolkvadze develops a rich past and a tenuous future. There's a deep taproot relationship here, one many of us will recognize and resonate with. A tender communion, elegant in its structure, and deeply felt.

Perfect and I love it. Just a few lines, yet a laser beam on love and the light that shines there.

THANK YOU, Steven!

Tremendous dialogue between a father and son - ripe with energy and quick-paced - Busser strikes at a universal in a profoundly accessible way. This is such a perfect example of the marriage between craft and creativity in a ten-minute play.

Another deeply empathetic piece from Wyndham, who documents American experience in a way that gets at the head and heart. This monologue strikes clear as a bell - In my day job, I work for a nonprofit that supports folx living with food and housing insecurities, a plight amplified a thousand-fold by Covid-19. The desperation in this mother's voice, her actions, are not only plausible, they're routine. Just last week, my organization supported a woman in just this situation, preyed upon by her landlord. It's bleak, but real, and Wyndham writes her like a Greek Chorus member, reflecting.

There's a deep spring of unconditional love welling in this beautiful monologue. Deray leaves a roadmap for any actor to take a journey back to the most memorable moments, and cast himself to the present and future. There's a stunning command of emotion here, in a way that is refreshingly candid and real. Ask any dad, he probably remembers what color shirt he was wearing on the day his baby was born. A hopeful, candid, realistic depiction of that father's journey. Love stays.