Recommended by Rachael Carnes

I love a history play! And Loewenstern's does not disappoint! It's so wonderful when characters - people - from history leap into the now, bringing our foibles into their century, with humor and grace. This play does that, so smartly, treating us to a conversation for the ages. No wonder it's a Samuel French Off-Off Broadway winner!

A moody thriller, redolent with time and place — Firestone reminds us that there have been fraught times before, and populates this intriguing play with a cast of characters both intriguing and mysterious. Intellectually engaging, there's a lot here for a history buff, but audiences will connect with the human relationships.

This play talks around the toughest of circumstances with such humor and charm, I found myself immediately pulled into the world of these women. Heck, I liked the characters on the landing page: A play for four women in their fifties! Hear, hear. A lovely piece, theatrical, heartfelt. I can see brilliant productions. Perfect for a ten-minute festival. Brava!

An external and internal exploration - of self-image, and the consistent male gaze. Ho's sharp piece examines pervasive issues/fixation/standards around women's bodies, bringing a contemporary conversation to a timely and relevant topic. Compelling in its casting flexibility, this piece offers a lot of room for a creative team to engage with the words.

What a delightfully weird play! I so admire a writer who goes *all in* on a play about any cephalopods, and Cohen has populated this four-hander (32-hander??) with a squiggly, tetchy crowd of insult-wielding creatures of the deep. A lot of fun for choreographers to make their tentacle-inspired movement come to life, and it's quite delicious to hear their grumpy banter. If I were costuming... I'd put them all in business suits. Anyway: A perfectly fun addition to your next ten-minute play festival.

A dizzyingly dysfunctional family conversation exposes an underbelly of toxic masculinity. Cole writes with big humor, and that's the driving rhythm of this piece, a trait I admire - Drawing us into a difficult moment through laughter is emotionally effective, and creates a lasting impression about the trauma we can find right at home.

I was so bummed that I missed the reading of this at the Midwestern Dramatist Center conference, because *everyone* was talking about what was soon dubbed "The Hot Dog" play. Braverman's absurdly philosophical ode to existential sausage products definitely lives up to the hype! A perfect short for comedy +/ hot dog play festivals.

A poignant reflection on grief, and the meaning of presence and moving on. There's a spaciousness in Esposito's humor here, though, a relationship between past and future explored through externalized inner-conflict. Humane, relatable, a thought-provoking piece at the Midwestern Dramatist Center conference.

Lyons Conlon's dialogue is just so magnetic in this powerful play. I became fully invested in the outcome at a reading at the Midwestern Dramatist Center conference, knowing full well, that as in life, sometimes Door A and Door B are both awful. What do we do when we're confronted with plausible futures? And what if, in making a choice, we're dragged headlong into the past? Three great roles for women, chockfull of the inventory they need to dig into dynamic performance.

A deeply moving play, that feels both regionally specific, and accessibly universal. Hightower explores many layers here, within a broken family, and a fracturing country. A theatrically visceral, sharply-written body of work, that would be so compelling in production.