Recommended by Rachael Carnes

A staged reading of this play at the Midwestern Dramatists Center conference brought such a wonderful emotional range and nuance in this play for two teens. Charming and relatable, this sweet story explores so much in such a brief time. A play about what's said, and what isn't.

I heard a staged reading of this play at the 2019 Midwestern Dramatist Center conference, and enjoyed its historical vision of an uncertain future, both global and interpersonal. Funny and dark, with lively characters and sharp pacing.

Holy crap! This play is a gut punch. And as a parent who's preparing to launch her child into a broken higher education system, this world, the desperation and deep shame of debt that Gacinski explores hits all the hard notes. A raw, visceral piece, with an interesting, empathetic character at its core.

What if a planet could go on a date? That's the premise behind Bultrowicz's sharp, illuminating comedy about... environmental destruction. A play like this joins the march of a long line of absurditist visitations on a reality almost too abysmal to face head on. A great pick for a festival focused on climate change and the impact of the anthropocene era.

Pure delight! Hoke's inventive set-up (Hello: Talking plants!) rewards with cracking conversation, a spectrum of characters, ranging from lovable to lamentable, in this swift-moving comedy that asks us to consider our hang-ups about sex. Witty, fun, with depth and a myriad of design and directorial possibilities, this play would be sooo much fun for any creative team.

A poignant play to read anytime, but on 9/10? A story heartbreaking in its candor yet humanely compassionate in its telling: Haas explores the grief that clings to three sisters, who lost their mother in the events of 9/11, and in doing, taps into the universalities of love and remembrance. How can I move forward, if to do so, means letting go of someone I care about? There's such beautiful relationships interwoven in these three women's lives. A play about memory, and life, and moving forward.

This open-ended absurdist play is a delight! A kind of high-wire act for a creative team, with plenty of room for physical interpretation. I love this kind of work, for its lush theatricality, the sense that the actors get to bring to it. Visualizing the story, imagining the audience member, I see the magic of Jovanovich's narrative come to life. There's a lot of rewarding possibilities here, and the piece is an exciting reminder that plays can be playful.

Deftly funny dialogue masks a play about so much more than laughs. Here are three women, three athletes, who've dedicated everything to develop their prowess, but for what? What's left, when they take off their skates? A powerful look at the way corrosive competition creeps into women's conversation, and into the fabric of our lives. This piece is a gem, and would be a delight on any festival stage. I can see the sequins, and they are glorious.

There's a beautiful restraint and delicacy to the way this play unfolds. It takes you into its world with Rinkel's appealing, relatable dialogue, and then takes a passage into such a poignant, mournful place. Those we lose when we're young, or who we know never got to experience life beyond their own youth - they stay with us, and Rinkel digs with such depth into that dynamic, with honesty and theatricality. There's a lot happening here, yet it glides on the page and as I'm sure it would in production, a portrait of possibility cut too short. Just lovely.

It’s so fun to explore the idea of the world of the play, a non-descript chicken wings restaurant, as a place of “succor and safety” – a hermitage of learning, with sage denizens and philosophical teaching moments. And it's lovely that the people who are here to teach in this world, can be a teenage girl with a minimum wage food service job and a mature woman. Who are we to the exterior community? Who are we to ourselves? With its bright energy throughout and unflagging comedy, this play would be a treat to see onstage.