Recommended by Rachael Carnes

I'm telling you, these Paula Vogel Ubu BakeOff plays are the gift that keep on giving! Every time I stumble on another one, I feel better. Like, for reals. The world is a smoldering dumpster fire but then you read a brilliantly cutting piece of satire like this gem by Jacqueline, and you're like, "Okay. Rome may be burning but at least we have some incredible writers facing it head-on." Can't wait to check out this author's longer work!

It's painful to imagine the long arm of racism and cultural genocide reaching back into American history, but we need plays exactly like this one, to bring us from the past into the present day - when abductions and assimilation continue with a ferocious detachment. Bates shakes us out of our stupor, out of the accruing compassion fatigue, and trains our hearts and minds on one story, one child, one moment in time that could be right now. Read, share and produce this work.

This play is just gorgeous. Wow. Love how Femia defines and builds these characters with nuance and flaws and lets them stumble and shine. Love how we move in and out of a colorful comic book language and into something that feels hyper realistic, a reminder that we’re all leaping tall buildings in a single bound... just to get through life. This play would be a delight to see staged, with wonderful opportunities for actors and designers alike.

AGGHGHGH this play! Zaffarano pumps it with tension - we think we're wading into one story, a poignant exploration of grief and loss and THEN. No spoilers. But the writer seriously pulls off one of the funnest switcheroos I've seen in a long, long time. Choose this play when you want to horrify and creep out your audience!

What a fun piece of theater! Tightly-coiled absurdism that would be a delight onstage. These three characters create unfolding possibilities through Koivisto's accessible, yet rhythmically-engaging, script. I'm drawn to language like this, that doesn't putty in all the meaning or references, but let's us drop into a weird world and just enjoy what develops there. My imagination enjoys all the many combinations of interpretations that a creative team could come up with -- a play like this would give actors and a director all the room they'd need to explore.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and that age-old sentiment takes on a new flavor in Mazzuca's inventive play. Great premise and cracking dialogue -- Sign me up for more dark comedies like this one!

Deeply moving piece that is all-too relevant. How are these endless tragedies impacting teachers, nurses, doctors? Include this in your festival in response to gun violence.

This arresting piece pulls you in and cages you — It's gripping and resonant, a terrific piece of sci fi that would be so incredible onstage. Ford's powerful language choices are matched by a unifying sense of dread, and some of the most vivid stage directions I've read. This is right where this genre needs to be — Looking forward to reading more work by this writer!

This monologue guts you in its ferocious realness, its humor and its evocative emotion. I read it, and then I needed to go for a walk in the fresh air and then compose myself before I could even think straight enough to say anything. Pavela captures something so cerebral and so primal all at once - this tour-de-force play is one of a kind, and should be seen everywhere.

Irreverent and sly, Hovanesian's bedroom duet veers from the scatological to the profound, exploring the double-standards and the nuances of gender, in a sleepy, half-wake half-dreaming pillow talk farce. With rich dialogue and witty banter, we're drawn in, but it's in what the writer does with our expectations that this play really delivers something special. This piece would be terrific onstage. Interesting, too, to imagine the casting possibilities in the wide parameters that the writer has set. What are our assumptions? A play like this subtly subverts them.