Recommended by Rachael Carnes

Powerful and real, a slice of life for a family on the precipice of losing all they’ve known. I appreciate Burdick’s dynamic, fearless punch into the messy and meaningful world of caregivers struggling to accept and support while their loved ones adjust to a new normal. In this moving play, no one’ll go down without a fight.

From the get-go, writer Francis Boyle gets at the heart and heartbreak of war — The stuff of plays since time immemorial. And yet, how perceptive and evocative, for the writer to ask the reader or producer to shuttle the language - the war vocabulary - across time, leaping mournfully through centuries of carnage. I've not really seen that done before -- And Boyle does it beautifully. This play is achingly timeless, and remarkably human.

Asher Wyndham is one of my favorite writers on NPX, and this monologue might be my favorite monologue yet. Hilarious, compelling, whip-smart — The staging is so evocative, the character so sympathetic and tragic and wonderful. I just wanna be friends with this character and hang out with him and binge-watch 'Cupcake Wars'. Wyndham has a sensitive hand with difficult subject matter — And here, he just lets loose, and is funny as hell. Bravo!

A beautiful window into a moment between two people on the verge of intimacy, this play creates a relationship to history, while attending to the immediacy of the choices we make -- right now. Impressive, sympathetic and richly developed characters move through this powerfully compelling plot. Writers could study Hoke's construction here, as a how-to on the 10-minute play form. Exquisite work.

This play! Compelling, universally relatable, charming, with this molten core of love and confusion and grief, in other words, a real family. Thanks to the writer for this beautiful piece, a reminder that depth and richness are both possible, within the confines of just ten pages.

This play explores timeless and timely themes for all audiences, with humor, empathy and a flair for character. I so enjoy the visuals here and imagine how easily viewers would connect to and respond to this work. A perfect contribution to any festival of plays on our relationship to the environment and its future. Lovely.

Relatable and engaging, this short play feels like a little window between endings and beginnings -- at Target. Writer Bublitz charges her characters with plenty of chemistry and humor, as she has them test the waters with each other and the future. This play offers creative teams lots of space for dynamic staging -- perfect scene for a college or university setting, or a contemporary festival.

This little play is a GEM! So funny — And silly and delightful. This nutty set-up offers creative teams so much room for comedy and the big, broad strokes that musical theater affords, all in just a few pages. Perfect for a festival of short plays. Love this!

A provocative — yet charming and accessible — inquiry into race, culture and family, this play has a brilliantly curious title, evoking a kind of gothic cautionary tale. The titular character has a major exam coming up to become a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon — “It’s a very important time for her,” as her father would say — but before she can sit for the test, Hannah learns that there’s trouble back home. Home is South Korea, a place Hannah barely knows. A beautiful play. I was fortunate to see its premiere at at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017.

A cycle of life explored lovingly and with great humor. There’s something so relatable about writer Goldman-Sherman’s language rhythm, the way the meaning and themes hover just below the brittle banter between these two characters, as they find themselves renegotiating everything.