Recommended by Rachael Carnes

This play explores a deliciously dark underworld, padded with iconic musicians — and all their vanities and excesses — crowding each other for space in a dressing room they can't escape. Burdick's dialogue and humor create a marvelous interplay - between rules and rockstars. (Of course, in hell, guitars can't play and people lose their singing voices - this is a concept that is an absolute delight to imagine and extrapolate!) Burdick tackles heavy themes (loss, death, regrets) with a confident hand and accessibility. With all the characters age 27, this would be terrific for a college or university.

As a former New Yorker, I just loved this — It brought me back to the travails of those dynamics between brokers and clients and — And within that, a terrific exploration of a broken relationship. Pittenger's characters connect with place fully, their dialogue snappy and revealing. I like, too, the writer's use of stage directions. There's just something so pathetic, and believable, about sitting down next to a lonely fern in an apartment foyer. (When that happens, you kinda know your life's not going the way you wanted.)

Ñ explores a territory between witty word play and deep injustice - Humberto Amaya evokes the tragic unfolding of our societal and cultural erosion, among family, community — And its ensuing fears. The language world glistens inside this day-glo cage. I meant to read just a bit on my lunch break at work, and kept right on reading. The interplay between unreality - or disbelief or suspension - and the details of the day-to-day make this work prescient, timely and compelling. It's both new - and relatable. We need to hear more voices like this one on our theatrical stages.