Recommended by Robert Weibezahl

On its surface, STICKS AND STONES is a trenchant play about bullying on numerous levels, but Dan Taube also tackles the complicated dynamics of our flawed educational system and, even, some basic truths about how we treat each other in our at-once over-sensitive and desensitized age. This is both a timely and timeless play.

Taube sensitively tackles one of the most contentious issues of our time and gets to the heart of the matter with this beautifully written “chamber piece” that will reverberate in the consciousness of any thoughtful reader/viewer long after the last “thoughts and prayers” is uttered.

A beautiful slice of humanity and urban life. Rice creates two vibrant and very real characters in Lillian and Charlie, characters you know if you’ve ever walked the streets of New York or any big city. There is so much to read between the lines here, two whole lives played out in ten fast-moving minutes. The ending, tender and hopeful, is truly, in Lillian’s own words, “gold.”

Nothing is as it initially appears in this scathing and disturbing satire. Like all good satire, HOW ABOUT THEM DODGERS hones very, very close to the reality it skewers and will make any right-minded citizen (as opposed to Right-minded Fascist) squirm with discomfort between the laughs. Williams, acclaimed for his tender and insightful character-driven plays, dexterously stakes out new territory here. How soon can we schedule a reading on the steps of the Capitol in Tallahassee?

A charming monologue that beautifully captures how the quirky things that may have embarrassed us about our parents when we were children become the very things we deeply cherish in our memories. So evocative … You can almost hear the tinny dance music emanating from the kitchen radio.

Brenton Kniess plays clever tricks on his audience with this startling short play. What begins as a benignly gentle romantic dialogue takes a macabre twist you won’t see coming. One scoop or two? A perfect addition to any festival of horror shorts.

In just three minutes or so, Alice Josephs gives us a fully-realized world of theatrical action and tension, unexpected twists, emotional complexity, and compassion. This short piece is a masterful tour de force.

The title perfectly captures this piece: a wild theatrical ride that taps (sorry!) into all Arianna Rose's strengths as a writer--brilliant, rhythmic use of language; a vividly visual kaleidoscope of history; and a keen eye for staging. The written page cannot do justice to Rose's energetic vision. Please, someone produce this gem so we can see it come to life!

A heartfelt and imaginative tribute to a beloved icon and a tender paean to the enduring power of love. This short play packs an emotional wallop right up to its clever final lines.

In this tour de force, Carnes manages in just ten minutes to create a world that is so insidiously terrifying because it is so believable. APEX PREDATOR captures so many issue of the here and now within a timeless story of psychological – and potentially physical – terror.