Recommended by Robert Weibezahl

Ever a master at the uses of bull’s-eye nostalgia, Williams here paints an evocative memory monologue that will speak to many. While conjuring a very particular cultural time and place, Mike’s memory achieves wide resonance with its frank depiction of puberty and sexuality, and widens further still when he comes to realize the conflict between the ways society portrays heroes and the essential truth of what a hero really is. While Mike is designated as mid-thirties, actors in a range of ages could—and should—undertake this poignant and witty monologue.

With raw honesty – and a bit of heartfelt music – Saari deftly explores the opioid crisis in rural America through the timely story of one extended family turned upside down. Secrets and lies, resentments, poor choices, self-deception – all plays out with a comfortable familiarity that makes the harsh reality all the more painful to acknowledge. The emotions are very real, as is the surprising amount of humor, which, as in life, becomes a mechanism for survival.

As a woman faces the end of life, she must learn to let go of her lifelong need for control. Cole has fashioned a beautiful short play about art and serenity -- a thought-provoking story driven by gentle metaphors, and imbued with grace.

In our age of relentless self-exposure on social media, one wrong turn can make you a viral pariah overnight. Donnelly explores this idea with lighthearted cleverness in this funny short play, as an earnest young man seemingly blows his chances with the woman of his dreams. But can viral infamy ultimately work in his favor? SEVENTH INNING STRETCH could prove a favorite at 10-minute comedy festivals.

A witty ten-minute “sex farce” about wedding jitters that grapples with timeless questions of sexual identity, anxiety, and values. The dialogue is sharp and the set-up laden with energetic staging possibilities.

Pigs. Friendship. The Circle of Life. Epistemology. Ethical Treatment of Livestock. Color. Did I mention Pigs? Sklenar packs this simultaneously charming and thought-provoking play with so much to think about—both the weighty and the whimsical. You’ll never look at a plate of bacon in quite the same way. Brought to life in a reading at the 2022 Inge Festival, the play was a crowd favorite, and for good reason. Highly recommended.

Arianna Rose is a playwright who routinely – and expertly – exploits the rhythms and music of language to explore the complications of the human heart. In TOUCH THE MOON, which I saw in a reading at the 2022 Inge Festival, Rose is inspired by a real-life mystery about the unsolved disappearance of a young woman and she finds poetry even in the darkest of human truths. This is a beautifully theatrical and haunting play.

The methods of war change, but what soldiers experience on the ground, and carry with them for the rest of their lives, is timeless. Ranum delves deeply into those issues in this emotionally raw short play, especially in the brutally affecting monologues where Charlie and Mike open up about the horrors they witnessed and cannot leave behind. A valuable addition to the literature of war, and one that could be expanded to great effect. Powerful stuff.

Gun violence. Autism. Parenting. Teen angst. Karen Saari cooks up so much in this riveting short play and expertly brings it all together in a stunning and satisfying meal. While Lloyd may be the kind of man we wish we could avoid, we have all had to deal with the Lloyds of the world. Mae teaches him a thing or two about compassion and points him, we hope, down the road to redemption. These very real characters and their very real situation stay with us long after the last moments of the play.

John Adams is a brilliant comic writer, and SOME SPECTER had the audience laughing with riproarious abandon at the reading I saw at the 2022 Inge Festival. But Adams’s greater gift may lie in his rare talent for blending the comic with the heartfelt. This short piece, though ostensibly parody, is so honest in its portrayal of our human need for connection that the comedy almost becomes secondary. SOME SPECTER should be read, produced, and celebrated.