Recommended by Robert Weibezahl

Every artist will relate to this bittersweet monologue, especially artists who have reached theIr later years. Aspirations vs. achievements. Disappointments, resentments, but eternal hope. Smith deftly pulls it off with humor and affection. Eric is a great opportunity for an older actor to shine. Touching and memorable work.

Elegant, alluring, elusive—the dancer Suzanna is a physical and visceral storyteller, impossible to ignore. But is her suspense-building narrative true? Or is what we witness just her “interpretative” dance/version of events? Is she victim or perpetrator? We can never know. And that—along with the sheer physicality of this monologue—is what makes the piece as impossible to ignore as Suzanna herself. A haunting conundrum that will spur many conflicting reactions from the audience.

Many of Williams’s candid plays involve memory and reconciliation. DARK TWIST explores these themes through the eyes of two former prep school boys, now men, who outwardly reject the past while clinging to it emotionally. Rich in symbolism and subtext, the story unfolds through scenes involving calculated role playing that underscore how we are all playing one calculated role or another in our day to day lives. A penetrating and thought-provoking play.

The worlds of Samuel Beckett and Neil Simon collide in thIs amusing short play that suggests that with the right combination of optimism, delusion, and denial, paradise is attainable. Two fun roles for older actors.

Welcome to the outrageous mind of Scott Sickles. A genre-bending mash-up, this hilariously histrionic short play will have you looking at garden gnomes in a whole new way. No one could have written this play but Sickles, one of the most original minds out there. Read it. Go with it. Hell, please produce it! (so I can see it brought to life!)

Try new ideas and don’t get caught in the past, advises the specter of Rembrandt in this thought-provoking piece that explores timeless ideas of art: What is it? How do we value it? What have we encumbered it with? How does it change—for better or worse? And how can we find the authentic? This short play is so compelling (and filled with humor, too). Read it. Produce it.

Like a compact “Master Class,” this captivating monologue is both an informed and loving paean to one of the great actresses the American theatre has ever produced and a trenchant consideration of what art fundamentally is. Actresses “of a certain age” should kill to take on this role.

Sickles’s little trope-busting comedy reminds us all that the old adage “there are no new plots, it’s what you do with them” can be a dangerous watchword in the hands of the wrong writer. Of course, Sickles is NOT the wrong writer, he’s the PERFECT one to skewer the art of writing with his always sharp irreverence. This wicked play lends a whole new meaning to “bedroom farce.”

The spirit of Brooks and Reiner animates this hilarious dialogue between the shiksa-wed Liebowitz and his (Jewish) noble fir, Tannenbaum. As the tree learns of its dire fate as a seasonal adornment and its owner tries to come to terms with a non-Kosher tradition, Levine packs the play with classic Borscht Belt patter and clever wordplay that is impossible to resist. This five-laughs-a-minute piece is perfect for any holiday shorts festival.

A chance encounter between two older people, each on the cusp of change in their lives, underscores how life continues even after painful tragedy. A sweet, elegiac, and ultimately hopeful play that supplies wonderful roles for two older actors.