Recommended by Mark Harvey Levine

What a refreshing character -- a circus "freak" who's actually a strong, self-sufficient woman in charge of her own life. Her knees may be screwed on backward, but her head isn't. And amazing, it's based on a true person. Deb Cole's short play is fun and inspiring -- I wanted to hear more!

An unflinching look at the end of a life, without a drop of saccherine in it. Jessie Salsbury's play, which I saw in a reading at the Midwest Dramatists Conference, has lots of sympathy for its characters, even when they have none for themselves. It turns death into an action, something the character can decide to do through sheer willpower alone. Very moving. Well done.

Yet another sweet, sort-of-romance from Philip Middleton Williams. The tentative dance between the characters is subtle and deftly drawn. You believe in both of them, you feel for both of them. Two wounded people find each other from an unlikely meeting. I got to see this at a reading at the 2023 Midwestern Dramatists Conference and I'm so glad I did. It was touching and bittersweet.

I saw this read at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. What a touching and heartbreaking play. Without giving too much away, a risky and empathetic gesture on the part of one character leads to a sad, sweet and also funny finale. Lots of great opportunities for physicality for one lucky actress who gets to do this play.

I saw a reading of the wonderful first scene of this play. It's a great example of the kind of play I really love -- combining science with human emotion. Very theatrical and also very human. The first scene is all about family and the tug they have on our lives, and was very affecting. The feeling comes first, the science comes later. Nice work.

The tiniest thing can lead to a larger conflict -- and it does so brilliantly in this play. Besides being extremely funny, the play takes a woman eating a bowl of nuts and turns it into a statement on human behavior, and good and evil. A great play, in a nutshell.

Anxiety attacks have never been funnier. This is a wonderful little duet disguised as a monologue, showing exactly how to portray love that is real, messy and true. The romance is one anybody can relate to. In a very short time, Steven G. Martin has us falling in love with the characters even as they re-fall for each other. And it has a title that I wish I could have come up with.

I had the pleasure of seeing this play at the Westfield Playhouse in 2022. This is one of those plays I'd wish I'd thought of. It has big laughs and a big heart. It's sentimental without being cloying. I love how it anthropomorphizes the tree-topper and looks at things from her perspective. A wonderful addition to any Holiday show.

I love plays that take familiar tropes and turn them inside out. This play does that in a hilarious way. I recently saw a production of this at Fonseca Theatre in Indianapolis, and it was full of laugh-out-loud moments mixed with a light-hearted examination of why a certain wolf shows up in so many fairy tales, and what it means to be truly bad.

I saw a production of this at American Lives Theatre in Indianapolis, and oh my God the fast-paced banter in this play is brilliant and hysterical. Amy really knows how to write biting dialogue and quirky original characters. I could spend hours with these two characters.