Recommended by Emily Hageman

A bizarre and funny and very accurate portrayal of folks in the Midwest under very strange circumstances. The large cast is nice and would play well with young audiences, as well as community theatres looking to involve a large ground of people. The premise is wholly unique and delightful with each turn of the page. Everyone gets something important to do, the characters are varied and each funny in their own way, and the end is an absolute weird delight. I did not see that twist coming--and an actor would have a heyday pulling that off!

"Phantom Pain" is fearless and beautiful and sad and deep. Lhota perfectly captures four women struggling with demons that they rarely comes into the light. Discrimination, racism, fear, lies--it all comes to the surface and what the women discover about each other throughout the course of the night is powerful and undefinable. Just like in life, there are no good guys and no bad guys--only those who lurk in our past and terrorize us. There are no neatly tied loose ends--and there shouldn't be. Lhota doesn't necessarily leave us with hope, but maybe someday it'll be easier.

Monty-Pythonesque? You bet your behind. If you don't read this play in a British accent in your head (or maybe out loud), you are missing out. It's delightfully weird and absurd and I desperately want to see it staged. Some people will go "what did I just see?" Others will die laughing. I would die laughing. And of course the end where the cycle continues. A very funny, very strange little comedy that would be a memorable addition to any short play festival. And I just love the title. Wanna get weird? Read this play.

What a fun read. The characters jump off the page in all of their funny, real glory. The dialogue is hilarious, but there is so much more to this play than just humor. It is heartfelt and tender and beautiful and in-your-face and just too much fun. This is a play that would fill seats and please anyone who saw it. It's entertaining and it manages to be incredibly important at the same time. Each character is carefully fully fleshed out (I particularly loved Mx and Sharia) and they bounce off of each other. Wonderful play.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a lovely, funny, sassy, and faithful adaptation of the original Wizard of Oz. With elements from the movie and the book, audience members and performers alike will get swept away with this play. The puppetry involved offers some cool options for designers and the audience involvement increases the show's charm. Plenty of great roles for young actors and actresses that allow them to show true emotion as well as work on their comedy chops. I especially liked the delightfully dumb (but sweet) Scarecrow and the tender Tin Man. A great choice for young performers!

Extremely adorable and funny with laughs on every single page, Vansant has taken a fairy tale and put her own hilarious and sweet spin on it. I absolutely LOVE that she paints Jack as possibly being on the autism spectrum, but WOW, he may be one of my favorite protagonists I've ever seen in a TYA plays. High schoolers would love this play because it's genuinely hilarious with one line zingers that had me laughing out loud, but more than that, it's thoughtful and sincere and has a FANTASTIC message--being different can be your greatest power. Highly recommended.

I absolutely adore this play. I know for a fact that high schoolers would LOVE this play, and not just because it's cute and funny and sweet (and it is all those things). But beyond the "aww" factor, there is a beautiful message--and that message is that being beautiful and "cool" isn't really all that important. You can have feelings for whoever you want to. Extremely funny and tender, Weaver hits all the right notes as always. And that last line may be one of my favorites in any YA play I've ever read or seen.

An absolutely stunning play. I am in awe. It's beautiful and terrible and so incredibly human but there's magic and marvel and fear and anger and so many times I was in disbelief but other times I believed it so much that I couldn't bear it. Gorgeous. This play needs to be performed everywhere as soon as possible. It speaks so powerfully about death and loss and heartbreak and the twist, oh the twist, is so unlike anything I've ever read. This play will live in my heart for a long, long time. I cannot recommend it enough.

A truly beautiful piece of art. Gonzalez has carefully and respectfully rendered two people who have known dark places. We don't know much about either of them, but we know everything--everything that we need to know. There is such a gorgeous simplicity to this piece, but there is such incredible depth. I can see this piece really reaching someone in a dark place because it is honest and gentle, but it is also challenging. An important piece with an important message. I am so pleased that this will be staged for "A Light in Dark Places." Highly recommended.

This is an absolutely magnificent play, one of the best I've read in recent memory. It absolutely smolders with biting satire--and it is never fully funny nor is it ever fully horrifying, no, Jost has created something that falls into an unsettling crack in between. The scenes between Betsy and Tiara are jarringly real and each scene where Betsy is questioned is masterfully crafted. I want to see this show, not only for the performers, but for the audience. I want to watch them laugh and squirm and feel good and bad all in one moment. Extremely highly recommended.