Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

The arresting title brought me to this piece. With FRANCE IS BACON, Julie Zaffarano demonstrates how to integrate an activity with dialogue. The attention to detail in jumping the battery of a truck while learning about Harper, Dad, and an unseen character is extremely well-handed. I happened to read this play while listening to the recording of a thunderstorm and that added to the enjoyment. A heartfelt and knowing play with a perfect title.

QUARANTINED WITH HUMAN is so cute and coincides (ironically) with stories a friend at work has been telling about her cat. I love the cat’s name and the potential for delightful casting. A very funny furry piece.

More harrowing for its quotidian nature than the excesses of genre horror. THE LAST DATE is intrinsic to our lives. Mind manipulation, psychic identity theft, gaslighting - all seem more prevalent these days. And that Alyssa fights free subtly reinforces that she might not have. In particular, I love the way EGS handles the spilt wine, the fourth-wall dynamic, and that the play would seamlessly move into a talkback. A comparison with “The Pain of My Belligerence” by Halley Feiffer comes to mind, but this is briefer and more honestly human in its outrage.

STINKY GIRLS defies expectations. It’s a short horror without a traditional conflict. An antagonist, a plot. With a keen sense of the theatrical, of the stage’s unique possibilities—Playwright Kelsey Sullivan finds other ways to fascinate. Escalating disturbing weirdness from its two twisted characters. On the page, It feels like performance art. Dada. The rule-breaking is liberating, the laughter simultaneously excludes and invites. Check it out. I wish there were more playwrights that take this kind of risk.

Genuinely creepy, PINK MOSCATO combines the psychological feel, the baby steps toward doom, of Poe’s Cask of Amontillado with the immediacy of a true-crime revelation in today’s paper. I love Fortune’s line - “It’s all brick and grody.” And that - despite ominous signals! - she’s able to talk herself out of ever feeling in danger. The idea of a Pink Moscato vending machine is inspired (Pink Moscato and Amontillado rhyme, have the same amount of syllables, a similar musicality.) Read this. Prillaman does justice to an all-time favorite and Poe’s most modern story.

An elderly couple have a scare while walking the beach before sunrise in Cape May. I admire the increasing tension in this slow-burning thriller, THE ENVIRONMENTALIST, by Andrea Lynn Green. There’s a kind of implied ageism as Erda, a young German woman, talks down to them with cold assurance. After all, they’re a couple of elderly tourists and should not trust their own eyes. Erda’s invitation for blueberry pancakes to Lt. Norris is particularly chilling. What I admire most about this piece is the infusion of menacing details and implied violence that create an atmosphere of dread.

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Or not. REWIND by Morey Norkin comes across just fine, with a mood that evokes an eerie and often humorous nostalgia - as Charlie comes in from the cold and inadvertently time-travels to the distant days of video stores. I kept laughing at the name Cluckfuster Video, imagining an actor tripping up with the word’s obscene anagram. This short play is big fun for movie buffs. It also provides food (popcorn? Junior Mints? Milk Duds? ) for thought.

What a pivot! I KNEW IT! begins with a filthy tirade from Francesco lambasting Jodilyn, as if she has rehearsed for this moment all of her married life (and maybe she has). It is so rare to read a play that functions so well with exciting diction that includes words like “ravenous sex-aardvark” and “tantric clitoral supernova.” Once all is revealed, the story shifts perfectly in tone as Francesca - with trenchant insight into the unique world of rock-star wives - consoles the younger woman. Bravo Scott! This is a world I was happy to be clued into.

For some New Year’s Eve is one of the saddest nights of the year. Ask Marie and Mary trapped for one hundred years in the Edward Hopper painting “Chop Suey.” Inspired by this colorful and intriguing painting, Lee Lawing creates a magical conversation between two women, doppelgängers sitting at a table where everything and nothing are at stake. A favorite moment for me is when Marie screams upon learning the waitress’s name.

HEIST is a hilarious and disarming jewel caper that will keep you chuckling for hours. I love the way LDF handles a third character, Marianne, only seen by the thieves BILLY THE KID and GENE WILDER. That their thief names are so discongruous is a hoot, as well as their lack of resolve. The whole good thief / bad thief argument is inspired, especially the line: “The energy you’re exuding is very ‘bad thief.’” I can see two actors having a blast with this one. And it would be a delight for audiences of all ages.