Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

The opposite of the horror movie it playfully satirizes in the opening, GREAT HOLLOW is a subtle and potent ghost story that washes over you. I love a work where form and content feed off one another - and Clara’s long speech simulates ocean waves. Once you’ve read it, you won’t stop thinking of Blevins’ fine unsettling play - for its complex haunting tone, the sorrow, the humor, the connection to a forgotten life, for remembering what runs deep. And there's a lobster pot catching a ceiling drip on a stormy night.

If you're ever feeling a bit down, it's time for a good vampire bear story. With THE BEAR - EXIT, PURSUED BY A VAMPIRE BEAR, you get your Shakespeare, your fun, and the story behind that notorious line of stage directions. Part 6 of The Bear Series shows that Plumridge gets better and better and there's no end in sight for this treasure trove of a series.

If memory serves, from the first time I heard about Jack and Jill, I wanted more. Why were they going uphill for water? Morey Norkin has pondered over this nursery tale and added his own uproarious take. This will have any audience in stitches. And yeah, the last line of the jingle doesn't rhyme or offer much closure, but TO FETCH A PAIL OF WATER is a closer.

Turns out SEX LIVES OF CIRCUS FREAKS is the reverse circus story of a clown who wants to run away from the big top. The dressing room, post-show talk is salty and hilarious. Who doesn’t want inclusion into off-duty clowns commiserating? And I love Ginger the Clown’s / Cathleen’s breaking of the rules - symbolically and literally having outgrown her kid show. Her growing pains of wanting a family and a life of her own are palpable and balance the cynical humor of Grandma Rags/ Rebekah. Hurry hurry step right up to Floyd-Priskorn's fine stage work!

The sexy complex world Jillian Blevins creates with THE POLYCULE is incredible, mind-boggling, very very great. The conceit of combining Moliere’s aesthetics with a trip into a poly-sexual household is - Wow! The rhyming humor couples with curiosity as we move with novitiate Fern through the relationship maze. Her entry gives structure to a play that follows a group character arc. With New Relationship Energy, I fell into the fold. Blevins maps out the spheres of influence six dazzling characters have on each other. And by the flawless ending, I was thunderstruck by all I was feeling. Read this!

The remarkable and astute Daniel Prillaman excels at a wide array of dramatic genres. RIELLE AND THE OWL HUNTER is my first foray into his dark fantasyland and I devoured this full length in one sitting, something I never do. The world of the play, the elevated diction, the wit, the cool doubling effects with Sun and Moon, the Lear-like opening (only it’s the Queen in charge), the ensuing primogeniture tension between royal siblings, and a treacherous road journey all combine for an enchanting read. Swords fly and cut through the air while in the hands of women!

At last a play worth crowing about - WHY THE BANSHEE WAILS has it all - a fascinating, complex yet efficient short play I'd move mountains to see staged. Superb storytelling - from the assured non-linear time manipulation - to the use of sound (ocean cliff setting, the banshee wailing, the perfectly placed Irish folksong) - how the characters seamlessly address the audience and each other, the concluding monologue that counter-balances the opening. Even for the talented Adam Richter, WHY THE BANSHEE WAILS is outstanding work, the kind you write home about.

I love the new apartment banter between Cat and Nicky (eg. the waitressing joke or when Cat says, "Wait. Like, you knew this was her place so that's why you rented it?"). And I can totally visualize the ghost of Katharine Hepburn in this charming piece. If anybody was going to give Nicky courage, it would be Kate. Great fun.

Love what this short play says about time and the human heart. And that Brompton is kind of a time traveler. Inspiring!

I love the sudden - even for a one-minute play! - farcical turn that ROBOTS takes. Will Dad ever be the same? It would be great to witness this on stage for what I think would be a fascinating and complex audience reaction.