Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

Superb title - SO YOU WANT TO CREATE A UNIVERSE? - that perfectly suggests the topic and tone of this bootcamp myth-play for a supreme deity. I love getting to know in these 10 pages playwright Heyman’s rascally theological sense of humor: eg. “none of that namby-pamby planets made of frozen glass crap.” So cool that at rise GOD is seated in a chair under a spotlight and THE ONE WHO CAME BEFORE is concealed, standing in darkness behind Them. But hey, don’t take my word for it - read what creators Sam Heyman’s created!

I love that CAKE begins with a comic and suspenseful mise en scene (one that hints at what went on before and seems to begin an action that is suspended until the finale). There’s Marty saying to Bashir, “I can knock you right back to high school, my friend!” - which adds to the slapstick anticipation and Bashir’s wonderful speech about the feeling of “dark, grey cotton balls filling up your head” that gets at the complexity of the piece, the juggling between party antics and depression.

This is outrageous good, bad, and fun! I love how Bryan Stubbles takes his time with his wild hashish time-travel premise and draws it from the needs of the characters at a family reunion, keeping the kookiness grounded in the real somehow. The dialogue tug-of-wars between generational lingo, between Vern (as Gramps back in 1955) and Joanie and Luz in 2016. VIRGINIA BEACH INCEST TIME MACHINE might have some of the audience running for the exit - which is the mark of a play that takes risks - but this I would love to see!!

This is a cool dramatic snippet in the life of Mother Jones, at 84. I’ve long known the name, but have forgotten who she was and what she stood for, and AN APPLE FOR A TELEGRAM is a concise and artful reminder. The 1917 military prison-cell interplay between the soldier Benton and Jones, the feisty labor union activist is entertaining and informative. I especially like the wording she comes up with for the (actual) telegram and the astonishing scuffle between the two characters.

A dark and short play presented as an educational film, MISS EDUCATION by Kyle Smith parodies reactionary behavioral mores for adolescents. The lecturer Joe, aka Mr. Joe, is nauseating and hypocritical in his misogynistic, anti-premarital sex tutorial spoof (a scary reveal to a thought process that’s not as unusual as it might sound at first) as he vilifies Val and hits on Jane, but the deep fun starts with Jane and Val’s post-script strategizing. Love the attack on abstinence that would have made William Blake proud! The pun in the title gets this off to a fine start.

Immersion in words. “This is you not doing the not doing of all things.” The rhythm of waves and you the channel swimmer’s thoughts. Second person narration that starts out like an accusation - they call you Champ - becomes you at a deeper level, you remembering specifically the “glass of whiskey you left behind,” then generally the struggle of generations first coming to new land. Caradad Svich’s BLUE would be pure pleasure to hear aloud while in the midst of a crowded room.

Always hated that Vince Lombardi mantra - "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" - and WE ARE CRANSTON goes after winning at all costs with Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend's devastatingly satirical wit. Maybe we all need to practice losing and as a society understand the value of not winning - otherwise, as this fine play suggests, it will all just go to hell. I love the comedic touches, the embellishments of the theme, that had me groaning while laughing on the inside. Never has the Big Game seemed like such a terrible crock thanks to this fine work.

Like most great horror DUCKASS codifies a rite of passage. An ordinary case of nerves gives way to something frightful. Dan Caffrey plays masterfully with the creature-behind-the-door trope, but it's the banter of the two sisters, Tabby and Linny, that grounds the moral universe of this play and prepares us for Sherman. So quietly and effectively Caffrey builds the tension and adds some empathy for the duckassed boy-caller - just as things are about to get hairy. I love that Sherman says about attending horror films, "I get scared kinda easy," and how that fear leads to his doom.

“The nothingness where there once was a somethingness.” Arianna Rose’s monologue LEAVING A HOLE is a gut-wrenching emotional experience. So insightful as it explores the pain of loss. Many of us, I’ll wager, have felt as Thea does here, but without being able to put it into words and it is so important to put it into words. Thank you for this sad wonderful mining of the human heart.

Sitting down to a home-cooked dinner with a pregnant wife and her time-traveling husband can be exasperating fun. I really love it that Judy by being pregnant is a keeper of linear time (for the growing being inside her) and that puts her in conflict with Mark's temporal leaps into the future and past. Maybe at the heart of Sarah Cho's fine play is how women and men regard time differently according to how they prioritize the world around us. I love that Cho changes up the pacing toward the end. Charming food-for-thought is MARRIED TO TIME.