Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

Heartwarming, bone-tickling, penguinesque! - POLAR OPPOSITES in just a few pages covers a lot of monogamous territory that rings so true for more than one species. I love how the tuxedo strategy would allow the audience to visualize Man and Woman as penguins until they become penguins. Also love so many of the marital jokes (anchovies and all). Priskorn’s profound little play would be a must-see at any festival.

Fantastic one minute play, DO NOT BEND is. If only marriage counselors would work such brilliant and efficient magic as Christine Foster’s play does, the world would be so much happier!

Gabe’s facts of the future and Sol’s Stay or Go responses make this metaphysical thought-piece wryly compelling and draws the reader irreversibly into HOLD MY WINGS. Foster once more wields her great satiric touch into human nature. I too enjoyed the pause over Mamma Mia!

Yeah! So much with so few words. The best super short plays like Adam Richter's CONVERSATION leave the feeling that nothing is left out. Inspiring work!

A well-handled plot twist makes you hurry back to read a piece a second time. THREAT LEVEL: CREAM is a magician’s trick of a short play. With Kara and Rusty’s banter over an abandoned gallon of milk on a metro car, John Bavosa leads us down a path that ridicules safety measures - how many times do our regulatory-inspired worries come to nothing? This delightful play gets you right where it hurts with a dairy surprise lingering in your mouth. Fine satiric work!

So funny and exciting because DC Cathro has created something new to be horrified by! I love the satiric element of BIG BLACK GIRAFFE, how our jaded, news-binging society has seen it all and can’t take anything seriously unless it’s . . . . . . . For its restless absurdist tension and the cool eye in the window, this GIRAFFE would be hilarious to see staged.

An effective revenge drama with a creative writing teacher at the helm! In TEACHING A LESSON, Debra A. Cole gives us an exhilarating reversal of the adage that those who can’t do teach.

At the heart of MARIANAS TRENCH is a yearning for connection. Love how Scott Sickles handles the correspondence of pre-adolescent heroes Teddy and Anzor (redactions and all!). The old-school epistolatory dimension in this alt-future drama is clever as hell - and gives the action a rich narrative layering. From the depths of their isolation, these two endearing characters combine imaginations to go deeper - ah the clownfish, moon jellies, Humboldt squid! - to the bottom of the ocean. I love this marvelous play for its wisdom and beauty - would love to see it staged for the light design alone!!!!

Perfect for baseball season, SEVENTH INNING STRETCH is about a shame memory that will live inside Max forever (in Jumbotron) - but with the help of older sis Brenda and best bud Stuart, he’ll maybe laugh it off as the years go by and the YouTube views fade. Paul Donnelly explores this very real premise with pathos, patience, and pizazz, and it’s just possible Max will have learned something about love and love lost during a ballgame. The first page pulls the reader in very effectively and I love the well-timed silences. Three cheers from the Peanut Gallery!

Here it is — all you need for great fun !- three bickering cows (black and white Friesians), a vain brown Jersey cow, a cat violinist, a laughing dog - and we get the riotous backstory for a cow jumping over the moon! Full of barnyard jokes - a fav is that cows search with Moogle - Chris Plumridge’s COWS ’N’ MOON would be a blast to behold on the stage for all ages.