Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

Beyond the tension of Charlie introducing girlfriend Lucy to his uptight mother is a wonderful secondary tension (Rupert’s) and a tertiary tension (Amelia’s) that turn the tables. Maybe SHOULDN’T is extra fun if your name happens to be Charles (like mine) but I suspect its a blast for anyone who has experienced reactionary parenting or old-school bullying. Rachel Feeny-Williams’ eventful play moves quickly and believably toward its delightful finish!

A short play that makes you think as you laugh about the premise of Beauty and the Beast. Why does Belle have to learn the lesson that should have been the Beast’s? What is the true motive of the Beggar Woman - Enchantress who transforms the Prince? These are the fascinating questions Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend explores in her hilarious and cogent spoof. BEAST made me excited to see the Disney animated version again ("it's Delicious, ask the Dishes") and I'm still thinking about LDF's Beast and Uglier Beast and chuckling to myself. Small wonder we're all crazy!

Yes, thanks to a music app, I was able to read this monologue while listening to Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat minor/D-flat major, Op. 31 - and what enormous erudite elation to imagine George Sand posing in her "masculine mask" and delivering rhyming couplets while 84-year old Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun paints her portrait. UN-SELFPORTRAIT is an amazing feat of literary entertainment. Kenneth Kurtz uses language and music to create a moment in the past (1839) and a small Parisian world with amusement that tickles the brain and inspires one to go out in search of a George Sand novel. Wonderful!

This mother's nightmare has the communal power and anguish of Greek tragedy and yet it's a modern "Spring Break" play. Events have already happened, in 1995, but the seamless construction, the choral-like overlapping of scenes make TOUCH THE MOON seem to be happening in perpetuity. From Nebraska, Miranda has never seen the ocean, a detail that brings home how youthful and innocent she is. I love how events all swirl beneath the all-knowing, ever-present moon, and that the ghost of Miranda guides the play to its heart-breaking, tragic, inevitable conclusion. Beautifully constructed, very powerful work!!

Hilarious, disturbing, Edwardian, weird - the great fun is not knowing quite how to react, wondering how Mr. Prillaman reacted, and somehow always feeling on the periphery, a foot in the door of an inside joke. DANIEL PRILLAMAN REALLY LIKES KITTENS is the uncanny celebration of something - maybe it's how we've come to appreciate ourselves as playwrights on NPX, that we are celebrities to each other and this is to be cherished as I do this play.

What goes around comes around. Especially in space. Especially for Harold and Julia who try to save the fate of humanity while on a spaceship arguing about the bullying Julia gave Harold in grade school. YOU DON't OWN MY SOUL ANYMORE is inspired absurdism - and the undercurrent of emotion rings true as our heroes negotiate with their damaged past. Will they move on in time to save the day? Entertaining and strangely therapeutic in a way that plays about bullying seldom are. Excellent work!

I love how MONSTER UNDER THE BED progresses. Starts with Dad in total disbelief, making a show of checking under the bed and getting more and more involved (with what started out as a figment of his overly sensitive child's imagination). Adam Richter has written a very endearing monologue about a father confronting his own demon(s) for the sake of his son Avery. The stage directions couple perfectly with the spoken word and the finish is very strong. Really nice work!

The truly great thing about THE CLOSET DOOR - Sam Heyman's 3-character intensely dramatic play about coming out - is just how claustrophobic and literally closet-like it feels - the dorm room parameters and closeness of college life - the smothering feeling of Jessica's categorizing prattle, Brett's feeling of being watched, Chip's inability to fend off helpful Jessica - all this adds to the enormous relief when Brett throws caution to the wind!

Except for the title TO THE MOON! - this efficient and witty short play would seem to have nothing to do with Ralph Kramden and The Honeymooners. Yet it does forewarn of a future difficult marriage, as astronauts Maria and Allison probe contest winner Joe on their lunar trip. Feriend's comedic timing is outstanding in this piece (not a wasted word or false motion). And I love Joe's three reasons for not liking the moon. The dry humor of the astronauts as they suss out Joe's character achieves something rare, bemused sympathy for Bethany, a character who never appears!

A short history play for a short presidency that educates as it entertains. I appreciate the insight that it's not the amount of days someone serves but the overall effect of one's service. In light of today's more complicated transitioning of power, Steven Hayet gives us an example of how our democracy ought to work and how it once did after the death of WHH. The humor is a delightful skewering of our modern propensity for measuring a legacy in days and makes me wish for more president plays from Mr. Hayet.