Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

You know how you're not supposed to favor one child over the others - there may be a similar rule about the Bear Monologues, but this one is my favorite - I think it's that Chris Plumridge manages a rather-silly but captivating peril of a shaft of sunlight moving closer across the crib - a danger that so well suits our inanimate fuzzy vampire friend! A perfect escape for reader and audience from real-life purgatory.

Let's be adult about this. There are no such things as vampire teddy bears. But who wants to be an adult? Aren't we sick of that? Don't we secretly miss our furry friend from the crib? Christopher Plumridge has come to the rescue with the Bear Monologues - and for those who feel guilt over letting your inner child have free reign - this is no ordinary bear - but a sexy vampire teddy bear. The Bear Monologues are clever, great fun, and delightfully contained within the scope of their furry hero. I imagine an audience having a blast!

Inspired by David Bowie's Space Oddity, Emily McClain takes the familiar head vs heart conundrum and stages it on a spaceship orbiting Jupiter's moon Io. The idea that Celeste and Natasha grapple over their motherhood candidacies and the future of the human race while orbiting a faraway moon is so cool like everything else about this play. How easy it becomes to put one's faith for our future in these two fine characters.

This play just nails the whole frustrated artist existence, the need to feel special somehow even though city life is wringing the humanity right out of you. It's so well written that I couldn't help living my version of Clarissa and Jasper's story as I was humming along with their mantra, THE MISFIT MANTRA. The hearts of these hardened suffering people comes through - I wish I knew them as miserable as they are - and Matt is a fascinating non-appearing character. How can a painting be a mantra? I urge you to read this fantastic play and find out!!!

In its one-minute duration, this play generates so much. So large and small at the same time, THAT KIND OF BOY warrants all the attention it's getting. So cool.

There is so much to love about TOOTH OR DARE - the tooth fairy jokes keep coming in hilarious and surprising ways. The casting for this imaginary being or "sparkling psycho" would bring so much to an already amazing script (fragile ego, amazing periodontal powers.) Don't want to say too much, but this would bring welcome comic relief to any festival. Fun fun fun.

This play is the perfect tonic for that dingy tile grout that's been getting you down. Charming, funny, and relatable, THE GROUT FAIRY must be a blast in production for both cast and audience. I love the timing of this piece, how Connie Schindewolf knows how to tease out her delightful premise, just enough. Also admire that it's Shelby's perfectionism (a by-product of vanity) that gets her into this negotiation and drives the action to its wicked conclusion. Three cheers for the GF who's outgrown his wings!

I love the early line that Mo says to the imaginary elephant, "Aren't they teaching you anything at that high school of yours?" Also the backpack with an imaginary pocket that's bigger on the inside is a very nice touch - and of course the floating bottle. This is a gentle break-up play in which Mo's fantasy life, as represented by Clancy, is the initiator and voice of reason, another very nice touch that indicates that Mo is going to be just fine.

Talk about occupational hazard! Great premise and theme - a zombie apocalypse traffic jam near L.A. seems a logical and believable extension of wildfires and plague and everything else going on. In THIS YEAR the two characters, Employee and Boss, speak by phone in a kind of spectacular deadpan, mostly numb to it all, business as usual. Greg Lam makes me wonder how locked in we all are in our various jobs and laugh at the bureaucratic ridiculousness of it all. Wonderful sense of humor. Would love to see THIS YEAR staged before it's too late for us.

Tense psychedelic situation handled masterfully. Hypocrisy abounds from trip-sitting James who salvages his fatherly dignity by knowing when to back off. Tripping Amy/Mom is spot-on hilarious (love the crying in the book/pillow). Teenager Stacy goes from the frying pan (a sleepover with too much beer and boys) to the fire (her psilocybin-tripping Mom). The irony of Stacy's situation is so funny, moving, delightfully strange - and that she handles it with such aplomb is a testimony to how much these people love each other. Prillaman proves again he's a superb dramatic poet of weird realism. And heart smart.