Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

Deep, stunning, morbid, hilarious, philosophical, light, innovative, courageous - these are some of the adjectives that come to mind just after reading CHICKEN IS CONDEMNED TO BE FREE, a play that does so much it makes your head spin - and then come off in sympathy for the characters Astrid and Oren, a couple of beheaded fowl who spend their last moments with us. I think what I appreciate most of all is that Jesse Jae Hoon at mid-play gives us the Sartre quote that contains the play's germ idea and makes possible the delightful paradoxical conclusion. Magnificent inspiring work!

With her short history play GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR, Martha Patterson has given us a much-needed window into the life of Marie-Therese Walter - mistress and muse of Pablo Picasso. I love the irony of the title, Marie's wondering about how transfigured her appearance is on the canvas, and how deftly Patterson evokes the painter's cold heart. The playwright makes her case powerfully with a straight-forward and plausible presentation of what went down from Marie's perspective. Words spoken 90 years ago, Picasso's promise to make Marie "remembered for centuries" comes across as hollow compensation. Important work!

I read this stage adaptation of a H H Munro (Saki) short story because it had been a while since reading Saki and rediscovered how wicked he is - thanks to this skillful rendering by Scott Sickles. THE STORY-TELLER reminds us how compelling a story told from the stage can be and how readily we become children again in the thrall of a gifted storyteller. The adaptor has a fine touch for omitting unnecessary exposition and for clearing away Edwardian cobwebs. Like the children I got pulled in by the Bachelor describing his story's heroine as "horribly good." Thanks Scott!

Wonderfully theatrical and the most creative use of a bare stage imaginable. I love that ENVISION doesn't involve the physical world and takes place within a meditation. (By the way the "Inception" reference is well-timed and helpful to the journey.) The interplay between the 3 characters is well-executed and it would be great to see this play with different sets of actors. The casting is open and each would bring so much. A favorite line is: "Well, I don't know this is my first time." My first time with a Molly Wagner play and it's my happy place. Inspired work!

I love it when the title of the play isn't just a subject label but an important element that interacts with the action and suggests a theme. BE THAT AS IT MAY by Andrew Martineau satirizes the theatrical process as mimesis, or what might be true - or how life and art interface with one another. A student wants to know from a professor why he gave her an "F" in Economics 101 while he's standing on a "hypothetical" ledge about to plunge to his death all while not believing her excuse for underperforming. An existential Möbius strip!

Social comedies like PALAK PANEER strike the funny bone because they're mostly true to life, just zanier. We recognize an off-kilter world - mature women like (loud) Myrtle and (less loud) Sydelle who want to trade intimate details of their bodily functions and a young couple Joe and Diane who start their lovemaking in public. J Lois Diamond demonstrates she knows well how to make you wince and crow with laughter at the same time, doubling the fun. I just finished the novel Infinite Jest and this play made me feel like it's a kindred naughty spirit. Big fun.

It's so cool to come across a play like AFFAIRS that has such a strong historical precedent. Vivienne - as a descendent of the wily and manipulative courtesan championed by the ancient Roman comedy-writer Plautus - is hilariously always in control from the moment Helen enters her flat. I love the physical comedy of Vivienne sidestepping the blow from Helen and pulling her inside - as someone who's evaded the blow of a wronged wife a thousand times. It's also great that as she's finishing destroying Helen, Vivienne is making the bed and preparing for her next appointment. Outstanding job!

How are you supposed to feel in a situation like this? A son waits ten years for the execution of his father's killer, only to discover once it's done there's no cause for a celebration. Ryan Kaminski's THE SENTENCE is unusually moving - given the length of the play and the complex subject - because of the deft and poignant brushstrokes the playwright brings to the canvas. His theme speaks to these troubled times of ours in which people increasingly can't see any other POV than their own and double-down for revenge. I love that the resolution is generational!

In the dry and sweet comedy FOR A MAN YOUR AGE, Michael and Will talk coffee but age like fine wine. An elevator not working alters the Saturday morning of a long married couple and precipitates a conversation about getting old. Will is at ease with his years and quotes Robert Browning and Michael, still in the thrall of youthful thinking, counters with Dylan Thomas. With this erudite, smile-inducing two-hander, Donald E. Baker offers us a warm vista into a condo window on the fourteenth floor that reminds me of cognac swirling in a snifter. And to take my pills.

A delightfully reminiscent fantasy that imagines an actual plane ride that Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt took together in 1933. (Both historical figures are inspirational and deserve far more attention than they receive these days.) Arianna Rose's dialogue is full of charm and makes you wish you were on that plane, as they relive their JOY RIDE. At rise, I like Amelia's chiding the audience about fixating on one day when there were so many - and her statement: "My seat at the table is the sky." It's uplifting - a giddy flight - to experience these fine women together.