Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

I admire the attention to details that Ryan Kaminski puts into this short noir thriller, how the accretion of backstory and sensory data, create a languid, creepy atmosphere - as potent and thick as the extra sugar in the frozen lemonade. THE DEAL delivers with a classical 50s noir-feel. A strong female lead proves more than capable of giving the devil his due in this twisty tale.

One of the best coming-out plays you'll read, SOCK MONKEY, SERIAL KILLER is clever and heart-felt. It reminds you of a sleight-of-hand trick from a magician as it keeps you thinking about Sock Monkey on the couch and her nomenclature crisis while the real drama unfolds right before your eyes. Lee R. Lawing's diction is charming, seductive, and sincere. I look forward to reading more from this prolific playwright.

What! Wait. Let me read this again . . . Wow! The play with the long title - let's call it TALE - is incredible, enigmatic, imaginative, and imagination-invoking. In just 10 minutes Rob Dames does so much with so little - and yes, the work of Beckett does come to mind. The jokes about time are timeless. The "mis en scene" is invisible. I haven't had so much fun seeing what isn't there in a long time. TALE gets told in the telling, so read it and weep and jump for joy!

Some plays you read for craft in storytelling - the sly poetry of the spoken word, some for pure pleasure or new possibilities, some because that dream you keep having about the desert pulls you in. SSSEDONA is all of the above - a brief Kafkaesque breakup play that will resonate for a long time. The lead role (mature, philosophical Debra) is superb. SSSEDONA is as deep, majestic, and gorgeous as its red rock Arizona setting, perfectly placed and paced and yet it makes you want to keep reading long after the final word.

The minimalist horror comedy THE MESS WE MAKE does mess with you in the best possible way. With his tip-of-the-iceberg approach Michael Hagins explores a couple's nightmare where it lives, as much as anywhere, in our own imaginations. The pace is relentless, as Matthew and Lizzie manage to frighten while skewering our movie-smitten culture, for its absurdist terrors with Ionesco-like finesse. This short play's a blast. Love the golf clubs.

This short and smart noir play by Martha Patterson teases with the detective genre and then turns it on its head - as femme fatale Randy is A WOMAN IN NEED. Detective Humphrey appraises her morally and physically as if she were a dime-store mannequin and not the woman picking his pocket and then some. I guess his attempt to reform her with top-shelf whiskey is short-lived. Funny! A WOMAN IN NEED offers a plausible new twist to the Chandler universe, and I love it that the perplexed Waiter gets the final words. Here's looking at you, playwright.

IN THE JAR is hilarious, the insect version of Guardians of the Galaxy, only they're out to save themselves. The wonderful idea of 2 lightning bugs, a praying mantis, a daddy longlegs, a cricket, and a male ladybug trapped together in a glass jar is only exceeded by the confident execution of their interplay. The jokes manage to be familiar, unexpected, and perfectly timed. The verbal humor combined with the homespun special effects - I imagine - brings down about any house where IN THE JAR plays. Mark Harvey Levine is a writer's writer.

If you're feeling down over a recent loss, I can think of no better anodyne than Christine Foster's JOY RIDE. A delightful, cremation-urn tale on a plane, full of mother-daughter wisdom and wise cracks - I love the twists and turns and turbulence of this play. The sense of who these two women are arrives vividly and efficiently through the dialogue as they respond to a wicked scenario -- a plane ride, a picnic, and a memorial service rolled into one. A dark comedy that heals through humor, JOY RIDE is a must.

David Beardsley's TINY EMPTY NEST is built upon a splendid reality-show premise and its interior, the symbolic reconstruction of a marriage. NEST is furnished with charm, gentle humor (text messages with eggplant emoji), and insight. The dialogue rings true and reflects beautifully the workings of a late-phase marriage. For me, a poignant moment is when Ben describes contemplating the worst in his parked car as someone puts a flier in the windshield - as if no one were there. He might have met the fate of Willy Loman if not for his creative, assertive partner Claire!

THE WEDDING GIFT by Chisa Hutchinson is a sci-fi parable, full of wit, intrigue, and haunting resonances for us humans. This magical play functions beautifully on three levels: physical, lucid, and unintelligible (with its own language!) Both old and new, GIFT starts with the territory of Herman Melville’s Typee and forges ahead into the future, as deep and wide-ranging as anything I’ve read in a long while. First heard of THE WEDDING GIFT in Tina Howe’s interview of Chisa Hutchinson in The Dramatist and it exceeded very high expectations. A gift to the gods and us!