Recommended by Charles Scott Jones

Initially attracted to “meet you at the Galaxy Diner” because of the title but ended up feeling so connected to the space that AG and Bill create between NYC and Alaska - there's large small-talk and lovely line breaks (Shit. / I had a. / Huge crush on her.), carefully woven-in suicidal tendencies, AG’s funny poignant job interview, Bill’s theory of sadness, stage directions (as in the stars that freckle the air), alien sci-fantasy, awkward hilarity, virtual/real interplay, the slow wonderful build. I love so many things about Gina Femia's Galaxy play and didn't want it to end. Thanks!

Emma Goldman-Sherman’s pitch-perfect VANITY feels shocking and inevitable and omnipresent as the deepest of myths. Older sister Fran likes to catch her reflection in things to prove she exists. She is edged out of the vanity by younger sister Cali who rehearses a future where she will be seen as normal. The ensuing sorrocide with a scissors is a stab to our collective conscience – and that it merely offends their father Stu’s sense of propriety makes it all the more powerful. A haunting expressionistic portrait of two sisters and a mirror. Love this play!

BIRDSEED defies the convention of the overly-focussed, simplistic short play and instead offers a rich three-way character interaction that resonates. I love the thematic tension between planning and spontaneity and how even the structure reflects that tension. Yeah, feed the birds!

Really love this demon play for its wonderfully melancholy tone. It's the rare stage play that I hurried back to read a second time for the pleasure of rereading the breathtaking details and the skill with which two characters build the story together - a connection supersedes conflict. The "I could hear everything" monologue that precedes the demon filled me with Lovecraftian awe. I have the sense of having seen this play staged somewhere at the periphery of wild imagination.

What I really admire about APOLOGIES TO LORRAINE HANSBERRY is how generously Rachel Lynett writes so as to invite the performers to be creators in our national conversation about Blackness. I would love to see more than one performance because each would be a unique work of art. For me, Lynett belongs with the playwriting tradition that begins with Adrienne Kennedy, which is no apology, but very high praise.

Ken Preuss has the knack of having fun with what's deadly serious. "Science Friction" plays with the Platonic nightmare of pop-mimetic realities competing with and replacing our beleaguered non-fictional lives. It's a blast and a thinker all in one - whether you're a sci-fi fan or not. I highly recommend "Science Friction." Read it before it's too late for all of us . . .

LAST CALL rings true--and this from someone who's been on both sides of the bar at closing time. Underneath the atmosphere of bar banter and tricks is weariness and yearning and desperation of three characters fixed in time--dying to live while living to die. Beautifully done.

With his marvelous CHIP HEAD, Jim Moss pulls off something very difficult--a perfect balance between dialogue and stage directions. This ten-minute play features hacker jargon that verges on the poetic and sight gags that seem beautifully lifted from the silent film era. Moss adeptly juggles tragedy and comedy with efficiency and verve and there's a Vonnegut reference to boot. Highly recommend CHIP HEAD.