Recommended by Steven G. Martin

There is no heroic victory, pulled from the jaws of defeat -- this is a much more humane view of people addressing their limitations.

Credit Asher Wyndham for again creating an empathetic character impacted by surroundings and circumstances. Phil is one of the working poor, overlooked on a daily basis because of what he doesn't have. But he loves his son, he's protective and nurturing, he knows others try to diminish him -- he's smart, he's emotional. This is another winning monologue by Wyndham.

You're 40, you're drinking alone in a bar, you're looking back at your life and your accomplishments and disappointments. And to top it off, you're Mr. Microphone of "Hey good looking, we'll be back to pick you up later!" manufactured-by-Ronco fame.

There's dark humor and goofy realizations, but what's especially impressive with this monologue is that Lawing mines so much emotion. He shows a genuine empathy for the discarded, the forgotten with this surprising script.

There is an overarching grace to "Utopia Found" with the scenario, the characterizations, the dialogue. This short play feels all about resolutions, but playwright Matthew Weaver provides us enough reminders as to the original conflict. Well written, well paced. A warm embrace of a play.

This is a chilling historic play based on fact. The structure and focus are strong. Allen clearly outlines what happened in 1919 during the Newport sex scandal involving enlisted men in the Navy. More importantly he underscores the human impact of the plan to root out gay men from the Navy: callous treatment of young men who obeyed orders to be patriotic, the diminishing of the soul, and strain placed on lives that -- in 1919 -- were criminal, secretive and targets for the self-righteous. Very well done.

Everything Calley Anderson sets up in "Trick or Treat?" -- characters, time and location, props and action -- is absolutely essential to telling this story. And the ending is chilling.

Sometimes we cannot face the world for any number of reasons. Steven Hayet understands this truth. Sometimes what we need from friends isn't advice or strategies, but understanding and camaraderie. Hayet understands this truth, too. "Dinosaur" is a concise, short play that show those truths on stage.

With "BOB: A Life in 5 Acts," Peter Sinn Nachtrieb has written an epic, theatrical exploration of the American character -- complete with victories and setbacks and further setbacks, disillusionment, reversals of fortune, and acceptance. It's like a tall tale or other legendary story with its huge themes, grand scope, and intimate moments. Find it -- like I did -- on Dramatists Play Service. Read it, produce it.

This is the best of McBurnette-Andronicos's plays to date, which says a lot.

Her world building is crafted through personal research and investigation of location, time and mores. All her characters are women with agendas, weaknesses and strengths whose own decisions ultimately help them reach -- or not reach -- their goals.

What sets "The Hall of Final Ruin" apart is Doña Sebastiana -- Death herself -- in the cast. This wall-breaking, all-knowing and all-present character brings humor and theatricality, and opens up the play to themes of legacy, well-led lives and deaths, and redemption.

Highly recommended.

How do you tear at an audience's heartstrings?

If you're Ian August, you confine Paul -- the protagonist of your one-man, one-act "Brisé" -- to a single action in a single setting, not only suggesting that the options for his life are becoming limited due to dementia, but also to return to the highly detailed central motifs of Paul's love of music and dance, and his relationships to his lover and his mother. We watch Paul's decline through these patterns and, because we have known him at his most vibrant, we're emotionally torn because we understand what he has lost.