Recommended by Steven G. Martin

Carabatsos must have siblings. She strikes all the right chords of a relationship between sister and brother: shared memories from decades previous, brutal honesty and judgement of each other's lives in the spirit of familial love, jealousy, and shorthand dialogue to cause pain or create camaraderie. The strength of this play lies in the careful details Carabatsos provides to create two willful characters in a nod-your-head-in-recognition relationship.

"Truth." is open, honest, and potentially heartbreaking.

The world of "Truth." begins balanced as Femia creates such ease between Lily and Rosie through dialogue and action. Then new information is shared from one side, then more, and more ... until Lily and Rosie are off-balance because their relationship has shifted.

I had the pleasure of attending a staged reading of "Second Death of a Mad Wife" May 14, 2019, at Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette in Lafayette, Indiana.

The script showcases McBurnette-Andronicos' exceptional skills at world building through her research into historic personalities and events; establishing a claustrophobic, uneasy atmosphere; and creating a character-driven mystery that doesn't offer pat answers. I look forward to attending a full production of this play -- it offers a complicated and satisfying night of theatre.

This drama about a family caught in the midst of the opioid addiction epidemic pulses with theatricality -- multiple overlapping narratives, time jumps, direct address, non-fiction reportage, situational and character irony, the use of movement -- that culminates with a harrowing image of people left agonizing with doubt, guilt, grief, anger, questions, and pain.

There are no pat solutions, only more questions, which makes Goldman-Sherman's play more harrowing and nearly unbearable. Unforgettable theatre.

This wonderful short play sets three characters who desperately need one another on a collision course. "Angel of Hope" is a play about the journey -- an audience may guess what the ending will be, but they also will feel compelled by the actresses playing Clarissa, Teebo, and Hope to find out how the ending comes about.

Tanuja Devi Jagernauth treats audiences and actresses alike to eye-bulging theatricality with her short play "Skin." There's gallows humor a-plenty mixed with a strong dose of fight choreography and symbolism. Yet the family's power dynamic, the foundation for Jagernauth's marvelous action & characters, makes it wholly relatable for audiences.

Carbajal immediately sets up the world, the conflict and the rules of how the play will run -- all of which the audience recognizes and accepts within seconds -- he quickly provides insights into character, and he follows through a strong beginning and middle with the inevitable end. This one-minute play excels at everything that makes theatre exceptional.

People memorialized after horrific incidents are more than just a name and photo. Carnes' stark, two-minute docudrama is a reminder that lists of victims' names include neighbors, parents, lovers, siblings, children, friends, and others whom people cared about.

Among the strengths of Donnelly's sort play "Go Knights!" is the honest characterization of a person who doesn't respond well to disappointment, who lashes out at loved ones, who suggests unforgivable things, and whose go-to setting in an emotional crisis is selfishness. They can't all be heroes, and Julie Van Beek's responses are human.

Credit, too, to Donnelly for using action -- selecting music & dancing to it, specifically -- to further define character and bring the crisis to a (momentary?) resolution.

Among other strengths, Sickles' short play "Outpost" is terrific at telling a story through scope. The story begins at the deepest and widest of perspectives -- on the fringes of the Milky Way galaxy -- and then re-focuses to tell a very intimate story.