Recommended by Steven G. Martin

With 72-year-old Ruth, Blatt has created a dominant character who knows exactly what she wants throughout this short play and will use every tactic at her disposal to get it. Whipped, manipulated Cort is constantly kept off-balance by Ruth, who deftly shifts from antagonist to predator to confessor to sage. Blatt keeps the audience off balance, too, in this terrific play.

"Or Or Or & & &" is a startling, awe-inspiring, deliriously imaginative, full-length play that blends biography, history, mythology, meta-theatre, realism, and a whole lot more to explore highly personal, ultimately intimate stories: the relationships between a man and his mother, his friends, and himself.

Minigan tells a story that showcases what theatre does best. The dialogue and setting are spare, but the audience infers the patterns and ironies of the family's journey. It's wildly theatrical and supremely well written.

Vance has written a short play that is rich with a combination of life-and-death consequences, gallows humor, earnest friendship, and contemporary issues centering on healthcare and family. The story and theme are as human as they come: Is there a limit to what friends do for one another, even if it endangers them?

In this monologue, Weaver creates a compelling character an audience can empathize with and understand -- her history and her circumstances are nicely laid out. Even better, Weaver grants the protagonist with conflicting emotions: anger, yes, but also a wish to be heard and understood by God. She is not easy to define, which makes her all the more human.

McGough's emotion-filled short play unfurls its way from sadness and grief to a bittersweet recognition. Black and Navy may not be a perfect match, but there's something positive to be said about being together.

Bultrowicz presents Absurdity as relationship & revenge drama with a comic overlay. That's what you get when the role of the antagonistic, selfish, two-timing lover is a loaf of sourdough. Or maybe pumpernickel. Or a baguette -- the casting options are broad. Credit to Bultrowicz for writing to the reality of the situation as Carol and Sophie are suitably surprised, offended, enraged, and -- ultimately -- revenged. Even more credit to the playwright for the concept. This would be fun to direct, to act, or to watch.

Kaplan's script is laugh-out-loud funny. The plot, characters and dialogue all lend to its joyous lunacy: a combination of "Let's put on a show" pluckiness, after-school special melodrama, "The Mystery of Irma Vep" theatricality, and insight into what makes drama students, their parents and teachers oh so special.

O'Grady's wonderful character in "Invisible" is a three-year-old dog named Scout, endowed with a lot of energy and playfulness. But Scout also has been subjected to the world of the unknown, pain and danger, and being careful. The world of learning, of giving in to fear.

The irony is that the audience knows what Scout is wary of, but maybe this deceptive (in the best way) play leads them to question the unknown fears that stifle their own lives.

Dias compares and contrasts the difficulties of the Syrian civil war in Return to Aleppo: the blood-pulsing chaos of leaving home at a moment's notice, the numbing bureaucracy of waiting months or longer for a new home. Dias's visual and poetic interludes between these scenes also are evocative, further revealing the emotional state of Hasti, the protagonist, who is dependent upon others for survival.