Recommended by Steven G. Martin

Forget the adage "Never meet your heroes." Matthew Moore proves in this short comedy that the phrase should be "Never meet your readers." Poor Helen is interrogated, insulted, and damned with faint praise throughout this short comedy, and it's laugh out loud funny.

"Two Have Clipboards" is part nightmare, part puzzle, part absurd experimental drama, and 100% theatrical and aural and visual. Credit David Hilder for creating a plot and a subplot and intertwining them and their characters so that an audience has to listen and watch and pay attention to get the references and the callbacks and implications. This feels like a Kafka/Beckett collaboration, and I love it.

A miniature whirlwind comic tour de force that especially spotlights actors and costumers. Love it and want to see it produced.

This is an excellent satiric spoof: great to read as a script, great to watch as a production on Ken Green's website. It upends supervillain/superhero clichés with its smart, emotional perspective. There is plenty of humor in this great script ("Copyright!"), but there are just as many moments to jar and jolt an audience with their frankness. Another great play by Ken Green.

I love that the tone of Brian Olsen's brisk comedy starts light and a little self-effacing: a man who's certain he's nothing but a stereotype, almost apologizing for his existence. But then we shift tone at the button, which is a brief, harsh sting of observational humor.

There's beautiful Absurdity in this short comedy: The repetition without forward advancement, the search for meaning where there is none. It's self-referential and meta, but it's also a bit of a confessional and expose. This is a different flavor of comedy and it's terrific.

I love that Ken Green's one-act play about pigeons and existential crises ultimately takes a practical view about having dreams and living one's best life versus the reality we find ourselves in. Far from somber or bleak, however, the ending of "Pigeon... Whole" is uplifting.

Evan Baughfman takes audiences on a ride with this dark comedy/industry satire/horror. I was happy for Warren writing a story that means a lot to him, angered by Barry's selfishness, frightened by the atmospheric horror, pleased at the comeuppance, and surprised by the button. Not only would audiences and actors love this short play, but so would lighting, set, and sound designers.

You have five minutes to read a play? Make it "Totality." High stakes and impossible odds. But also hope. And love, expectations, sorrow, frustration, and an understanding that the universe isn't fair. But above all, hope. All of it encapsulated in Chase D. Fowler's wonderful dramatic science fiction play.

I'm guilty of what Aly Kantor has written about in "Recall." I thought perhaps Eliza was having an existential crisis or psychological issues as she described her list of "malfunctions." Aly is masterful at presenting given circumstances that are more than what they seem, and that's the case with this short sci-fi drama. The best part? Eliza's victory will help not only herself but also others, as we see at the end.