Recommended by Steven G. Martin

A perfect example of dark comedy with an extreme personality ("But I’m a really persistent person") with a desperate need and the resources to get what she wants.

The audience's unease in watching Sam Collier's "The Last Tooth" builds slowly at the front but will rocket to shock and visceral disgust before Collier's protagonist gets what she wants.

Funny, disturbing, dark, funny, unforgettable, dark, and funny.

Sexy, sultry, adult, and funny. This 10-minute play for Zoom/online performance has great characters at odds with one another at the start, a fun set up and premise, and a terrific ending. The climax is spectacular, too.

I love that Debbie Lamedman's "Mind Control" adds to the trend of LGBTQIA+ plays that speak to all aspects of life, including sex.

This full-length play showcases exceptional, precise character studies that examine the intersection of maleness with age, gender and sexual identity, and culture. It also wisely knows that the five characters portrayed are just a handful of the variety of men in the world.

Alan Safier allows his characters to pass judgements on one another and what it means to be a man in "Love, Loss, & What I Drove." But even if they tease, taunt, or question one another, Safier allows all of them to shine and to show their true selves.

A drama replete with fully dimensional characters, life-changing circumstances and events, longing and questioning, and an uncertainty of what life might hold as it changes.

Dave Osmundsen doesn't expect his characters to be heroic, nor does he treat them as villains. In "The Gift of BS," Osmundsen has a clear eyed view of his characters' flaws and strengths. He sees how mentor/mentee relationships can change, how sudden loss and long-lasting ruts can equally throw a person off their confidence. And that, like it or not, there's more life to live regardless of how selfless or self-centered we are.

This unsettling drama plays solidly in the haunted house realm of stories. What especially struck me was all the waiting Rich must endure, and the tension it created.

Daniel Prillaman creates a gift for sound designers and actors in "Water Damage," which would creepily fit into any theatrical festival build around the horror genre.

This darkly comic one-act shows the demise of a man, with each poor decision he makes turning the wheels that destroy him grind faster and faster. This play is very funny, very cringe-worthy, very jaw-dropping in showing the tragedy of feeling that our lives are not enough.

I laugh at George, the protagonist in Kate Danley's "Grand Delusion" because he cannot grasp how unachievable his dreams are and how he isn't prepared to attain them. Give Danley kudos, however, as she shows why George's foolishness exists. And by understanding George, I can feel sympathy for him.

Unmitigated Ego and Gall, thy name is Social Media Influencer. Prepare to be eviscerated in this sharp, cutting one-minute comedy about contemporary love and relationships in the Age of Sharing Everything.

During a performance of "Insta-Engagement," an audience is going to taste bile in their mouths due to proximity of the Influencer character. Mark-Eugene Garcia comically and darkly shows how dramatically an ego spins out of control when it tries to spin the truth to its own perspective.

This one-minute play is seriously funny and scathing and cringe-worthy. There are Olympic levels of delusional self-centeredness. It's wonderful.

This is a wonderful relationship drama filled with insight, irony, and enough skillful storytelling that audience knows what the future will hold for the protagonists.

Cheryl Davis deserves kudos for so much in "Peace Through Understanding," including the irony of naming her characters Dick and Jane and setting the play at the 1964 World's Fair. Davis also adds enough details in dialogue that we understand the characters and their desires ... and the tension of the dramatic irony only increases with each line of dialogue.

"Peace Through Understanding" may be short, but it is substantial and full of wonder.

Not only is the concept of this 10-minute comedy very dark, but the execution is very snide and sour. This is the dark comedy that will pucker your mouth and sting your inner cheek.

Cindi Sansome-Braff crafts a view of dying that is ironic and snarky. We get a brief view of Chris's history, the Everyperson Protagonist, but "The Menu" is about choices to be made in the immediate present and their future implications.

"The Menu" is an unrelenting play that is going to be different than anything else produced in a short play festival; oh, will it stand out.

This intense short play dramatizes a literal change of fortune between two men in a back alley. From the first line to the last, this play is filled with conflict and anger that only grows stronger. It's nerve-wracking, and every moment feels like the next step to an inevitable car crash.

Stolnack provides very pointed clues that helps the audience recognize the characters and their backstories. There is also is marvelous use of threat, intimidation, and physical response that leads to the change of fortune.

Intense, but also impactful as I wondered what happens tomorrow morning to these characters.