Recommended by Steven G. Martin

This is one of the strongest, short, comic plays about extended isolation, extended pandemics. Read it, produce it.

"A Home Bar Means You're Fine" beautifully captures much of the dull, chaotic, inconsistent, ridiculous, funny, and disconnected reality facing people in extended isolation during a pandemic.

Jayne Deely uses repetition to strip away the façade of forced conviviality, to showcase ridiculous claims, to create an atmosphere that wears on a person and seems will never dissipate.

"A Home Bar Means You're Fine" is insightful theater. It deserves a rich, varied production history.

An exceptional play. Characters, dialogue, story, plot, action, and visuals. All exceptional.

There is much to love about DC Cathro's short romantic drama "Orange." It is sensual, yes. It has a protagonist who is affected by Autism, yes, and that diversity is important. It has stunning language, yes, especially the final monologue.

But what I love most is that "Orange" is about a character who wants so much to be heard, to be understood, to have someone nod in recognition. And Cathro provides him with that ability. There's nothing more wonderful than that ... to be understood.

Screw corporate, indeed.

DC Cathro creates a 10-minute comedy whose humor all lies in its unique situation. This isn't a one-note play, however. There are notes of family pride and family ties, and a streak of feel-good emotion as Bryan and Karli consider doing the right thing. And there's just enough fun speculation at the end -- how will this couple "Ocean's Eleven" their goal?

"The Origin of the Bob's Big Boy Triplets" is a feel-good comedy about family, burglary, and dealing with the unexpected.

Two men grasp for normalcy in one of the most unusual times of all.

"No Right Time" is a highly emotional play for virtual performance. Jackie Martin keeps Kevin's and David's emotions mostly in check, as they must grapple with the reality of the situation. The dialogue is also spare but filled with plenty of subtext and inferences for audiences to understand.

I shivered, I teared up. There are no throwaway lines in this script, and "Just in case" felt like a battering ram against my heart.

Produce this wonderful play again and again.

Erotic, playful, perhaps a little embarrassing, and definitely funny, and what isn't said makes for the perfect punchline of this one-minute play.

DC Cathro's comedy "Saying It" had a marvelous performance during the 2nd Annual Washington, DC One-Minute Play Festival. (A supporting video link and a time cue is part of its NPX page.) The timing, the rhythm, the nuance that the actors and director brought to the script raise it even higher.

One minute, and a key part of this relationship has been exposed. Now what? Fine storytelling.

There are horror reveals by sudden scare and horror reveals by slow burn. DC Cathro's "Spirited" nicely finds itself in the latter, more interesting (to me) category. I love that by taking the slow burn approach, Cathro allows an audience to hear one part of a story and watch its effects simultaneously.

And yet for all the horror imagery in this 10-minute play -- poor Fred! -- there is a lot of humor built into the situation, especially Anne's frustration with the toy store staff. And yes, the descriptions of the birthday party.

"Spirited" is scary, funny, goosebumperly good.

What the hell have Laura and Lynch stumbled upon in the woods of West Virginia? Or, perhaps, what has stumbled upon them?

DC Cathro knows that it's more fun not to give those answers to the audience -- the tension in "Unbelievable" is ratcheted tighter by each passing second. And it's not just all talk, either. There also are very frightening images and action intertwined into this 10-minute sci-fi, horror play.

Something bad has happened in this world, and not everyone is going to survive. Thanks for the warning shot, DC Cathro.

May we all find that person who wants as much for us as Glynn wants for Cam in this 10-minute romantic play.

DC Cathro creates such a strong structure for "Untitled Play That We Promise is Really Good" -- request and denial, repeated again and again until there's a emotional bump, and new information comes along ... and that's when it felt to me that the play bloomed into this loving, open-hearted flower of a play.

And then the final line caps the story so beautifully, and oh so satisfyingly.

Absolute comic chaos, plotted to within a centimeter of its glorious, 10-minute life. It also offers a thoughtful, yet sarcastic, view of humanity.

John Busser's "The Fast and the Führer-Less" is action-packed with lots of twists and turns, power struggles, and general disgust for human whims and desires. I'm not sure much more could be added to this very funny, honestly thoughtful play -- especially after the playful shenanigans surrounding the surprise guest.

"The Fast and the Führer-Less" is classic Busser: a cockeyed look at a world going askew. Produce it. Your actors, audiences will love it.

We've all got a Satan on our shoulders. Who knew he was so adept at dramatic irony?

John Mabey's one-page farce "failing at a 1-page play festival" plays to a lot of writers' dreams and fears and disappointments. Remarkably, within a single page, an audience or reader will, indeed, develop sympathy for the Devil -- a great feat of conciseness and ever-focused forward movement by Mabey.

Watch out for that other shoe to drop, though. It's a doozy, and well earned. This is a marvelous one-page treat!