Recommended by Steven G. Martin

Lawing's short satire focuses upon a political moment and extrapolates it to an upsetting conclusion.

"beautiful places, smiling faces" is absolutely specific in its time, location, action, and backstory. This is South Carolina. This is 2020. This is Lindsey Graham and his statements that reminded people of color and immigrants they they would be welcome ... but only 'if.' But the play becomes more than all of those details as Lawing takes the next step in the extreme.

This may be the pièce de résistance of rage-and-scorn monologues.

There is something awkward and pathetic, yet endearing and ultimately heroic about Asher Wyndham's protagonist in "Fuck Buddy #2," especially in dialogue, storytelling, and costume. There is such variety in the volume, style, and texture of rage-filled images strewn forth, it's dizzying.

Yet at the core, it's the hurt that shines through -- which showcases Wyndham's great skill: creating characters an audience will understand and acknowledge. And that hurt, seemingly driven by passionate need, makes me wonder if this is the last we hear about this character.

A romantic drama filled with intellectual tension built around philosophy, identity, and mythology.

Calley N. Anderson has crafted a story about romance between these two young men, as well as a story about why romance exists and humanity's desire to be with another. It is fulfilling on many levels, and I'd very much enjoy a performance of this play that already has a wonderful production history.

Pure charm via pure characterization, and a closing line that will bring cheers.

Love cats? Hate cats? Never heard of cats? Traumatized by "Cats"? You'll love this one-minute comedy.

Political satire of the moment. Sharp, vengeful, intelligent, and unforgiving.

A play literally of the moment, of this moment -- this very day -- when a lot of people are feeling great relief and joy. And that joy is palpable for the audience, Skylar, and Tommy.

Weaver wisely notes, though, that the joy lasts only a moment, and that more must come. Four years coming up ...

I'm in awe. Devon Wade Granmo has pulled no punches.

"The Harriad" is a glorious, messy, cheeky, expansive, literate, adventurous, theatrical cacophony of an epic play. It's hot stuff that may be difficult as hell to produce, but it'd also be unforgettable theatre for audiences.

"The Harriad" bends mythology so far -- including the mythology of the Greatness of America -- that it breaks. And those broken pieces have a destiny of their own in Granmo's creation.

Just, wow.

Thank god hamsters don't have opposable thumbs in order to open their cage door. Those are angry, hungry little rodents capable of justifying all types of carnage!

(At least they are in Mark Harvey Levine's jaw-droppingly funny radio dark comedy.)

Cheers for finding pesto sauce!

Steven Strafford's "Use Your Noodles" is absolutely beguiling, especially when stratagems are abandoned and the nervous, heart-palpitatingly truth comes out. There is enough gentle humor and romance here to enchant your audience in less than 10 minutes.

Bultrowicz's "Karen Paints Koi" is unusual and existentially upsetting.

It would be thrilling to produce this play: the stunning visuals for designers, the vibrant highs and lows of Karen's crisis that a comic actress would love to play, the sheer theatricality of having a talking koi as a character, the structure and repetition of the dialogue.