Recommended by Steven G. Martin

This short play is a beautiful nod to "Beauty and the Beast," but instead of love, it's admiration and appreciation of a person's skill, ability, and artistry at the center.

It's also the story of the unappreciated and the neglected receiving a modicum of the thanks they deserve.

Another Bultrowicz winner.

Goofy, nostalgic, funny, endearing, and theatrically presented. "Eating Crayons" is 10-minute pageant to adults remembering why they ate crayons.

I'd love to see this fully produced -- staged with all the flourishes that Bultrowicz provides in the script.

Bultrowicz has distilled 82 percent of everything horrible about humanity -- perhaps about men, to be more specific -- in nine pages. (Thank God for the tenth page to offer a sliver of hope. Mild hope, but still ...)

Funny, with references both literary and pop cultural.

Everything about Monica Cross's horror genre play "... in Refrigerators" is chilling: the opening image, the dialogue, the persona of the never-seen antagonist. Audiences will be shaken.

"Daddy is having a bad dream."

Dominica Plummer's 10-minute Halloween drama is framed perfectly in the first few moments. And from that, the tiny details - knocking, whispering, a stack of bedclothes, and more - take on gruesome undertones, and the tension couldn't be higher.

"The Olfactory Soul" includes plenty of witchcraft -- potions, spells, magic items and more -- but Sickles uses those to attract an audience to a subtler story of the heart. A story of loss, of hope.

This is an ephemeral Halloween story in which an audience will feel for both the victim and the magic caster.

McClain examines horror tropes through a contemporary lens, and audiences will nod and laugh in recognition. The details in the characters are wonderful, and actors will loving playing any of the three. This is an example of a perfect Halloween entertainment.

Absolutely shocking, horrifying, out-of-the-blue, and never expected story.

"Goldfish" begins with a very uncomfortable scenario and the tension only ebbs and flows until finally the audience realizes the trap has been sprung. And oh, what an ending image Cathro leaves the audience with.

Two words: Viking vampires.

Prillaman's play is medieval horror. It is showdown among not-equals. It is atmospheric drama -- enjoy the stage directions here. It is a power play. There is such rich, personal conflict and a sense of foreboding.

I attended a reading of "Barbarian," and Prillaman's skill shone. It will shine when you read this script, too.

Gatton shows that what a person does in a crisis reflects their true character. In "JAM," a short comedy that abruptly shifts into a tragedy, a presumed monster shows kindness, perceived antagonists transform into allies, and the tiny drama of a paper jam in office equipment is put in proper context in the drama of the larger world.

"JAM" is one of Gatton's anthology plays with ties to a tragic central event, whose effects ripple for years. Wonderful breadth of writing.