Recommended by Steven G. Martin

Claire has been pushed to the edge in this 10-minute play, and she refuses to move another inch.

I love that Keyanna Khatiblou gifts Claire with a strong, healthy, and resilient response to the crap she has taken in her romantic life. I love that Claire is aware of her intensity and slight craziness. I love even more that Khatiblou clearly shares Claire's history; an audience will realize her growth and feel sympathy for all she has gone through.

"Order for Vicky" has comedic and dramatic moments, but I appreciate most its command to Claire to stand tall.

This full-length, furiously paced farce is a twist the boring trope of "a very special holiday show" in which a character tearfully and melodramatically comes out of the closet as LGBTQIA+.

DC Cathro upends that cliché with "Family Holiday" -- a door-slamming, private-revelation farce that builds and builds to the point that audiences may wonder how Cathro is going to improve upon what came before. And oh boy, does he!

It's all in the characters: Cathro provides each with different voices, experiences, and responses to their own truths. Laugh-out-loud funny.

Give Jonathan O'Neill a lot of credit -- he dramatized an historic event but only as the springboard for an unexpected, emotional adventure.

Also credit O'Neill that the emotions involving a young boy and his father aren't all positive and pleasant. There is a strong feeling that life lessons are being learned in "Rule Against Perpetuities," and those life lessons can hurt.

Psychologically affecting, strange and understated, epic yet intimate. I'd love to see how O'Neill's "impossible-to-stage adventure" would come to life in the hands of a talented production team.

Sports aficionados are called fanatics for a reason.

Dominica Plummer's short comedy, as noted in other recommendations, features easygoing, natural, bantering dialogue between friends. It also features obsessed characters who are ready for any explanations as to why their favorite team wins or not. And on top is a genius ending that will make audiences laugh.

"The Jinx" would be a terrific entry for any short play festivals, especially those about sports.

There are several reasons this very funny short comedy has been produced worldwide since 2000: terrific timing not only on verbal jokes but also visual ones, a central premise that skews from the expected to the ridiculous, and at its core a situation that a lot of people can relate to -- the breakup of a relationship. And the sweet ending is well deserved.

Mark Harvey Levine delivers an absolutely beautiful script for theaters at all levels -- high school, college, community, professional -- to produce. "Surprise" is outstanding for performers, directors, and audiences.

Wit and charm course through this one-minute play from its opening image and beat.

Conrad A. Panganiban adds another level, however, with his reveal at the end. "The Elephant in the Room" is ultimately a bittersweet romance. It's a play audiences will feel deeply for.

This short comic monologue has a joyful ending.

It's a beautifully written piece, with Mark Harvey Levine doing an awful lot of set up in the start: Paul's frustrations and questions reveal several sides of him, including the side that longs for pure joy. And in "A Little Fresh Air," through the most natural of circumstances, the audience sees him find it.

Audiences are going to smile broadly at a performance of "A Little Fresh Air." And thank you, Mark, for creating a male character who seeks emotion and connection, rather than shun them.

This is an absolutely dizzying play not only because of the onstage action, but also because of the performance-within-a-performance, the quick shifts in power and point of view, and the audience beginning ten steps behind the drama and not immediately knowing who is doing what to whom and why.

Emma Goldman-Sherman explores the high drama of love and lust against the popular entertainment of the circus in "Tightrope." It is dangerous and death-defying, and I get the feeling Goldman-Sherman is having the time of her life telling this story.

"Tightrope" is going to keep your audience's attention riveted.

This monologue focuses so sharply on the human needs of being understood, of being seen, of wanting to understand that it's filled with several genuine audience-lean-in moments.

Steve Harper hasn't created an Everyman in corporate lawyer Greg Stephens (college educated, economically affluent, Black, middle aged, married, male, city dweller, white collar). That specificity strongly informs his experiences (in an elevator, in his Lexus, with his coworkers, with his family, with police) and the leads to his wearisome knowledge that shit will find him. And don't overlook the circumstances of Greg sharing his story.

"What I Know" is illuminating.

An absolutely magnetic personality shines on the stage of a honky-tonk in this ten-minute monologue. "Who sticks around when they’re not welcome?" asks 20/30-something Amy Singh. Audiences will love Amy's answer to her own question.

"How Do You Fall out of Love with Country Music?" genuinely raises all sorts of emotions for Amy, and for the audience: pride, joy, fear, camaraderie, disgust, reverence, and more. It feels as though Amy herself has written this monologue, with all the details and emotions genuinely from her. Which goes to show just how wonderful Maximillian Singh Gill is as a playwright.