Recommended by Steven G. Martin

Absolutely effervescent -- the comic dialogue in this 10-minute play is like little bubbles rising to the surface of a liquid and bursting with joy.

Mark Harvey Levine has written a dashing comedy filled with humorous conflict that just grows and moves quicker each minute it goes. "Misfortune" is a wonderfully quick and easy read, and it would be an absolute laugh riot on the stage.

"Misfortune" is very deserving of its long, rich, and varied production and award history.

This 10-minute comedy is based on a terrific comic premise, that of a lie that has gone unchecked for so long it has grown to astronomical proportions.

Lisa Dellagiarino Fereind has created the ultimate impending doom for Joe, whose flipping and flapping -- courtesy of Kellogg's, thank you corporate enablers! -- continually grow more frantic. But I especially loved a moment toward the end of "To the Moon!" when Joe's fears are dissolved away ... before Dellagiarino Fereind ends with a gleeful comic button.

An adrenalin-filled jolt of a short play. Highly focused, exciting, filled with tension, and more than a dollop of dark humor.

Max Henry has created a terrific, action-packed adventure in "Clay Pigeons." Actors, fight choreographers, and directors will enjoy telling this tale.

Dark and dense -- there's a lot happening in this intermission-free, full-length play.

DC Cathro ratchets up the tension beginning with the first beat of "Itch," and he focuses it all on a single character and a single trait. It's remarkable just how much attention he pays to Richard and his condition, and the variety of ways other characters respond to it.

This one-minute play is a nice, focused satire. I wish I had written it.

Eric Duhon shows that War is a game, and war is a game -- both can be won without skill, and both can be inevitable based on what has come before. It's comic and brisk and fun, before Duhon changes the perspective with the end line.

Deceptively simple, "War" says quite a bit. This would make an excellent entry in a one-minute play festival.

There's never enough time, neither in the past nor the present. This one-minute dramatic play is about time, timing, and loss associated them.

Perhaps the most life-affirming, in-the-moment, cause-of-celebration moment for this play is the one minute Eric Duhon spent writing it. It feels very much like "No Time: The One-Minute Play That Was Written in One Minute" serves notice that we need to make time, make connections, and Duhon's imagination and insight took over.

For as straightforward and slight as the dialogue is, this play is deceptively deep.

This one-minute comedy starts as a cringeworthy moment that builds and builds until it reaches a tipping point and changes into a stinging critique of American insularity and the fetishizing of cultural differences.

And it's funny, too! Credit Eric Duhon for knowing just when to make the switch from cringe to grins in "The Canadian Lady." Too much later, and the payoff wouldn't have worked. Too early, and the point isn't quite made.

This comedy is perfect for a one-minute play festival.

This 10-minute comedy has a nice nod to Dickens and shows how the holidays can magnify the symptoms of grief. I love that there's a bit of sentimentality here, balanced by family-based humor.

Rachel Bublitz has written a wonderful short holiday play in "Mom's Ham." It will appeal to audiences enjoying a festival of holiday plays. This is an affirming and generous play, which would be a pleasant diversion from all the sarcastic plays set around that time of year.

This short play is a cheery, gently funny comedy. How do you respond when you finally achieve something you've worked your whole life for, only to realize others have achieved it too -- with probably a lot more nonchalance and a lot less reverence?

Evan Spreen addresses a lofty subject in "Taro in the 4th Dimension" -- transcendence -- and then showcases its protagonist's comic frustrations and disillusionment really well.

Great character play, great play for directors and actors. It's bound to bring a smile to an audience member's face.

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.