Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

"Revenge is a dish best cc'd."

This spoof of 50's sci-fi movies and a take on community theatre shenanigans is quick, funny, and with plenty of room for the required scenery-chewing and goofy humor. It doesn't matter that this takes place 150 million miles from Earth; the trials and tribulations of locally-sourced theatre is universal. This would be a great entry at any theatre, and I'd love to see it.

This has all the feeling of an Edward Hopper painting -- you know the one -- come to life, the story of the people in a diner in the wee hours and being drawn in by their moments of pure candor and honesty over a cold cup of coffee, waving away the smoke from the ashtray. Scott Sickles' way with words transports you there with the wistful immediacy of the moment, which is all this is, yet meaning so much. Their lives changed, and if you paid attention, so did yours.

This has all the makings of a classic ghost story and chilling, building suspense that never lets up. I could not stop reading it, and when it came to the end, I could not stop thinking of it. The best element is that unlike the gore/slash/horror genre, the tightness and tension is all self-induced, and that is something that beats out any special effects or unbelievable characters. So well done.

I was all set for a twist in typical John Busser style (cue Orson Welles), but the twist here is that this intense and intriguing story has one of the most inspiring and hopeful takes on our world. The characters are deftly drawn and deeply involved with the events that happen, and the audience will be holding their breath as it unfolds.

The puns fly, the punch lines land, so why is the boss letting the jester go? I'm not going to give this away, but I can tell you that Rand Higbee is at his usual jokey best with this rapid-fire workplace comedy. The fun even includes the requisite... Well, you'll see.

I often wonder what the pigeons are talking about when they gather, but Morey Norkin seems to have the poop on what they're cooing about. Rife with puns and chortling humor, you can spot the fun from a high perch.

I suspect there are a lot of people who will read this or see it and nod think "Oh, yeah..." and then wonder if that's what their relationship is really like. The beauty of this is the spoken out loud stream of consciousness that hits home -- and the humor -- so well. Simple and deadly accurate.

Against incredible odds, Ishmael lives to tell the tale of Moby-Dick, and against those same odds, Francis RTM Boyle takes on the challenge of staging Melville's epic novel of the sea and murderous obsession into 90 minutes with a single teller of the tale. Seen through the pixels of Zoom didn't diminish the power of the words that the playwright and the actor gave us. It's all there, and even though we know the ending, it is as mesmerizing as if we'd never heard it before.

I have been honored to see this play both as a short piece and a full-length solo act, both times at the Valdez Theatre Conference. It is one of the funniest, heart-warming, gripping, and stunningly honest stories I've seen on stage and in life. Ben Corbett is a master story-teller, and his journey through life as a fat person dealing with the trials and triumphs is a lesson in brutal honesty and impassioned bravery. I hope this piece gets performed everywhere, because he IS big.