Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

I was going to say that this was another one of Rand Higbee‘s quirky comedies, but no two plays of his are alike. But you really don’t know that until you actually hear the play. That’s in keeping with Schröedinger‘s experiments and Rand’s playwriting. I saw it read at the 2024 Valdez Theater Conference, and now I want to see it on stage. And for some strange reason, I want a cookie.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was a conversation that I've overheard or even been a part of many times in the past: a coming-of-age moment that we all go through, whether we're human or leonine. By casting it the way Sam Heyman has and giving it the setting that he has, we are able to remove ourselves from our own experiences and see it objectively... and truthfully. The comic twist of making this about anthropomorphic lions adds to the insight: which one are we, and does pride goeth before the fall?

I was treated to this hilarious anatomy lesson at the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference. Tom Moran has a great gift for dry and understated humor and I enjoyed every moment of this exploration of human interaction with ourselves and our bodies. It was quite the organ recital.

Even if you are unfamiliar with the genre of the Robert Chambers horror stories that is invoked by Christopher Soucy in this remarkable play, you will be drawn in to the world within a world... and another within that one. It was done in a masterful reading at the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference, but I was also reminded of those cheesy and cheap horror movies of the past such as the cult classic "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things." I can't wait to see it as a full production; it out-hammers Hammer Films.

Ward Kay literally lights up the stage in reverse order with this take on pre-wedding jitters and farce in the dark, using all the slapstick and door-slamming devices that come with it. It's a short but hilarious romp that kept me in stitches at the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference, and should become a regular at any short play festival.

Marshall Logan Gibbs has taken on a monster of a task: take one of Shakespeare's most-produced and quoted plays and turn it to 21st Century tale of hubris in a setting for those of us who don't live or die by social media influencers. Fast-paced, witty and well-crafted dialogue, and characters who really come alive make this one of the best pieces seen at the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference. And for those of us who struggled with "Julius Caesar" in high school or grad school seminars, this brings it to life and hits the spot.

The cloistered life is a world of its own: the rules, the faith, and the practice leave little room for variation. This can sound restricting, but within those walls there is the possibility for growth, for learning, and even acceptance of ideas and concepts that do not necessarily fit into the Rule. Thomas Westerfield allows us in to witness life "in the hood" as a monastic friend once called it, and through him and his well-developed characters, we see that there is more to this life than just ritual. It is a place of reckoning and redemption.

What starts out as a set-up for a sci-fi sitcom turns into a touching and insightful examination of life, loss, and what-might-have-been. Paul Braverman's skill at giving us characters who bring us into their lives is at his best in this short piece that nevertheless takes us through all of the moments and motions of a full-length play. I saw it in a staged reading at 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference, and can only marvel at how intimate and powerful it will be in a full production.

What begins as a tragedy of one sort becomes altogether another when the reality of the events leading up to the death of a frat pledge emerge from the shadows. Erin Dietsche's characters reveal much about the surface tension at a university, and the weaknesses and ass-covering of the officials, both at the frat and at the university are on full display when the pledge's mother arrives and learns the real truth. Tension and recrimination keep your full attention through to the very end.

Even though I have read and seen lots of Greg Romero's plays before, I am always caught unawares of the depths and the broad swaths of insight to human relations that he can cover with a minimum number of characters and scene-setting. In LARPing, he and Brian Grace-Duff have given us two -- or more -- realms to see: a basement game of Dungeons and Dragons with John and Britta and a strip club with David and Jenny, all the roles played by two actors. The words, the worlds, the imagination kept me absorbed to the end.