Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

This send-up of "All The President's Men" has all the elements that are required for a perfect farce in the vein of Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau along with plenty of Marx Brothers over-the-top antics and the lyricism of Mel Brooks. The best part is that those of us old enough to remember the real Watergate know that the only reason it didn't succeed was because the real actors in that kinderspiel were as inept as the ones Scott Sickles skewers in this delicious adventure. That makes this a true cautionary tale for the next contest.

I have been on both sides of this moment, so the depth of feeling that Evan Baughfman brings out in this one minute is so true to life that it both hurts and warms. Great work.

Many plays and stories have been written about the relationships between fathers and their children, going all the way back to Oedipus. But each one, be it a battle or an ode, is different because while the foundation may be familial or genetic, the reflections of the child about the parent and the impact of their lives is unique to each storyteller. In this two-hander, Jake Lewis gives us an intimate portrait of a family dealing with loss and regret tempered by recriminations and resentment. The balance is what makes us go beyond the past and move on.

What's our next stop on the journey? For Phil, he's just finding out that life after life may be more than he ever expected... but less than what he truly wants it to be.

"Heaven Forbid" is a thoughtful short play; heartfelt and leavened with touches of humor, and Jake Lewis gives us a moment to think about not just what matters to us, but to others as well.

There's a difference between friends and lovers; and what a good thing that is. There are things you can share with a friend you'd never tell your lover or your spouse, and having friends like Max, Gunnar, and Ingrid is a salve for the soul in good times, and especially in those times when you need them to be there.

The interaction between these three friends who know each other so well is funny, touching, and heart-melting. I see myself and my friends in each of them, and I think you will too.

This is one of those plays where... Wait, what am I saying? I can't think of this as "one of those plays" because it's not like anything I've read in a very long time: inventive, outlandish, and way beyond what the title suggests. I also imagine that the actors and the director, not to mention the designers, will have their work cut out for them, so to speak. That makes it vitally important that an adventurous company produce it.

This taut piece begins like a teaser from an episode of "Law & Order" but takes us through the intricacies of relationships, reflections on performance, and not a little of Hitchcockian jousting and suspense. That's not to say that Ryan Kaminski's storytelling doesn't stand on its own. It does and then some, and as we follow the twists and turns of his plot and the power-play between these two characters, the suspense holds up very well.

Aside from the fact that this took me back to my own sibling rivalry between myself and my older and the younger brother -- I was the middle one -- and vivid memories of glorious battles in the yard, it confirms my theory that theatre and acting are innate forms of art: we are born with the ability to perform and create elaborate stories with all the plots, themes, and subtext that they ponderously remind us of in grad school seminars. All you have to do is watch children at play, and Scott Sickles frames it perfectly.

Who's to say it didn't really happen that way?

A new teacher learns the hard way that perceptions can be deceiving, and sometimes those perceptions -- especially when there is an agenda behind them -- can be devastating. Peter Anthony Fields has constructed a taut and powerful drama and used the stage and memory to great effect in this short piece. He also shows how the most important moment of teaching for the teacher and student is crushed under the weight of bigotry and ignorance.