Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

Who knows when love will arch its plucky bow and strike the heart of one’s desire? There is no time, there is no season, for, as the Bard once noted, love looks not with the eye, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Or something like that. This ode to love is a true gift on this day of Valentines. Just make sure Goober and Knuckles get the Miranda warning. Thank you, David.

The writing that I admire the most is the ability to tell a story by leaving it to the reader's imagination to fill in the spaces that the writer wisely leaves for us to write on our own. David Hilder has given us a story that relies so much on our participation. The setting may be in a long-gone period, but it also speaks to the immediacy of unspoken connections that is still a way of life. A lovely and powerful play.

I've seen this story in real life with friends, but Dana Hall brings it to life with the power of words that only a mother can form. This moment will stop you in your tracks and make you think of how a casual and even well-meaning moment can hurt so deep. This monologue needs to be heard, shared, and learned.

It would be my duty as a theatre scholar with an advanced degree in dramatic criticism to analyze and deconstruct the heaviosity that John Patrick Bray brings to the stage with this play, but I'm not going to do that. It would not only take away from your thrill of exploration, it would be rude and cavalier to foist my interpretation upon you, dear reader. In other words, you're on your own. Just enjoy it; it's funny, absurd, loving, very human, and so worth it.

The only thing missing from this crazy-in-all-the-right-ways send-up of a Hallmark Christmas tear-jerker is a Golden Retriever named Bailey...who turns out to be a ravenous wolf. The twists and turns in this hilarious short are enough to power a small town at Christmas, and Lisa Dellagiorino Feriend turns it up to 11.

Despite the disclaimer, this play is not a play. It is an actual transcript of a Playwrights Thriving meeting. No names have been changed to protect the identities, and when it is actually read in the Playwrights Thriving Playwrights Delight Reading, the play will be read by the people who the writer included. Meta that with a stick. END OF PLAY.

Saying that a Christopher Soucy play is scary doesn't begin to cover it because there's so much more to them than just suspense and jump-scares. His work mines the psyche in ways that few playwrights can carry off, and each one is a new journey. His take on the title of "Erstwhile" does it again with suspense set up so well and even if you think you know where it's going, you really are in for a jolt. I don't know how he does it, but I'm glad I don't. Just read it, stage it, and ...

When Gloria Swanson was approached to do "Sunset Blvd," she knew it would be a film about herself and what was left of her career. The parallels that Brent Alles brings to this story are clear, even with the surreal image of Mary Anderson/Norma Desmond getting baked with Tommy Chong. The nods and hat-tips to both Hollywood and the faded star are not mocking but truthful. After all, Gloria Swanson did an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies," so anything is possible. Brilliant.

The eternal question: if you knew what the future held, what would you do? Debra A. Cole leaves the answer up to you, but in this short but powerful play we see a couple facing both their past and the future. Sometimes just asking the question tells you all you need to know.

When I worked at the Gateway Cafe in Lyons, Colorado, we had a regular group of men who would gather each morning for coffee, sitting in the same place, talking about deep topics such as the weather, the meaning of life, and the Broncos. Mathew Green's meditation between these three friends took me back to the Gateway, and his dedication to the realities of small moments (and derived nicknames) says more in a few minutes than a lot of full-lengths, and it's worth staging.