Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

This is poetry, plain and simple, and simply beautiful. The interaction and the single words speak volumes, and have you listening to every word. There's not a wasted moment, and it's a haiku, a sonnet, a ballad, a love song, and sheer fun.

All too often adults forget how worldly-wise younger people are. It seems that something makes us forget how complicated and intricate relationships can be, but that would explain why children barely tolerate the older fools. Scott Sickles captures this complex and enlightening time through the eyes of Daphne on the cusp of being eight and therefore showing wisdom that is as insightful as it is logical. A gem of a piece.

For someone who just downloaded the GrubHub app and is being seduced ever so delicately by the siren song of Free Delivery on Your First Order and the knowledge that with isolation comes temptation, this monologue is the truth, even if I know I can resist it. Or can I? I can smell the fries, remember the sauce, even feel the tingle of the soda bubbles against my nose, shutting out the sounds of the screaming babies and drawing me ever closer to another.... what was I saying? Oh, yeah... this is a moment of sheer magic.

A very nice blend of poetry, art, memory, and truths. As with both poetry and visual art, the unspoken and unseen are as important as the perceived.

Scott Sickles takes an incident between two nations in a perpetual stand-off and reduces it to the basic element that we can all understand: the visceral response to an unconscionable action. Even with all the resources of two of the world's superpowers at their ready, it is at the human level that history turns. This is a well-crafted drama in every sense of the word, but it is also enlightening in the almost benign manner with which it is dealt with. And for those of us who actually remember the incident, it sheds a light, even if it is theatre.

Being of an age where I remember Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians on TV on New Year's Eve, I had a hard time at the start remembering that this is parody. That's the way it should be. David Hansen's skill at making me believe in his reality is perfectly suited for this material, and those who never heard of Mr. Lombardo will get a good look at how to write a seamless satire that brings you right in and holds you.

This is a hilarious/tragic/comical/truthful/wonderful stream-of-conscience monologue that is shows the result of being trapped in one's own world and letting all the thoughts out at once. Adam Seidel has always had such insight to his characters and their thoughts, and in this case his deft skill is shining through.

In this current time of virtual contact, this little play goes completely the other way from social distancing and puts two people in direct touch with each other where it means the most. Never doubt that Matthew Weaver is capable of truly touching us with a simple but powerful message of love and tenderness.

Putting things in perspective -- a tree, a rock, a flower, a place -- in the new now brings a new awareness in this calm but still tremulous monologue of a mother watching a child play outside. It is made even more poignant by the setting and the history of one of the other observers who grew up in a time and a place where ignoring the rules could be as dangerous as an unchecked virus. It is the calm vigilance that makes this a powerful moment.

Just reading the title and I'm hearing the music of my teen years and bringing back all the memories of hearing it on AM radio out of Detroit -- the real Motown. Vivian Lermond's telling of those days through a man who easily could be me and a lot of my friends has all the right moves and notes that make that music and their legacy irreplaceable. And it's not just my imagination...