Recommended by Scott Sickles

Dads... am I right?

The Dad in Adam Richter’s delightful short play is equal parts heroic and hapless. He confronts the impossible with reason, his son’s fears with his own.

The monster is quite fun too!

There’s a deep well of emotion under this comic encounter and Richter shows us the challenges of parenthood, the potency of imagination, and the courage of reconciling with doubt.

Simultaneously clear and open to interpretation, Levine has created a specific turning point: the moment youth abandons age. Is the relationship familial, platonic, romantic? Is the Young Man bitter or wistful; does he long for adventure or can’t he wait to escape? Does the Old Man want him to stay or does he secretly want the him to spread his wings? Decisions, decisions. Whatever adventure you choose, it will be resonant and moving.

You had me at “Two rival metal detectorists.”

I love these characters! They’re great foils: one open, imaginative, expressive, and the other more of a pleasant curmudgeon. I want to spend all of my free time hanging out with them!

Alas...

Foster has created a lively, fun, incredibly atmospheric tale than gets darker as it goes, like a sinister sunset. Plenty of opportunities for imaginative staging. Great roles! A dream for designers. You can practically smell and feel the woods.

And the rocks...

You certainly don’t have to know the wonderfully talented playwright Emily McClain to enjoy this hilarious (and affectionate) sendup. Indeed, there are a few in jokes here, but there’s also plenty of universally recognizable quirkiness to go around.

The primary monologue is crafted with great wit and precision, providing a fun comic challenge for actors.

McClain has a gift for externalizing the internal and manifesting the symbolic with great humanity. Whether reminding us of forgotten joy, empathizing is with the agony of uncertainty we face with decisions we may regret, or demonstrating the perils of misplaced focus during moments of beauty, the characters are always more than the statements they’re making.

This trio is moving, elegant, often funny, and always mesmerizing.

So beautifully, beautifully wrong!

A Bitch-Pudding-worthy sendup of cutesy condescension towards kids that also has useful parallels regarding effectively dealing with problems as adults, I would watch these Miniature Horses every damn day!

Stowe has created wonderfully unique characters which he presents in a relentless whirlwind of setups and payoffs. A paean to both pragmatism and inappropriateness, this sketch is downright hilarious. My knee actually hurts from slapping it.

Punctuation and a nerd/jock fantasy come to life: two great tastes that taste great together!

Rinkel delivers his opposites-attract scenario with humor, sensitivity, compassion, and fun, nicely individuating his jock and nerd from their archetypes making them easy to root for.

Once Connor, the athlete, starts saying what’s truly on his mind, there’s no limit to his candor while Drew, the grammarian, is touchier than he needs to be because he’s lived his life on the defense. Watching them come together is a delight.

Sweets and sexy like its characters, SEMICOLON is a home run!

The first thing that hits you is the visual: a giant slug carrying a tadpole in a goldfish bowl on its back while towing a gerbil ball with a fairy behind! One can’t wait to see production photos of the imaginative costumes and setpieces!

The characters are adorable. Lou the slug, a gastropodal Eeyore with Protestant work ethic, may bicker with Phil the fairy-creature, but when trouble strikes they pull together to solve the problem. Pollywog the tadpole has one line – enough to steal the show! A great lesson and a treat for all ages!

Like real bears, Markie is outwardly cute, has basically good intentions, but also harbors hungers.

Lawing has created a sentinel for our time. Disdainful and warning of entitled idiots who don’t obey restaurant mask protocols and endanger servers, Markie also examines his place in the world and how it compares to other destinies he’s thus far avoided. He’s happy where he is but wants more. He covets. There’s a metaphorical pic-a-nic basket he wants to get his paws into.

Simultaneously dark and adorable, cautionary and contemplative, it’s a fascinating character study. All in one page!

If only we could rewrite history.

Oh wait! We’re playwrights! We do that ALL THE TIME!!!

Here, Bruce not only gets to rewrite it, he gets to reenact with the people he hurt. He makes some brave choices; he didn’t make himself look better in the reimagining but also embraces his shortcomings in a way that both honest and self-serving. And that’s just part of that makes the play so fun.

Levine creates a trio with a complicated past and builds toward a satisfying present, for them and for us!