Recommended by Scott Sickles

Astoundingly specific yet utterly accessible, this is especially relatable to anyone who speaks before they think, has an excess of personality for their job/working environment, or is a Sagittarius. Non-churchgoers can use context clues (or the Internet) to figure out what a Eucharistic Minister is, but we all understand small-scale ambition and the precariousness of negotiation. Boyle gives us a few great practice pitches before the interview that - to be clear - would not be great IN the interview, and therein lies the fun. This cup of mirth doth runneth over!

Weaver gets everything “just right” with this delightfully funny take on Goldilocks. The bear couple in question is the epitome of long-married couples who have struck the perfect balance between annoyance and affection. Together they bear witness (wink!) to Goldie’s infamous break-in, and the story instantly becomes a cuddlier, snippier REAR WINDOW with freeloading instead of murder. Fairy tale tropes are challenged and executed in equal, perfect measure.

At its most academic, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH is a textbook example of literary adaptation. Weaver makes the story his own while honoring the source material.

Theatrically, it’s an absolute joy!

Isolation is its own kind of horror. Sometimes, as with loneliness, it’s worse in groups. Burbano masterfully establishes circumstances both dire and horrific, a world in which the least harmless things may be the circling sharks. It’s not unlike an ALIEN movie: death is waiting somewhere outside, you don’t want it to know where you are, yet you’ll probably have to venture forth sometime.

The piece is also a powerful indictment of pandemic mismanagement. But on this ship, no one can hear you call for help... at least no one you’d want to.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and during COVID quarantining, many were desperate to connect with ANY OTHER PERSON... or even any other living thing! Rice’s Lou is lonely enough to inspire empathy yet abrasive enough that we understand why they’re alone. And why they end up with the company they keep. I hope these two are happy together. An energetically funny monologue with great pathos beneath the bombast!

There’s a dark effervescence to THE APOTHECARY that lightly infects the heart then fills it with a malicious joy. Elements of melodrama (which I love) keep the stakes high, yet Prillaman grounds the proceedings with direness and cunning while deftly juggling a few weighty conflicts. Especially impressive are variations of pace and tone, like a short symphony of overt action and hidden intention. Ultimately, I found the women in the play brave in the face of adversity and ultimately hopeful. The titular apothecary especially is a great character and she made me smile, particularly at the end.

Everything is fiction. Even our lives, once lived, become memory and tales with flexible details shifting with the prism of time and perspective. Both memory and the Moon provide the battlefield here as Roxanne weaves a fantasy inspired by long-ago love. Cross juxtaposes the reality of a convent with a magical yet barren lunar landscape, that enchants the audience, the denizens of the convent, and even the characters in Roxanne’s romantic, philosophical tale. The play asks big questions, both lofty In theme and intimate in importance. Vividly described, this would be a joy to behold onstage.

Whether it’s Aesop or Kafka or Osmundsen, fables hold up a funhouse mirror to life, making large the lesson, and minimizing (yet never losing) what’s not central to the point. Passions run high and literally take flight, yet there is a great deal of agony when cognition wars with emotion. Osmundsen elegantly blends realistic family and social dynamics with mythological circumstances, forcing characters to choose priorities both internally and interpersonally. Told through a child’s POV, it captures great heartache, and the play and its characters soar!

Vividly atmospheric and beautifully structured in just a few pages, HELLO? reaches out of the dark and grabs you. By the time you figure out what’s going on, it’s too late.

Easy to produce and still get maximum suspense and creepage, especially if you have inventive lighting and costume designers. A Halloween must and a gem for any horror festival.

What starts out as a zany working-class comedy about an unusual anniversary present takes a few surprising turns, not all of them pleasant. Cathro press a difficult yet necessarily conversation, for this couple and for people in general, with a stark and brutal honesty. It challenges sacred notions of familial love while being a treatment to the complexities of romantic feeling. No easy answers, but it provides a powerful impact in several ways. Bravo!

It would take a concrete poem of concentric spiraling words to truly express my affection for this piece.

One spiral expounds upon how perfectly Speckman conveys the feeling of being The Other. The loneliness one can only feel at a party in one’s teens. When even one’s rude utterances don’t seem to make a sound.

Another extolls the heartache and joy of being perpetually or at least intermittently seventeen.

A third would celebrate how vividly she evokes her worlds: the party, the woods... all five senses enveloping a soul yearning for connection.

Something like that.