Recommended by Scott Sickles

Evil is most insidious when it has a kind face, a calm voice, and words of love to make its agenda seem reasonable to the people it's trying to destroy. In ALEXANDRIA, the subject of the Lord comes up and suddenly bigotry isn't personal, self-defense seems intolerant, and "agreeing to disagree" is a lethal trap! It gets you thinking while you're watching it, talking when you're done, and sticks with you long after. And it will help you determine which Christians truly love their neighbors and which just say they do.

What starts out seeming like a spoiled white child tantrum turns out to be sobering and powerful. DOLPHIN KID holds up a mirror and a magnifying glass to those who experience paralysis in the face of another person’s injustice, even and especially questioning his own. A powerful piece.

A haunting story of a town teetering on and ultimately over a moral precipice. Every character has a complicated history and secrets to conceal, which is no easy feat in a tiny parish. Morality and law, ethics and religion, and the compromises a community must make to keep the peace are examined with provocative questions and no easy answer.

Equal parts poem and play, this short monodrama is an astounding examination not only of thought, emotion, and the senses, but how we prioritize them. It dissects a marriage with precision and depth, giving the audience a strong sense of who these people were and are to each other on a drive in the night. Powerful!

This play is a miracle of structure and character. It unfolds like an elegant fan, each side telling different perspectives of a complicated story that converges as it refolds. A sexy, daring burlesque noir.

Also, Stage Kitten! (She kittens the stage.)

It's a rare and wonderful thing to find a play that's equal parts adorable and uncomfortable while being utterly daring! Two actors perform a love scene on camera for a director. What's ingenious is that while the scene they're performing depicts a highly inappropriate encounter, the actors and director themselves are utterly appropriate and professional while doing so. But do lines eventually get blurred? What is permissible for the sake of art? A funny, uncomfortable, thought-provoking piece!

WE ARE A MASTERPIECE is The Play We Need Now about the beginning of the Great Gay Plague, in 1982/1983 when no one knew anything, prejudice surfaced without shame in people we thought were noble, and gay men stopped dying by the hundreds and started dying by the thousands. It reminds us that a disease that's largely manageable today once seemed unstoppable.

Tiny battles and almost imperceptible explosions build and build through characters as real as our loved ones fighting insurmountable odds and the petty tyrannies of their community. The play succeeds in being political by being unfailingly, deeply personal.

While I admit I’m predisposed to like any play where someone cries out “You lie!,” this was special. Fun and festive then profoundly heartfelt. It’s a play that will stay with you long after you read it. Producers: it’s a ten-minute play worth the large cast! Be fearless!

A primal, breathtaking thrill ride! Read it aloud! You’ll have a blast!

No one writes sisters quite like Jenny Lane. Or families. They are, as the best stage families are, unique and universal. Even the most lofty or pretentious or enigmatic characters are grounded and down-to-earth; they are real people. (And the ones that already "live in the real world" are refreshingly direct.) They speak a poetic truth and then zing each other with sharp realities. Long story short, this is a terrific play... not just about sisterhood but about accountability, expectation and disillusionment. It's also insanely funny.