Recommended by Scott Sickles

Leave it to Nora Louise Syran to find (literally) universal joy in the discovery of one's own solipsism.

As someone who contemplates the beauty of celestial objects and the inconstancy of one's location on an ever-moving planet hurtling through space so that from moment to moment we are never where we were and will never be there again, this monologue was a warm arrow to my heart, a sparkler in my brain, and a salve for my weary soul. [Miranda Jonte's Back Porch Theatre recitation captures all this magic.]

And talk about great last lines...

Bravo!

Dissertations could be written about this play.

Schwarz's wisely chooses Rosalie Wells as her subject, rather than tormentor Mary Tilford, who would only regret getting caught. Rosalie, vulnerable and sensitive, owns the consequences of her actions, even though they were coerced, and questions why the lies themselves were so damaging when they were only about love. She's a child; greater implications escape her.

Schwarz perfectly captures the homophobia of the time, casual condemnation even as Rosalie's mother attempts fair judgment. Complex cycles of victimization are on vivid display. Schwarz inlays a faint hope that lessons in acceptance can be learned.

There's a wonderful, deadpan matter-of-factness that can only be found between two people who know each other this well. Susan and Henry are that rare combination of characters we recognize both as people we might be and people we want to know.

This is partially because Eppich-Harris has given them a rich background, especially Susan. When you've experienced what she's been through, or shared in it as Henry has, not a lot phases you, but you still feel things deeply. The play elegantly captures the pragmatism found amid the chaos of family dysfunction.

I hope they make their window.

A rather taut five minutes set during the simplest of actions. There's so often tension when dividing a check. (If you've ever been out with a crowd of theater folks, it's a feeding frenzy.) Sitcoms and sketch shows have made great moments from this one cultural phenomenon.

Donnelly fashions a terrific little drama. The characters are so well drawn (reading it aloud they leap off the page) and the banter is so natural it reads like a transcript. It would be wonderful and so simple to stage.

Beautifully economical and deeply satisfying: the opposite of the date they're on!

Harrowing. Utterly harrowing.

Gay people generally hope their parents will be accepting. Well... be careful what you wish for!!!

Martin has fashioned the most hilariously excruciating parental overcorrection for a gay son's wedding night. The intergenerational vibes and parental tropes are spot on. Like the beleaguered grooms, you'll want the earth to swallow you whole to spare you from the cringing! Thanks to the parents, you'll want to look up a whole bunch of naughty stuff, purely for educational purposes of course.

Hilarious. Utterly hilarious.

I may have a new favorite Plumridge play.

One of my favorite plays in Richard Greenburg's THREE DAYS OF RAIN: the second act takes place 35 years prior to the events of the first, the past bringing unexpected poetic resonance to the present.

Plumridge captures the same poetry here, only between totally unrelated incidents 242 years apart that take place in the same field on a day where historically "nothing happened." It's on those globally insignificant days when seismic personal events occur.

Plumridge gives us delightful characters, surprising theatricality, and relentless joy in this bifurcated confection.

Where does one even begin?

One could start with that eye-roller of a title, followed by the harbinger of hilarity that the Busser byline so often promises. But nothing quite prepares you.

The groaners. The guy talk. The loneliness and yearning of the follicularly challenged in a world that values the fuller coiffure unless one can really pull off that smooth-pated look lest they fall prey to charming tricksters offers a salve to their hopelessness. All of that just sets you op for an avalanche of ghastly scenarios with great hair.

I uttered "oh no...!" aloud repeatedly.

Gasp! Laugh! Repeat!

There's a lot here that is simply not okay... and that's what makes it a great play.

Donley steeps his characters in inexperience, confusion, and a truly torturous awkwardness that reeks of truth. The power dynamics are fascinatingly nebulous, as one man tries too hard and the other doesn't know quite how to behave. Both take actions neither has the right to, yet their motives are human and clear.

Donley's use of language - when and how to speak or not speak -- is a marvel, giving the characters and situation great depth while making an intense situation entertainingly gripping.

Oh, the possibilities!

Goldman-Sherman provides just enough guidance for theatrical collaborators to tell an unlimited number of variations of a shared life over the course of one (metaphorical) day. A feast for designers, especially lighting and sound, though costumes could add elegant fun. Directors and choreographers could fashion intimate epics and simple moments within the framework, reflecting all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and, well, humans!

In one page of description, both broadly abstract and just detailed enough, with two lines of dialogue, Goldman-Sherman has fashioned an infinity of favorite love stories.

All they need now is to be told!

Lee Lawing, you cheeky so-and-so! I'm honored!
If you're not Lee, read this play to find out why!

Or read it because it's a fabulous feast of contradictions that collide and collude in hilarious and harrowing ways! Lawing perfectly captures the awkwardness of early teen classroom oral reportage, then throws in creativity run amok along with exactly the right horror tropes so that both he and his protagonist can make their points with maximum impact and lightness.

And no one incorporates sock puppets like Lee Lawing.

Delightful and disturbing, I hope actual schools have the guts to do it.