Recommended by Scott Sickles

This is possibly the most joyful play about grief I've ever had the pleasure to read. It's especially wonderful that it's a about explaining death to a child by focusing on life: not just the life of the person who was lost but the cycle of life itself. Simple and moving without being overly sentimental (it's just the right amount) with two lovely characters you care about instantly. In a very short time, you feel their connection to each other and to the loved one that's done. Just lovely.

I hope this play is never staged in two minutes. I want to savor it for at least 5!

Syran has given us a lovely confection, full of substance, lighter than air. What's especially brilliant is that the characters can be cast with age-appropriate people of any race/gender so the story has kaleidoscopic possibilities.

It's a short short that actors, directors, designers, and choreographers should salivate over. I want to see it cast with as wide an array of actors as possible. Then I want them to switch characters and do it again. And again.

This made my night!

Sometimes, we as playwrights, in our quest to hold a mirror up to society in the futile but necessary quest to right the wrongs of society and civilization with searing, lacerating, devastating, uncompromising, incendiary drama write other things instead.

And it doesn't feel good!

Here, Williams holds up a mirror to playwrights and producers in the futile but necessary quest to get at least one of them not to take themselves too seriously. A fun read that any playwright, producer, and especially any playwright-producer can relate to!

Ben Franklin times travels into a bar...

BEN'S KEY is great fun and educational for adults and youth alike. Kurtz reminds us of basic history and fills in the details a bit while philosophizing about the beauty of the past and how we take modern technology and comforts for granted when we should be struck by awe. (As someone who occasionally marvels that plumbing works and that people actually built everything nature didn't provide, this reminder really resonated with me.) There's art in the Sam Adams label just as there was beauty in carriages. Also: great roles for actors!

Some art is perfect. This is one of those perfect pieces of art. Plain and simple.

Weibezahl keeps everything plain and simple. The monologue is one woman's life story, yet it's all in the present. Her memories of childhood, of family, of her life, of history... all matter NOW... bringing forth lessons and realizations NOW. The quiet power of the piece comes not from its emotionality -- it's not a tearjerker -- but from the emotions it doesn't elicit because at this point, why?

An epic of sacrifice, violence and loss in a church pew. Plain and simple. Perfect.

Oof!

As someone who often expresses thoughts best left unspoken, this one hits home. Our insecurities and frustrations, even when justified in principle, can be a wrecking ball in practice.

There's a visceral realness to this play. You can feel the cold and the damn right in your toes as you read it, just as you can feel their stomachs drop one by one before the cold turns freezing and simultaneously ceases to matter.

A snapshot of pain, perfectly captured.

A veritable turducken of a play sporting a melange of genres, tropes, and ideas all on one savory delicious platter!

Anthropomorphized poultry hasn't been this existentially inquisitive and self-aware since Chicken Run. Weaver's turkeys consider questions of purpose, art, and identity in a a delightful theatrical tropefest that's laugh out loud funny.

Any thanksgiving of holiday program of shorts should welcome GOBBLER, especially if the design budget can include feathers.

Short, sweet, and funny! A fresh variation on an old joke that works because it's eternally timely and a conversation that happens all over the country at Thanksgiving. The use of current events works as a sleight of hand and the payoff brought a smile to my face.

A visually poetic docudrama, Gonzalez perfectly captures what it feels like to be friends with Matthew "Handsome Guy" Weaver. This warmed my heart and I walked away from the chasm with them.

Hilarious! A damn good thing, too, because the circumstances are infuriating! While some (white) people are outraged because they feel diversity efforts discriminate against them, others try to take advantage of those efforts, even though... well... read the monologue.

Read it out loud! You'll have a great time!

I saw this performed in The PlayGround Experiment's Faces of America Monologue Festival #3 and it was DELICIOUS! A great comic satirical piece!