Recommended by Scott Sickles

A relentlessly hilarious take on my favorite Twilight Zone premise: The Box! I usually associate Carbajal with heartfelt, poetic narratives with a delicate gravitas grounding a rich humanity, so this balls-to-the-wall comedy was a wonderful surprise!

Carbajal's playful spin builds even faster than it's dramatic source material with surprisingly higher and higher stakes for people both in the room and randomly elsewhere. The characters are a deadpan delight. A satirical comedy gold mine found unexpectedly in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition...

You'll want to open this door and enter the Zone!

There's a lot of guesswork in both zoology and HR.

McClain gives this ripped-from-the-interwebs tale of interspecies lust and intraspecies murder a hilarious spin! Each character has a precise point of view and sublime idiosyncrasies. The administrative humor is brilliantly juxtaposed with generational attitudes and perfectly placed music gags. Consistently hilarious and relentlessly surprising!

Oh, this is glorious...

Weeks sets up a darkly atmospheric and visually stunning world. The stage images (a lone individual in a window, shadowy creatures, an elegant concierge in an abandoned room) elegantly waltz with the rules of the universe (when and how entities can be seen and heard) creating a narrative of belonging as beautiful as it is unsettling.

Plays like this are the reason special skills on acting resumes are so important. Movement and mine builds to the titular "circus." Any festival design team would salivate to tackle these challenges.

Audiences will delight at this surreal jawdropper!

These two uber-pretentious terminally immature wannabe fops are an absolute delight. But when you're stuck in a crappy apartment living a minimum wage life, you've got to use your imagination. (I sure did!) Weeks uses language to great effect as they put on airs and, occasionally, drop their masks. They've created a rich, though not particularly close or healthy, friendship. Complexities abound as Visitor Blake's current circumstances bring their history to the fore. As absurd as they are, they're just as real and the feelings, especially the Chevalier's frustrations, resonate deeply. Terrific two-hander especially for young classical actors.

Sassy, saucy, and sexy! Grease is a well-oiled one page ride into ribald romance!

Coulda, shoulda, woulda… But what if…???

As someone who writes variations of the nerd/jock dynamic, I found this take on it quite cozy. Sam and Gary are instantly identifiable, not because they’re archetypes but because of how Williams draws them as people. Their history together and histories as individuals ring true, and we root for them as human beings who care deeply for each other.

After a while, “what if?” can become “if only,” then maybe “why not?” GOING THERE is filled with yearning and hope.

There's a bravery required to say certain things out loud, even when we're alone. Every gay kid knows what that's like. Every last one of us.

Bluestein-Lyons captures a turning point in a relationship between two boys, one of whom is clearly straight. There's a palpable yearning to connect between them, even on just a platonic level. We instantly believe in their relationship; it feels lived in even though they are so young. Perhaps because she and they make it easy to remember what it was like. A beautiful glimpse into the torments of confused youth.

Fraught, atmospheric, and deeply soulful, THROWING ROCKS is (literally and figuratively) haunting. Lamedman creates a pervasive sense of loss and grief with Molly, though both roles have a lot of gravity to them. It’s the kind of play where you can practically smell the night air. I suspect, it's also a play that gets deeper and more nuanced the more it's read and experienced. So somebody get this into rehearsal. Just prepare to be haunted.

For every overweight person who’s been looked at askance, been asked “should you really be eating that?” or has been given unsolicited dieting advice, Martin has provided us with an extensive menu where the cuisine is “fuck you!” And it is delicious!

With clear and present anger, he artfully addresses how fat- and body-shaming is a socially acceptable and encouraged form of bullying. And he and we have had it!

Now let’s share a box of Nilla Wafers like it’s nobody’s damn business because it isn’t!

I adore stories where the supernatural overlaps with admin. It just makes me smile. Usually this overlap veers toward the macabre and this is no exception. Busser gives us a gloriously fast paced severance meeting, buoying it with some twisted humor made all the the more funny by how practical it is. The logic may be awful but it’s not wrong! Beautifully sick and twisted, it’s also a great challenge for costume designers working on a short play festival budget. Also, great roles for female identifying actors!