Recommended by Lee R. Lawing

I had the delight seeing this performed by the Playwrights of Zoom and it was such a delight to see and hear!

We all want to be the star of the show, unless you're a crayon. Levine's sweet and funny "The Big Picture" tells it from the crayons point of view and even though it's bleak in some way, as the title says, they look at from the bigger picture and are so proud of the end product and the placement, that it should be a lesson for us all about worrying too much of the small details.

Nothing like having cold water thrown in your face and Williams' play does just that with the gut-punch of an ending in this gem of a one-minute play.

At some point we have visualized ourselves as the star attraction of some event or another, where we are in a mood or a simply put out about a turn of events in our life and Leslie finds herself in such a place where she's given a shortened chorus and one that's completely confused her with someone else completely. Once again reality is always giving us lemons even when we are the star attraction.

A fast-moving play that leaves you breathless with anticipation and the a longing for a little more of Zeke and Beauregard. Glad that this is only the first.

Nuns are creepy enough alive, but dead ones up the creep factor by ten. Lipschutz's virtual play plays on our best horror wiring and would be a definite scare to see on a dark night.

This play resonated with me strongly. The clothesline running in the background showing a "woman" life and death all with clothes. It makes you wonder when all of this patriarcal BS will stop and we can just be more like the Russians wanted us in the first place, all equal and all the same all for the good of the people and country, but even then that fell apart over time when they became more westernized. This is a power piece and one that should be read by every single one and all of us promise to make the change.

We all wake up from those dreams and are like, what the heck? We try to go back to sleep in hope of continuing on with it. And once awake we try to make sense of it all. We wish our dreams might ground us or make us feel safe or at least not make us question the failings of our life, dreams and hopes and the collapsing sanity that we see disappearing all around us day after day.

This play makes your soul ache for all the horrible things in our world's past and sadly, all these types of things that will come again because as much as we like to believe the world will change and it has and will continue to grow and improve, there's always a darkness that is lurking beneath the surface and Rios captures that darkness so perfectly in this masterful tale.

Brilliant monologue and one that tugs at the emotions so much. It starts off so deceptively simple that you are lulled into a place of calm and willingness to follow along with Derek in his ramblings but then half-way through you start to think about phrases and words that you don't like and that cause you pain and that alter your life and way of being no matter how hard you try to avoid hearing them or thinking of them or using them. Smith offers up just one take on this word and leaves us breathless.