Recommended by Leah Roth Barsanti

This play bravely captures the angst, monotony, and subtle horror of the working week in a way that is both absurd and disturbingly real. With a strong repetitive structure and material about purpose, suicide, sexual assault, and even caffeine addiction, this play raises so many relevant existential questions, and I simply could not put it down.

This play offers existential look at the nature of life itself through the eyes of Chuck: a flawed man and father who is trying to learn from a life that he is forgetting, piece by piece. With a vibrant cast of characters who live simultaneously in the past and present, New Dementian is a darkly comic look at family, illness, and (ultimately) death.

Love is supposed to be a fairytale, right? That is the question asked in Melanie Coffey's "Pros and Cons of Leaving Him at the Altar." A smart play that looks at the complexities of modern romance in all of its glory and horror, this piece questions who we fall in love with, why we fall in love, and the very institution of marriage itself. With characters that are a far cry from the romantic leads of Broadway musicals, this plays looks at love an marriage as they really are, and refuses to pull punches.

With themes about immigration, ecology, and the moral gulf that sometimes occurs between "doing your job" and doing "what's right," this ten-minute piece packs a serious punch. Khatiblou's dark comedy shines through in this timely little play sourced from the events that occur in and around her hometown of Phoenix.

This play hits like a gut punch to the throat and I mean that in the best way possible. But the best (worst) part is that there are elements of it that feel possible if we keep going down the terrifying path of propagating revisionist history (and by “we” I mean the government but also kind of everyone?). ALSO, it made me interrogate my whiteness in a way I hadn’t before because IN THIS PLAY we are the “innocent” bystanders, complicit in our armed silence... we are evil because we do nothing in the name of protecting ourselves.

In this piece about literally fighting with your demons, Khatiblou manifests the horrors that come from within. The content is relatable but shown in a purely theatrical and original way, and her dialogue and female relationships are spot on.

Patrick Vermillion is one of the few writers out there who writes poignant and thoughtful pieces about male fragility from the male perspective. This disturbing little piece about a boy with an Oedipal complex who decides to shoot up his school is no different. 10/10 would recommend.

If you're looking for a holiday short that goes beyond the ordinary and is both funny and moving at the same time, you've found it! The women in this play are as full of holiday magic as they are of bad decisions, as relatable as they are brash and unapologetic. Despite the angel costumes, they know they are not quite as holy as they should be, but they are just what each other (and the audience) needs to get through the holidays.

This play explores the aggravating, empowering, heartbreaking, and often-rage inducing struggle of going through life as a person with a pussy, and it is even more relevant today than when it was written. Silverman has the incredible ability to create characters who remind you of both everyone you've ever met and the scariest, most private parts of yourself. This play does that, and then it makes you laugh, and then it makes you want to change your life and change the world and take up boxing. I cannot recommend it enough.