Recommended by John Bavoso

I love the nuance and realism of this play and how it’s still masterfully threaded through with striking, theatrical images. It’s a small play that has a lot to say about big themes without ever becoming didactic. Benne has such a clear voice, and I genuinely hope to be able to see a production of this play one day!

If there’s anything I miss about church, it’s a well-conceived and delivered sermon. O,Neill takes us on an unpredictable, imaginative ride via Father Dominic and Fitzpatrick. In doing so, he presents an earnest and far-reaching examination of quantum mechanics, faith, longing, and irony. A worthy challenge for a game actor, this would be a truly unique addition to any short play festival!

Like the gay(er) version of Not Getting Married Today, this delightful short play shows how crazy love can make us (and how important breath control is!). Eddie would obviously be a very fun role to play, but the actor who inhabits Richard has the chance to really shine in a more subtle way as well. Easy to produce and sure to be a crowd-pleaser, this is a no-brainer for any short play festival!

“No one can touch you Matthew Shepard. You are the symbol.” Phillip’s writing is so uniquely layered. This play is at turns deeply disturbing, hauntingly magical, and surprisingly funny. He has found a way to bridge 1998 and today, the result of which is a profound and shocking meditation on revenge, hate, and, ultimately, love. This would be a thrilling challenge to produce for an LGBTQ+ theatre company or festival.

A fun, campy romp that would be a blast to perform for in and watch! Simpatico gives Tina some great one-liners. Would make a great addition to any comedy festival!

This is a clever and quick-moving short play that efficiently explores big themes like what happens when you fall outside of the stereotypical gay image and how our own insecurities can warp our perspectives. That’s not to say it’s preachy or self-serious—on the contrary, it’s packed with great one-liners and an adorable ending. Highly recommended!

This is such a clever, supernatural takedown of biphobia and bi-erasure in the queer community. Perfect for queer festivals, Halloween shows, and everything in between, this is an entertaining short play with a message. Highly recommended!

Andrew is so, so good at weaving visual tapestries and striking images out of words—but it’s the real, complex characters at the center of these visuals that give his work such power. There are so many elements of this play that could easily have meandered into cliche, but instead we get a grounded, authentic exploration of trauma, homophobia, familial and romantic love, and identity. Everyone should be reading (and producing) Andrew's work!

Moench has created such a fascinating, bleak world in MOTHERS. The first act contains such amazing microaggressions and snideness (I can just imagine sitting in an audience and hearing everyone around me going "oooo" at so many of the lines), and then the second act is relentlessly Sarah Kane-esque. It not only shows the playwright's range, but her deftness at making the two acts flow so well together and reveal the shifts in power along racial and gender lines. I highly recommend giving it a read and I hope I get to see a production one day!

A truly dark and disturbing play that looks at toxic masculinity and violence in a totally different way than I’ve seen before. I didn’t know where the story was going from one page to the next, and it was both hard to read and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. This is a play that will provoke a wildly polarized reaction amongst audiences—which is appropriately reflective of the subject matter itself.