Recommended by Peter Fenton

In UNMARRIED MAN, Emmy Kuperschmid offers a scathing parody of shows like The Bachelor, going after it with all her refined darkly comedic chops that hit the reader in all the right places. While the comedy is largely absurdist (a breadstick ceremony for a show sponsored by The Olive Garden, the titular Unmarried Man bringing the phrase "my dead fiance" in almost every one of his interactions, among other bits), the commentary on women's place in reality tv is pitch-perfect and all these weirdos are lovable in their own ways. Highly recommended!

Richard Thompson has done something incredible with this piece... he made Dickens feel fresh! I came away from this retelling of a lesser-known work from "the inventor of Christmas" with an appreciation for both Thompson's dialogue (and form!) as well as the themes of the piece: we can only truly love when we make ourselves vulnerable. A great alternative if you want to stage a new but familiar-feeling Christmas piece with a wonderful redemption arc. A Yuletide triumph!

I love the range in this collection from Donald E. Baker. Something very important about telling the stories of queer people—or people of any marginalized group, for that matter—is that we hold a range of experiences and stories. We are not a monolith, and neither is the Baker's Dozen. Baker displays quite a range of his own writing ability pulling together this collection of well-realized short plays and monologues, illustrating it all: some romantic, some tragic—all authentic. I'd love to see these pieces performed one after the other for a complete night of theater. Well done!

A father willing to try to understand us—isn't that what we all dream of? So many queer stories are centered on replicating tragedy—by contrast, Paul Donnelly has written a ray of hope. A lovely and timely ten-minute piece modeling how the coming out conversation should go despite how hard Billie's life has been so far. I have in mind a few people who need to see this play and recognize trans people are people. Thank you, Paul, for modeling love and acceptance with this piece.

Butterfly Anchor is a hard-hitting character drama about making peace with your past and present. Friedman has created a play with wonderful backstory and an intriguing plot with a few breathtaking monologues from leads Brian and Angela. A reminder of both the brevity of life and to tend to the people who matter to us, whether our business with them be unfinished or not.

On first glance of the plot arc, Cabana Boy is a heartbreaking, weighty story, but it never felt that way reading Williams' words. It's always interesting to consider "the product" vs "the person" when living as a public figure--I loved seeing how this play examined this internal dilemma for both Alex and Miriam. This play was genuinely funny and full of literary references from top to bottom and ended with a complex, melancholy but hopeful outcome. I'd be very excited to see a reading or production of this play... and I'd very much want to play Mitch!

John Frank packs quite a bit of story, theme, and humor into this ten-ish minute piece! This piece feels very much lived-in, the oddly specific detail present in John's life story reflects a universal themes of loneliness and the joy that comes with friendship. I also appreciate that the script leaves a lot of freedom for the director and actors to find their own meaning to the scenes--this would be a great short piece for an experienced team!

Two well-trod genres: the families of a couple in love clashing and a zombie apocalypse—are blended together in a side-splittingly funny one act from Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn. I love how the characters in this piece are a bit freaked out about “the rot” and yet can still be preoccupied with their own mundane slice-of-life conflicts. The tension between the mundane and the apocalyptically silly is played to excellent effect. Well done!

A deliciously funny skewering of the American GOP in the 45 era re-contextualized as mad scientists managing a rogue beast from the lab. I really thought all the stock parodies of 45 and his cronies were done to death, but John Busser proved me wrong today! A hilarious quick read!

I am always down for a postmodern, subversive re-interpretation of the creation story! Brandon Zang has a particular poetic way of writing and structuring dialogue that makes some of the very modern elements of his story (Eve being interested in STEM, Adam's preoccupation with story structure) feel like they belong in the original text of Paradise Lost. An intriguing, stylistic read!