Recommended by Peter Fenton

MERRY BIRTHDAY OF JULY is a fun 15-minute piece that grounds its wacky concepts, total apocalypse, and silly make-believe holiday in a melancholy, sentimental family dramedy. I'm at once sad yet hopeful at the end of this piece, which I think is precisely what Cam Eickmeyer wants the audience to feel!

Anyone who believes a full-length play set in the (relative) here and now can't be engaging featuring only two actors in one continuous scene and setting must drop everything and read ALMA by Benjamin Benne. This mother/daughter play is touching, poignant, and realistic all at once, covering a specific yet universal experience for many in the Latino community in the United States. Benne's stylistic formatting and verse of the dialogue adds a literary dimension to an otherwise grounded setting and well-drawn characters. I can't wait to see this one live! Perfect for a professional black box-style theater.

One of the easiest ways to a person's heart is through their movie taste, and with CATS AND COMMONALITIES, Darrin Friedman has crafted a cute, fast-paced two-hander that serves as a love letter to 80s film culture. A fun 10-minute piece that leaves you rooting for this blind date! (I also don't like CATS very much, so the exchange at the top of the play hooked me right away ;) )

You only get to play Icarus once, and it's the role of a lifetime! Rand Higbee has a deliciously dark 10-minute comedy here that hits the exact right notes for what it sometimes feels like to be an actor taking method acting to a whole new level.

I thoroughly enjoyed Brent Alles' LAST KID IN THE UNIVERSE! I truly mean this in the best way possible, Brent's script is aggressively silly and is sure to be a joy for the kids who get to perform this one! A huge cast with lots of chances for young performers to shine, and an interesting juxtaposition of a super recognizable, mundane world any kid in America would recognize with the wackiness of the rest of the universe in a way like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. The cutest, most fun apocalypse I've ever read!

A fun, punchy, innocent-yet-self-aware-somehow (trust me, it works!) monologue for a teen! Philip captures a complete, captivating thought about sex in a monologue only slightly longer than this recommendation.

Every person grieves differently and DOVE by Brigid Amos illustrates a powerful magical realism character study for a mother grieving her daughter who died as a child. Amos does excellent work setting the homespun Nebraska scene and grounds both Effie and Grant as real people approaching grief differently. The posthumous appearance of the eponymous Dove (retaining her childlike spirit but appearing in death as a 20-something) asks her mother the tough questions and adds brilliant levity. This play explores religion, generational trauma, and has some well-timed punches of humor along the way! A charming, engaging, human drama!

I had the honor of sitting in on a February 2024 reading of this play at the American Theater Group in Rahway, NJ, and I can't recommend this character drama enough. SANCTITY offers a woman over 40 the sort of meaty role she's craving to play, and offers an entire ensemble the chance to play multiple different roles in a non-traditional theatrical narrative structure. I especially appreciate throughout this play how Kerr Lockhart so beautifully draws the parallels between attorney/client privilege with a Catholic priest's duty of confidentiality in confession. Excellent work, can't wait to see a full performance!

Watercolors by Philip Middleton Williams is an intriguing example of a character study of an unseen character. I always appreciate that while Philip’s plays have a lot to say (and what they have to say is profound), the characters are incredibly grounded and allowed to be real people. Watercolors is no different: Nick is learning to deal with the ramifications of learning unsettling posthumous truth about the love of his life and is still allowed to be funny and petty and angry. Watercolors comes highly recommended for black box or immersive theater venues, this set will be gorgeous!

I had the opportunity to listen to an audio production of this play on the Open-Door Playhouse podcast. Dana has well-drawn characters in such a short piece who face the reality of the horrible situation with the water quality in Flint, Michigan, set to a dripping faucet and a haunting melody of the classic spiritual "Wade in the Water". An excellent ten-minute political drama.