Recommended by Peter Fenton

Philip Middleton Williams has done excellent work with taking the current state of the Florida education system to its logical, maddening conclusion. A deliciously funny satire and a read quick enough to want to go back and read it a second time immediately (which I did!). I also have to agree Rhonda Santis, Governess of Florida, is an excellent name for a drag queen. Timely, clever, and frustrating—as all good satire should be!

Every time I think World War II is a topic every writer has given every possible take on, I find a story like THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GRETA—Chris Plumridge has given the world a fresh new story revitalizing the human experience of World War II. What I especially love is Plumridge's very modern twinge to the dialogue in the period piece, it really underscores the drama and dark comedy of the whole situation. I know this one has potential to be expanded into a feature-length play and I'd be excited to read it!

Brenton Kniess has taken a wild idea and just ran with it! The men in their 30s in Seattle owe a debt of gratitude. Kniess' world of pillow hoarders and serial killers is wacky and fun. I'd be really excited to see PILLOW TALK performed live! It has all the hallmarks of the type of "weird" comedy that when acted and directed fully committed to the bit, can be one of the most enjoyable theatrical experiences.

In PUCK YOU!, Dana Hall has written a tight, sharply funny and ridiculously clever 10-minute piece sure to please any fans of Shakespeare. There is always something funny about juxtaposing Shakespearean language with a modern-day setting and sensibility and the addition of the barista character to this Shakespearean quartet really makes this piece work (even if this barista doesn't give a Puck). A great choice for a short comedy festival or anyone with a passing familiarity with Shakespeare and wants a laugh!

Whoa. This one's a dark, heavy two-hander. Don Baker has illustrated a bone-chilling everyday monster with this piece and it's really not for the faint of heart, in all the right ways. Definitely worth a read when one is in the mood to explore a dark character study with themes of sexual abuse, racism, and privilege. I can see this being a very powerful theatrical experience when performed live. The monologues were especially strong. Well done, Don.

With THE BLATTRIAM, Jarred Corona has written a creepy, high-concept play with terrifying ambition and deliciously brutal execution that draws on what it means to be human, but not quite in the way a reader might expect. I especially appreciated the themes of familial disappointment and rejection, and the parallels between Petyr's transformation into a cockroach and LGBTQ identity were unmissable. A great read, especially for fans of Kafka.

This is the first of hopefully many Morey Norkin pieces I'll pick up! Norkin's dialogue in this two-hander is incredibly clever, two comics (one at the start of her life, the other at the end of his) meeting in sort of a limbo between optimism and cynicism in the dressing room right before Ms. Jennifer Rasmussen's shot to perform for an SNL scout. This piece reminded me of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and would be a joy to see performed live! Comedy with a melancholy twinge always hits me in the right place.

I had the pleasure of playing Hal in a reading of this short piece this afternoon—Heyman does a great job of illustrating a tender wound that cuts both ways of this very recent break-up. What I loved about this piece was how quickly George and Hal are established as to who they are and what they're all about. You can tell there was something there between these two men without falling into the trap of over-writing their backstory. A powerful piece that will be great to see live!

The thing I love about Darrin Friedman's work is that there is never an easy answer, and it's almost like as the playwright, he takes a smirking delight with the reader posing sort of a question: "How do YOU think it ends?"—I've been waiting to see him do this with a comic piece, and in PHONES, his first short and his first comedy, he delivers! Shades of the surprisingly poignant Adam Sandler movie CLICK, Friedman offers us a chance to live vicariously through an everyman who gets the chance to take revenge on those who have wronged him.

What's the one lesson everyone tells you when you start writing? "Write what you know." Dang it, Philip Middleton Williams has delivered one of the most brutally intimate pieces of theater I've ever read with A Tree Grows in Longmont. We put ourselves into our work, to be sure, but this is on a whole new level. What a powerful story of love, heartbreak, and the writing process. A must read for gay men of any age, and for anyone who wishes to appreciate Philip Middleton Williams both as the person and the playwright.