Recommended by Donna Hoke

A master class in writing something that absolutely has to be on stage and not on screen. Highly theatrical, comic, and full of commentary that will leave you laughing, empathizing, and maybe a little disturbed.

Not everyone can set out to write a play that incorporates female combat and create a play that succeeds on all levels. Yes, the play delivers on that necessary element (it was a contest entry), but so much more as well. Humor is clever and consistent throughout. Women take center stage in smart and powerful ways. And the combat? It's not just included; it's organic and at the heart of the carefully constructed and absorbing plot. Brilliant response to a challenge!

This light history lesson is given comic treatment that a quintet of actors could mine to deliver the perfect holiday alternative to that OTHER period piece we see at the holidays. The humor is sublime.

Cutting and uncomfortably hilarious, "Straight Card" is the holiday play everybody needs. Hopefully, the woke laugh but still have enough self-awareness to see the truth of this well-wrought play, and those with their eyes still closed will have them pried open at least a little. Great work!

"My soul laughed." "My heart cried." What is humor but truth and pain and Emily Hageman nails it again.

Don't let the title fool you; this anti-holiday plays it is the perfect antidote to the forced gaiety we feel compelled to achieve on what is really just another day of the year. Cynical about Christmas? You'll love it!

Such a gorgeous, gorgeous play! Audrey has full command of both the pain and joy of living and the language to express it through exquisitely wrought characters. Bravo!!

Will's writing is hypnotic in its deceptive simplicity and this play is no exception. With keen humor and insightful depiction of humans and all their beauty and flaws, Will draws you in and doesn't let to go.

This is such a beautiful play! It starts out so funny that you're nearly blindsided by what comes next, which is a touching parable about life, loss, love--and pet ownership lol. I love the dog's personality because, in the end, don't we all just wish our pets could speak? I believe if they could, Ellen has captured what they would say. Just lovely.

So glad that when this scene was cut, it was refashioned as a short play because it stands beautifully on its own and is the most unlikely of the heartwarming Christmas stories that the inmate doesn't believe in. I find that the most magical part of it.