Recommended by Doug DeVita

"One Small Step" is a potent plea for love and acceptance, brilliantly leveraging the moon landing in 1969 as a metaphor for the emerging fight for gay rights. And it is also a strong reminder that 50 years later, as the country is once again entering the space race yet stepping backwards in almost every other area of human expression, that the fight for equal rights is far from over. A touching, yet disturbing piece of work, timely and thought-provoking.

Karlin's atmospheric, film-noirish "Hotbed" is an endlessly fascinating work which mixes the Hollywood Studio system and the quiet but systemic racism that fueled both the system and the country in the early 1950s, garnished with a twist of national and sexual politics, and served up as an entertainingly lethal cocktail of genuinely compelling characters and superb storytelling.

Having now seen "Ray's Candy Store" in its sensitively directed and performed production at Metropolitan Playhouse in NYC, it confirms my initial impressions from reading it: it is a beautifully written play which works on so many complex levels at once, yet remains wonderfully focused and clear-eyed in its storytelling; it's a lovely, touching piece.

What a gut-wrenchingly gorgeous play. Salant's grasp on his characters and their heartbreak is true, and he's infused them with both anger and humor: they're wonderfully human. It's a cliché to say this, but: I really laughed, I really cried, and the play really became a part of me. It's a universal story, beautifully told.

If God does exist, let's hope he's as chill as the dude Rossi has created in "What Melvin Bought for This Week's Game Night." If, of course, the dude actually is God? Who the hell knows? And that mystery is part of the fun of this hilarious short play. After all, when God is summoned by asking a Ouija board, you kind of get what you deserve, no? Funny stuff to ponder.

What a touching, moving, and exquisite play; beautifully written, it is filled with both the joy and despair of life, delivered in a forthright and truthful manner that is both engaging, and heartbreaking. Absolutely lovely.

What a gorgeous piece of writing; heartbreakingly touching and wildly theatrical, Kaplan captures the dynamics of a creative family with a sometimes acidic, sometimes honeyed pen, and in the process creates a vivid world of sorrow, loss, fear, and the redeeming power of love. Beautiful.

Perfecting The Kiss is a fall-on-the-floor funny valentine to the off-off B'way world and the people who populate it with such determined devotion. An absolutely delightful, fast-paced bon bon.

Composure shows Sickles doing what he does best: creating compelling characters one cares about from beginning to end, and then setting them up in a tense balancing act as they are forced to negotiate the tangled strands of their individual relationships with the central character, Fletcher Driscoll. That he does it with a swift-moving clarity is one of his greatest strengths as a playwright.

Another lyrically beautiful work from Robin; her ability to create genuine emotion with just the simplest of phrases and gestures is astonishing.