Recommended by Doug DeVita

This is marriage. There’s not much else I can say except to applaud Malone for how effectively and concisely he captures all the joys and woes of marital co-habitation in a scant, but hilarious, 15 pages.

A nimble feat of literary theatricality, Steven G. Martin’s stage adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe short story is just as thrilling, frightening, and macabre, and just as darkly humorous. What fun it will be to see it staged!

Self-promotion, self-importance, self-delusion… all come under attack in this brief, sharply funny monologue delivered by a desperately insecure and insincere TV host whose star has faded. Norr captures this sad personality beautifully, and we both laugh at, and cry for, her character’s pathetic attempt at relevance.

Gatton captures the longing and, ultimately, disappointment when a dream is denied simply because one is not gifted with the necessary equipment to realize the dream. Beautifully aching monologues and touching relationships, punctuated with smart jabs of humor throughout, make this one of the loveliest short plays I’ve read in a while.

Darkly atmospheric, rich in period detail, and intensely gripping from its first lines, by telling Nellie Bly’s story through the eyes and point of view of Anne Neville, an inmate in a mental institution, Mark Loewenstern creates an immediacy and sense of horror that creeps up on you and is hard to shake long after having read the play. Dynamite roles for women help make this an excellent, provocative work, and one I’d love to see staged.

What fun! What beautifully dovetailed, over-the-top, campy, dirty fun. The puns and the in-jokes pile up faster than the snow in the White Queen’s world, and the whole thing moves like lightening; on stage it must be even more breathtakingly fast and funny, a sure-fire audience pleaser, and probably as much fun to perform as watch.

The puns, literary and otherwise, don’t stop in this fast and funny mashup of Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, and H.P. Lovecraft. Clever, witty, and wonderful on so many levels, my head was spinning in delight just from the hilarious use of both the name and word “dickens” alone – that Dakutis keeps the joke aloft with as much ease as he juggles the rest of the work is a testament to both his skill and imagination. Smashing good fun!

A quick, brutal strike at the heart – with a precise hit. A palpably precise hit. Another stunner from Monica Cross, one of the most inventively acute playwrights around.

While we’re never told how exactly horny ends (is it with ie? Or ey? Or simply y?), what’s clear is that most likely it ends with a bang. This is a fun two-hander (pun intended) that both titillates and delivers.

When things go wrong for Margo in the film “All About Eve,” she shrugs and quips “One of destiny’s many pranks.” If only Dave could say the same. Nonetheless, this romantic comedy is magical and engaging from beginning to end; one feels for Dave, and yes, Destiny too, as they work their way to their own destinies, romantic or otherwise.