Recommended by Doug DeVita

Will’s need to both repulse and curry connection is palpable in Torres’ wonderfully theatrical almost-monologue. Sharply, beautifully written, Will is a tour de force for an actor, a character who’s hard to love but also hard to resist loving. By all means, feed Will. Don’t feed the bear, but definitely feed Will.

What starts as a (possible) romantic comedy, complete with the requisite meet-cute and resistance, quickly turns into a pseudo horror comedy that gives one pause: who really are the monsters in this world? Alltop’s dialogue is by turns witty, funny, probing, and provocative, as are his characters. A fun piece with dark undercurrents, this would be wonderful in Halloween festivals. Hell, it would be wonderful in any festival, particularly one set in a bar.

Blunt, horrifying, and emotionally devastating. A tour de force for the four women playing Charlotte, the central character, and for the director lucky enough to be able to stage this theatrical, moving, and heartbreaking gem.

Setting an audio play inside a museum where the stimulation is almost entirely visual may seem contradictory, yet Fowkes paints the pictures for us with his astute word play. With the dialogue alone, we’re there with these two women as they troll for husbands at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, we see what they see quite clearly without any undue exposition, and we laugh with (and at) them. Quite a feat, and really shows the power of words to stir the imagination.

Folschinsky has slyly, shrewdly, and smartly turned his delightful stage play into an equally delightful radio play; nicely tightened and revised to fit the audio format, the meta-ness of the live television show setting being portrayed only by sound heightens and sharpens the comedy, and those sound effects! They’re glorious. In either version, this script is a winner.

Good God, what a delightfully funny farce! Ribald humor abounds, heightened by its setting of a live TV show for children, and the pace just keeps accelerating until one can’t breathe from laughing at the antics of Folschinsky’s desperately, absurdly lovable characters. I’d love to see this performed, as I imagine the cast would be having so much fun it would make the experience for the audience that much more wonderful.

This may be Emma Goldman-Sherman’s most intimate work yet; a funny and pointed, and quietly devastating battle with oneself during a telephone call with a very close relative. A tour de force for an actress to perform, and an emotional roller-coaster for her audience to experience.

It’s what isn’t said that resonates most powerfully in this beautiful short piece from Mabey, and what is said is said with extraordinarily smart dialogue; the combination is quite impressive, some of Mabey’s most moving work. The two roles are gifts for their performers, and the whole things reads (and plays) like a dream.

Intense, intimate, and mesmerizing, this short play perfectly captures the adolescent dance two boys have with their sexuality, their identity, and their place in the world and with each other. Beautifully handled throughout, with two terrific roles for teenaged boys.

I fuckin’ screamed with laughter reading this fuckin’ brilliant one-minute summation of the words according to Mamet. Fuckin’ A!