Recommended by Doug DeVita

What is both ingenious and horrifying about this short play is how funny it is; one could very easily see someone like Carol Burnett having a field day with this character, an unabashed busy body and racist; setting this in the 1950s may excuse the character’s ignorance but it does not soften the blows, nor should it. An exquisite piece of writing.

This battle between a bitter, prickly realist and an idyllic, hopeful dreamer hits some really sharp notes: how does one want to be remembered by their hometown, what is anyone’s responsibility to their fame, can you get a good cup of coffee outside a big city…? What I love most about this script is that Richter doesn’t give us the answers, nor does he give us a conveniently happy ending. Just one with a glimmer of hope. And that’s, well… perfect.

Richter nails all the inherent, fundamental ways this past year has fucked with our psyches, especially as we relate to other people; the damage is real and will be long-lasting. What he also nails is our inherent, fundamental humanity that will keep us moving forward, regardless. I loved every word of this touching, deeply felt script, and would love to see it staged.

Obsessive compulsive behavior is often mined for its comic possibilities, and Max, the protagonist in Adam Richter’s charming comedy NOODLES, is a treasure trove of desperate dysfunction. What really gives this short play its edge, though, is Max’s anxieties, fears about re-entering the world after a year of pandemic related isolation, re recognizably real. This sharp undercurrent shapes and colors the play, giving something that could’ve been a comic jab at OCD a deeper relevance. We feel for Max, and we recognize his fears as our own as we come out of this very unfortunate year.

This haunting play, in which Eteya Trinidad takes more than a few well-aimed and well-deserved hammer blows to toxic masculinity, is a moving, artfully atmospheric testament to the power of friendship, even when the friends in question are at odds with each other. Thelxi and Chim, the two beautifully written central characters, offer so many opportunities for two actresses to explore; I’d love to watch them come to life in performance, and I’d love to see them take on the next chapter in their lives.

They say “Man plans, God laughs.” Well… in Brendan Bourque-Sheil’s “The Book of Maggie,” God plans and we all laugh. And laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and not just at the way Bourque-Sheil brilliantly flips the script on well-worn religious tropes, but also with the sheer glee that comes with reading something so smart, so witty, and yes, so funny. Wildly theatrical, I can only imagine how much fun this would be to see staged. Just to watch and listen to the actors having a field day with this text would be worth twice the price of admission.

There is not one false note in this scathingly witty, furiously savage love letter to a contemporary life in the theatre. Magical, realistic, hilarious, deeply angry – Cubria fires on all cylinders here, hitting bullseyes with every epigrammatic gem (“It’s basically porn for progressives” is just one of the jaw-droppingly funny lines); the total is more than the sum of its parts, and it’s a winner on all counts.

A beautifully surreal dream of a short play; lighter than air yet deeply emotional, it floats on hope and wonder, and the ending is just perfect.

A fast-moving, jazzy fugue of a play, David Rigano plays with three couples, mixing and matching them throughout until each gets what they may (or may not) deserve. Fresh, exciting, and filled with pointedly acid (and funny) observations about relationships, this is a wonderful showcase for actors and directors alike; if staged and performed as breathlessly as it is written it should be quite the audience pleaser as well.

What is it about desperate car salesmen named Jerry, and hand-jobs, and guns, and suicide, and…

Busser’s shameless salesman in this shamelessly hilarious short may be one of his funniest creations yet, and the play itself… I dare anyone not to laugh within 5 seconds and keep laughing throughout. Wonderful. Oh, and did I mention shameless?