Recommended by Doug DeVita

The bonds of childhood friendships are strong, and in this taut memory play a source of conflict and tension. A strong work from Weibezhal with a terrific sense of time and place, and a central role that's a showcase for an older actor.

How wonderful it would be to experience this as an immersive piece being performed on location. Gacinski's political passion allied with his naturally poetic flair give "Diluted Democracy" an inherent dramatic tension that could be dynamite if/when it is performed on a street corner in real time.

This monologue is a stunning punch to the gut, filled with level-headed passion and emotional truths that resonate long after one’s read it.

I can’t wait to read the full-length that will contain it — if it can be contained. It’s that powerful.

What a nifty bit of viciously comic fun with a comically vicious twist.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to date Abena, but I sure as hell would LOVE to be her friend and converse with her for hours. What a wonderfully straight-shooting character in a wonderfully straight-shooting monologue, and a gift for an actress to perform.

As someone who speaks fluent Starbucks, Williams had me LOL-ing on every line in his witty commentary of current coffee culture.

When one’s mother is an Oscar-winning character actress who has worked with nearly every star from the Golden Age of Hollywood — including the legendary Marilyn Monroe — how can one not share that story? But what emerges most clearly in Luke Yankee’s tender remembrance of his mother Eileen Heckart’s relationship with the troubled Monroe during the filming of “Bus Stop,” is Heckart’s brash self-confidence masking a deeply vulnerable pain that ran nearly as deep as Monroe’s. Don’t expect a salacious Hollywood tell-all. Do expect a touching portrait of a son searching for his mother.

As Thomas Wolfe said: you can't go home again. Even when you've never left, whether physically, emotionally, or both. And that is the pain that Weibezahl captures so poignantly in this two-character drama: all the "what ifs," the "if onlys," the "coulda shoulda wouldas" that make up the years between high school and middle age. Beautifully rendered, this tender character-driven piece about two people whose wants and needs are so voracious they may never be fulfilled, or even acknowledged, lands right where it's intended: in the gut, and in the heart.

And my heart is exploding from ALL the feels engendered by this wonderfully rhythmic one-minute play.

Ethical and moral questions are dealt with a light, but nonetheless gripping touch by Weibezahl, as two disparate young men meet on the Staten Island Ferry, and change each others lives with unexpected acts of kindness. Beautifully tense, right up to its gratifying ending.