Recommended by Doug DeVita

So much is revealed in this completely wordless play; it is a marvel of storytelling, packed with emotion, truth, humor, and heartbreak, and have I mentioned it is COMPLETELY WITHOUT DIALOGUE!?! Bravo, Mr. Mansfield, BRAVO!

Despair and hope, love and loss, retreating into a virtual life or advancing back into the world after a catastrophe… David Simpatico explores these conflicting emotions in this gut-wrenching two-character musical with sympathetic but clear-eyed honesty. The first half, VIRTUALITY SAL, is as cogent a nervous breakdown in song as I’ve ever heard, and the second half, WHIDA PERU, while noticeably lighter in tone, is no less heartbreaking. Do yourself a favor and listen to the music samples; every note of the score is a perfect match to the emotions of the characters, and the performances are stellar.

Beautifully conceived and written, and – like Sir John Falstaff himself – larger than life, this origin story lives in its own world, a world which pays homage to Shakespeare yet is complete in and of itself. And with all due respect to Ms. Bear and her assessment of this script, I am not so sure this is a play about Falstaff’s demise so much as it charts the course for his future dissolution. Truly well done.

In the aftermath of WWII, two women of different ages and social class engage in a battle of wits over the memory of the elder lady’s son, a soldier killed in WWI thirty years before. Their two very different points of view make for a scintillating, and touching, sparring match. Well done.

A charming romantic comedy, reminiscent of the opening scenes in “When Harry Met Sally” but with far more engaging and sympathetic characters; these are people you like instantly and want to spend time with. Funny, and lovely.

Both funny and horrifying, Lipschutz has created a wonderfully creepy audio world with this short play about vampires, Judaism, and the Hammer Horror Films of the ‘70s. As others have stated, I would love for this to be expanded into a longer piece; there is so much stuff to feast upon here that, like a vampire, I just wanted MORE.

Delicious. Despite my not liking lobster (or, as DC Cathro aptly calls them: giant-cooked-water-monster bugs), I couldn’t resist this wonderfully funny and winsome short; I mean, who hasn’t wondered how things began, like… eating lobster? Or even naming a lobster a lobster? Cathro gives us a plausible origin story, and an entertaining one, too.

The eternal battle of the sexes, presented in a wildly theatrical way by the wildly creative Eugenie Carabatsos. Aside from its sharply realized characters, plotting, and structure, the script offers a field day for actors, directors, and designers to create a magical world Carabatsos has wisely left open to interpretation; I would love to see this staged, and in as many different productions as possible.

There’s a moment early on in this monologue where you realize how deftly Max Gill uses humor like a weapon, and in Amy Singh’s self-deprecating, sardonic opening to her “act” he gives us a complex – and engaging – mouthpiece for his singularly forceful, provocative, and always poetic voice. There is not one wasted word or moment in this piece; I would love to see it performed on the stage of a honky-tonk bar in the south. Or a cabaret room in Manhattan. Or anywhere with a mic and the audience uncomfortably close. It’s that good.

What a ride! Sharply observed, creatively metaphoric, at times funny, at times sad, Levine’s breathtakingly fast script races by as a collection of momentous moments adding up to a crazy road map filled with hairpin turns, short stops, and – sometimes – absolutely no direction at all.

Like life.

Keep the meter running, indeed!