Recommended by Doug DeVita

I don't think I've ever seen bullying presented so poetically, or with such theatricality. And that Hageman presents the issue from three sides, and presents it so clearly, just adds to the power of the work. This should be a required text in HS English courses, as well as produced at assemblies regularly.

What a beautiful play. By going into the mind of Miriam, Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn brings us right into the terror and heartbreak of loss. And while pulling no punches, she does it with sympathetic grace and tenderness. Moving, at times humorous, often sad, and just... beautiful.

Horrifying, gut-wrenching, and all too possibly possible, Jennifer Walton’s “My Pretty Pink Rifle” graphically hits a bullseye. A stunning statement about gun culture in the USA, Walton takes down every argument 2nd Amendment advocates have through the simple, deceptively clear-eyed logic of a child who is too young to completely grasp the horror and tragedy she caused with her pretty pink rifle. Heartbreaking and intense, this play should be produced everywhere.

In "Online Education," Liza Case has pinpointed the exact moment the American Dream became the American Nightmare, and it happened while most of the country was sleeping. One of the most chillingly accurate portrayals of how apathy and voting against one's own interests in the name of party loyalty has brought us to the terrible state of affairs in this country, "Online Education" must be read and produced. Often. And loudly.

Another powerful piece from Wyndham which quite literally took my breath away at several points by how surprisingly matter-of-fact he limns out the inevitability of his premise. A stunning, horrifying, heartbreaking, and tragic work.

What a charming, touching two-hander from Richard Lyons Conlon, with two wonderfully prickly, but endearingly human characters whose stories weave a tale spanning more than thirty years of love, loss, and regret. Terrific roles for older actors.

Well, this will be fun now that I've read it next week. I will laugh a lot at Busser's wit, and I marveled at how he kept all of the various time-traveling moments so clearly organized throughout. Mind blowing. At least it will be. Or has already been. I don't care. I loved this play yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

An angry Ghost Chicken, Cecil Cluck, and Dawn Notts (get it?) run afowl in a secluded place on a dark night, and the puns are non-stop. As are the laughs. Well done, Weaver!

In one-minute, with one word, Martin says everything that needs to be said. Period. And... BOOM!

All may be calm, but it certainly isn't bright in this melancholy, poignant, and gut-wrenching stunner from Scott Sickles. Okay, things aren't all that calm either, at least not underneath the surface, which is where this play lives. Every single line pierces the soul with the fear, longing, sadness, and hopelessness of two people who just can't bring themselves to face a rejection that's not going to happen, but believe will. Laced with many moments of bracing Sicklesian wit throughout, "All is Calm" is a holiday gift; perhaps not the shiniest, but certainly one of the most touching, and beautiful.