Recommended by Doug DeVita

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially when allied to the lack of a good education and deeply held, if bogus, religious beliefs. That Jo Brisbane has set her dystopian tale in 1954 just adds to the horror of "Rose Johnson And The Cathode Ray Tube," as she systematically points out how very little has changed in the intervening decades. A disturbing, necessary work, this play leaves one shaken and just a little bit more than terrified at humanity's rather dim prospects.

Short, sweet, and hilarious romantic comedy that plays with expectations – the character's, as well as the audience's – with scalpel-sharp observations and humor.

The strain of melancholy running through Stephen Kaplan's "Tracy Jones" gives this play its heart; it's beating, breaking heart. Kaplan beautifully balances offbeat humor with aching sentiment, and the result is a poignant comedy that touches one deeply.

Shakespeare and Noir: a match made in a hellish heaven? A heavenly hell? Who cares, when the play is as delightfully droll and hilariously spot on as Minigan's "Noir Hamlet!" I didn't want it to end, I was so caught up in the brilliant cleverness of the whole thing. LOVED. IT!

What a perfect monologue from the master monologist! Wyndam captures so much truth with such hilariously desperate specificity it's almost as if he's been in the mind of every FBuddy EVER! Absofrigginlutly wonderful.

Oh, how I loved the moment when all expectations are turned upside down, and "An Appreciation" becomes an appreciation of what should always be appreciated. Beautifully done, Steven G. Martin. Beautifully done!

One of the things I love about NPX is stumbling across something I probably never would have encountered if I hadn't seen it recommended on the first page. Benjamin Carr's "That Fat Bitch Loved to Run Her Mouth" Is a case in point, and an angry, funny, touching, and beautifully wrought eulogy to a drag queen who was loved, if not by the people who should have loved her, but by the one(s) who ultimately mattered. I'm so glad this play touched my life.

Aside from his eloquently savage words, Isaac Otterman also uses sound and visceral visual descriptions in his stage directions to create a complete theatre piece. "Static: Blinded" works on so many levels it's almost as disorienting as the blizzard in which Samantha and Barry find themselves trapped, and that's the point of this sharp, uncomfortable, and excitingly theatrical play.

A ghost story, a coming of age story, and a wonderfully haunting fantasy with a darkly comic streak, Hal Corley's "Midcentury Modern" has a lot to say about becoming who one is supposed to be – at any age, even after death – and says it with wit, style, and charm galore.

As writers, I’m sure we’ve all had those stories we’ve struggled to tell, those characters with whom we’ve fallen in love and who haunt us in those fallow times between our gusts of inspiration. Michael G. Hilton’s “Windblown” is a delicately rueful rumination on letting go of —and coming back to — our work, and perfectly captures the ambivalence, the fear, the drive, and the never-ending hope that comes with being a creative soul. A beautiful short play.