Recommended by Doug DeVita

Sprawling yet intimate, up-to-the-minute yet timeless, Ren Dara Santiago’s “Something In The Balete Tree” grabs one’s attention on page one and never lets go. Provocative, bruising, questioning, it is a stunning epic. I’d love to see it staged.

Chelsea Frandsen’s “Smoke and Mirrors” plays with time and place with an unsettling, jarring beauty, and takes one on a roller-coaster of emotions as she details the differing difficulties two deeply loving brothers have with letting go of each other. Heartbreaking relationships and gorgeous writing make this play a winner.

Those of us who have or had pets know going into it our hearts are eventually going to be broken. And so it is with this tenderly beautiful play by Ronnie Larsen, which also captures all the love and joy that make that journey to the inevitable so worth it. Lovely.

A lovely and touching work that breaks your heart with its raw, emotional truth.

A perfect little gem – a "Kodak Moment" of a play – and blissfully sweet.

Short and sweet. And heartbreakingly funny, with an ending that is devastating, but poignantly gratifying as well.

Wonderfully weird and wldly funny! I laughed out loud on nearly every page, and gasped happily at Pickard's audacity and sure grasp of black comedy. I'd love to see this produced, so I can sit there lapping up the audience's sure-to-be non-stop laughter.

This may be my favorite of Rachael Carnes' plays: all of the hallmarks of her best work are here, heightened by some of her sharpest dialogue, characters who are truly struggling with the conflicts that come from just being themselves, yet are completely relatable, and a story that plumbs the depths of their problems with humanity and a healthy dose of humor. And the ending, well nigh perfect, will rip your heart out. A beautiful work.

When I was in my mid-twenties, a friend's mother died. I'd always liked her, she'd been very kind to me. At her wake, my friend came over to me, blithely pointed at the casket and said "This is the best thing she's ever done." I was shocked, but I instantly realized no one ever knows the inner workings of someone else's family. Steven G. Martin's "O.B.O." brought me back to that afternoon over 30 years ago with it's shocking precision, heartbreak, and brilliant understanding that the death of a parent isn't always unwelcome, and may be freeing. Bravo, Steven!

This script is a trip, literally and metaphorically, and what a fun opportunity it gives to actors, directors, and designers to conjure the dreamlike world it creates.