Recommended by Jerry Polner

The sole passenger on a lonely ship in the middle of a never-ending war is accustomed to being waited on hand and foot. And the apparent end of the world is no excuse for a break in civility. But ultimately, he won’t be spared a wrenching moral choice in this very funny, hard-edged, and heartbreaking story. A brilliant piece of work.

In this wonderfully rapid-fire drama (with lots of comedy thrown in), aide-to-the-governor Kelly Nolan is implicated in a God awful scandal and is hiding out from the press in the house of her not-so-welcoming Aunt Maura. Together, they conspire to use gullible reporter Brad to establish Kelly’s innocence. If the premise sounds just a little bit like Bridgegate, rest assured that the story, the characters, and the ending are way better. If you need a small-cast show that will play like a house afire, this is it.

The love and reverence for Old Hollywood is more than a rumor in this wonderful, dead-on comedy by Gary Lyons and Doug DeVita. It’s 1968, and the open secret of venerable movie stars Graham and Rosalynne’s 25-year love affair is forced into a crash landing. Graham has toppled over and died in the kitchen of the house they share, and now Rosalynne must call Graham’s wife and take the consequences. There’s enough delicious sniping and backbiting for three good movies in here, so get a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the ride.

Clairvoyáge is the absolute perfect farce - a very, very funny version of the fortune teller meets her mark story with just the right amount of hysteria and a killer ending. The ideal opener for your one-act play festival!

Elisabeth Giffin Speckman’s Catch/Release, a brilliantly thoughtful and disquieting drama, is about a drifter planted in a small Minnesota town who can’t quite out-run his own past or the sour prejudices that surround him. There’s a deft touch applied to even the most minor characters, and not a single line is extra. If you’re looking for a very well-told story, this is it.

Kate Danley doesn’t miss a screwball comedy trick in this wonderfully funny story about two architectural partners doing business with the police commissioner’s daughter while they’re in hock to the mob. Set in 1930 with all the right dialect, it runs like eggs in coffee. Produce this play!

If you’re looking for a comfortable workplace to just do your job well and get promoted fairly in a nurturing environment, you won’t find it in George Sapio’s hard-driving comedy Do You Want Fries With That. Returning to the workforce after her marriage blows up, our main character Martha takes a job with a big brother media company, designing display ads with impossible deadlines for ornery clients. It’s a tough, brutal, and darkly funny world that’s well-worth diving into. A great read!

In this funny, winning coming-of-age story, a young man from the suburbs is already in love with the 1990s revolution in hip hop music when he starts college in the big city and discovers that other kind of love. With a cold-eyed view of class struggle and gentrification amidst all the devastating rhymes, The Realness is a fresh, great read.

Only Maximillian Gill could make piracy along the Hudson River look like a rational career choice. Which of course it is for the women who have escaped the lawless, deadly “hot zones” of a post-climate change world. In this brilliantly-crafted and very funny play, Canadians Gus and Edna are held for ransom by the mysterious female pirate captain Kali. And to make things worse, their hedge funds aren’t liquid enough to save them from danger, humiliation, or coming to terms with the purpose of their lives. A great read!

What could be more idyllic than children at a summer camp learning about Native American culture from indigenous teachers? In this funny and heartbreaking play, the patience of the camp’s director and elder, Mary, wears thin in the face of mean and destructive kids and a staff that can’t sort out their own cultural identities. Showing great respect for its source material, this is also a wonderful story about the culture of storytelling. Produce this play!