Recommended by Christopher Soucy

Tough love. That’s what they called it when I was a kid. It usually was an excuse for an adult to be rotten to their kid. This short play is a little bit of tough love in return. Of course, “love” is probably not the best word for what Marty and his father share. A fun bit of “turnabout is fair play.”

In every life a little rain must fall. Try as we might, we cannot stop the rain. Here, Rachel haunts us with parental dread, heartbreak, and sorrow. A powerful punch to the gut in a short piece of theater.

This is a holiday gift that keeps on giving. A melting pot of cultural celebration coupled with a “no room at the inn” dilemma for an expectant mother and her husband. Deb Cole gives us a tour of the myriad of winter holidays that define us, and here they bring us together.

The nightmare of older fragments of script invading later drafts is on full display here. Characters are haphazardly motivated, and even mutilated, to high comic effect. Busser gives us a wink and nod as he tortures actors with mismatched drafts of a work in progress. Well played John, well played.

One hopes that at some point we will each get to speak our peace. We don’t always know what to say when we are given the chance to impart the wisdoms we may have gathered. There is ample heartbreak and even more heart in this monologue. Miranda Jonte writes like words are bandages wrapped around deep wounds. We can see the blood, but we can also see that care has been taken to try and heal. I truly enjoy reading her work.

What fun show! Sam Heyman pointed me in the direction of this feat of comic timing. The beauty of the theatrical device at work in this play is that it requires little financial effort but tremendous skill and talent to strike the right rhythm. Briliant.

Superb. Like a perfect musical number. Rhythms and tensions drive this piece into an artistic pitch that sucks you in. The sheer theatricality of it makes it both intimidating and alluring. I would love to see it acted out onstage!

This monologue is a wonderful painting. Warm and nostalgic. Beautiful and heartfelt. It sits perfectly in the gallery of memories.

Wow! What a great two hander! Casual, yet tense. Playful, but frightening. And the openness of the casting allows for so many interpretations. Would be great to stage for any theater company!

Hard to imagine a more haunting tale! Debra Cole has given us a ghost story for the ages. And a cautionary tale for anyone traveling with students abroad.