Recommended by Adam Richter

A deft and original script about the struggles of a marriage where both partners are stuck in a rut.

Pandemic times require creative ways to think about theater, and Rachael Carnes has come up with a brilliant story that, in both story and form, is ideal for this era. "Crossing the Amur" is a funny and profound short piece that should be appearing on screens everywhere.

What I like most about Bryan Stubbles' "#WeToo: a dialogue" is how effectively it shows the characters growing up and moving on despite the trauma, yet never being able to shed the effects of the abuse. This is a short but powerful play about sexual assault.

Scott Sickles has built a future world that is both vast and intimate. In this final chapter, the emphasis is on the intimate as he brings us the final days of Anzor and Teddy and their wonderful, if doomed, family. In "Marianas Trench," Scott showed us two boys who manage to survive despite their families. Here, they have created a family that is worth fighting, and dying for. "The Known Universe" is a fitting and heartbreaking (maybe fitting BECAUSE it's heartbreaking) conclusion to the masterful trilogy.

Steven Martin makes fools out of the alleged sophisticated grownups in the room in this delightful sendup of art, criticism and adulthood.

This is a haunting and profound short play. Both characters are rich and multidimensional. There's a lot here for actors to work with. "Faerie Ring" was a joy to read and would be amazing to see on stage.

We hear all the time about how female praying mantises decapitate their mates after sex, but did you ever wonder if the male actually LIKES it? Scott Sickles apparently did, and the willingness of Franz to die for his would-be girlfriend makes for a funny, witty one-minute play. Great potential for physical comedy here, as well.

A lovely meditation on what it means to a writer. It is by, about, and for playwrights specifically, but I imagine anyone who toils in creative writing, after the rest of the household has been put to bed and with dreams of "making it", will identify.

The title of this play does nothing to prepare you for the end, but the ending is exactly what the characters deserve. Funny and fast-paced. This would be a hoot onstage.

This dark and delightful satire of American life does a lot of heavy lifting in two short pages. These characters give you every reason to root for the meteor. Plus the play ends with one of the greatest stage directions ever put down on the page.