Recommended by Asher Wyndham

Yancey's unsettling images of a scene after a shooting, that time for a police officer to count and recount the dead, the sounds of ringing cellphones and the calls from love ones..it's a heartbreaking read. As a fully-produced solo show, the officer's narration of the crime scene that's haunting his memory, with the victims of that memory strewn across the stage, will be a heart-wrenching experience for the audience. Highly recommended short play for your festival on gun control.

An eclectic panorama of six distinct women whose stories of strife and setbacks in the American economy may break your heart but also make you laugh. You'll have your favorite, a voice that speaks for you, but you'll find each woman captivating, each constructed with emotional depth. The structure, a narrator changing into the character for the next monologue, is genius and it perfectly unifies the script thematically. A challenging solo show for the strongest of female actors. Highly recommended.

Nelson DM's one-act 'Mother's Milk' is not part of his cycle of plays on Puerto Rico, (the setting is South Africa ), but it deals with similar themes - the struggle between choosing an imperfect homeland (ravaged by racism or storm) and the United States of America, between one's desires/dreams rooted in myth, culture, and history and one's survival (economic and physical). Using a bizarre setup (!), that reminds me of the worlds of Naomi Wallace, with a dramatic language all his own, Nelson DM's play further proves that he's a playwright that must be on every literary manager's radar.

A beautiful monologue - which can be read as a poem - on the agony of waiting for a love one to die. The language is poetic, not natural, and when the speaker starts talking about the 'brain' and the 'soul', you'll start questioning yourself. It gets a bit creepy. The monologue seems like it is spoken by a lover, a spouse or a family member, but you'll be in for quite a surprise by the end of the monologue!

An erotic monologue, a little tart like a blueberry pie. Cooking with striptease. An unusual monologue on one's woman history with food and her continuing her grandmother's secret to pleasuring a man. Check it out, take a bite.

MIRIAM1234 is an endearing short play on mourning and the difficulty of moving on without that special someone. It's also really funny in capturing a parent's difficulty with technology. It also captures a character rarely seen on the Queer stage: the senior. Has your theatre brought to stage the senior experience in the LGBTQI community? If not, seriously consider this play.

Hayet's short play perfectly captures the toxicity and viciousness of helicopter parents -- it's sad, it's pathetic, but it's a hoot for those who don't have kids (like me :) Mothers in the audience may not be Stage Moms, maybe they're Dance Moms or just moms that talk smack when the rehearsal doors are closed - and they might see themselves in these characters. Check out this comedy, and consider it for your comedy showcase.

A wicked smart parody of modern political debate and discourse on TV and on the Internet that makes the point that all reason is lost in the Age of Trump. Yes, sadly, problems and questions of great importance -- the same ones addressed in the past when Washington and Lincoln were alive -- can't be answered with any depth in our short attention span theatre of US politics. Check it out. Perfect fit for a political theatre festival.

This is a perfect Christmas play because it's so unlike most Christmas plays I've read. A perfect opportunity for 4 female actors of various ages -- that's rare, esepcially in a Christmas play! It's delightful, capturing the holiday spirit without being cliche - it has a saucy, feisty octogenarian Rockette who's had her way with plenty of sailors! It's silly, as many holiday plays are, but it's also serious, poignant with what it says about Alzheimer's and how family members react to the disease. Check it out! Produce it!

Looking for a play for 4 feisty women? Then check out this Stubbles play -- another winning comedy. You need a blank stage, a chain, holy vestments, and lesbian leg-grinding -- and you're good to go. A smart choice for any LBTQIA festival.