Recommended by Asher Wyndham

Like with her other short plays, Gina Femia captures an emotional intensity that's always a page-turner. The intensity in this play feels real, never contrived because the characters are so alive. They're alive because their mourning -- the pain and sadness and confusion -- is totally relatable.

The perfect short play for theatre middle schoolers to perform for Halloween. The concept, kid ghosts learning Frightology in a classroom, is spooktacular. I would love to see this as a longer one act.

This play is a good example that humor is sometimes the best way to deal with patriarchy, sexism and racism, especially if you're criticizing a French beach town. A serious comedy on assimilation and human rights with the perfect twist near the end.

Gangsta shrimp, maniacal and scheming with squirt guns! If Mario Puzo was alive, he'd be proud of Stubbles. (If you're a producer and you want your audience wet, choose this play.)

A good play should always surprise us. This play does just that, page after page, with unexpected stage images and actions. The concept, the play within the play, and the theatricality of breaking up is definitively a hook for the reader.

More horrific than the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood it's based on. Barnett's f'd up tale is like what Kathy Acker did with classic stories. The more you find out about Granny and her "establishment" and Red's situation, you realize this twisted fairy tale is an allegory for modern human trafficking. If you're producing a festival of plays based on fairy tales, choose this play.

Wacky like something out of the mind of Philip K Dick. The concept of the interrogation is wonderfully silly, but it's a smart way to examine the Internet's role in our lives. Makes you wonder..all those long hours connected to apps and websites, clicking on photos, watching cat videos, and all that personal data in the cloud... Who are we in the eyes of those that watch us, study us through all that connectivity and data consumption? Brilliant, funny, bravo.

I had the opportunity of seeing this delightful, magical play at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Rocky, a highly imaginative Queer teenager, steals your heart immediately. His desire to connect with his pen-pal Charlie who's trapped far away under Antarctica's ice is painfully fraught with intensity. If you enjoyed Aditi Kapil's play Orange, you'll definitely like Lake Untersee! A perfect play for a scenic and lighting designer that wants a challenge.

In ten-minutes, Burdick's play addresses a wide range of subjects - parenting, female sexuality, male aging - without it feeling forced. And he does that by bringing two strangers of different ages and experiences together in an unlikely space -- outside a Victoria's Secret store. There, the conversation is strangely intimate, deep, real.

A touching monologue, just right for audition, about a figure skater desiring more out of life. It's like she wants to choreograph her own life off the ice. The playwright effectively captured in a little more than one page how trapped the young woman feels.