Recommended by Ken Love

Like Tracy Lett's "August: Osage County" and Sam Shepard's "Buried Child", Will Cloud - with "Reap The Whirlwind" - has crafted a play in which characters wrestle with the demons and ghosts of an unreconciled past with wrenching futility. The inevitability of destruction, or tragedy, storms through the air like toxic rain. This play demands a full production.

I see a woman . . . or a man . . . speaking, sitting at a table in a bar. Toward the back. Not many people. A little dark even. A half-finished drink is on the table. Along with a cigarette. Yes, a cigarette! There is a feeling of utter timelessness about this work. This lonely, tortured soul could have stepped out of any era - the 1950's, sixties, seventies - or maybe they're with us today. Nicely done, H. Avery!

H. Avery's "Notre Dame is Burning" is a heartbreaking letter to a friend and mentor who will probably never know how deeply she was loved and appreciated. And it's rare to find a writer with the courage to be honest - painfully honest. What's needed for this piece is an actress capable of embodying not just pain, but the need to heal.

Dystopian satire. How often do we see works of that sort? H. Avery's "Bodied - TEN MINUTE PLAY" is casual about its horror and direct in its outrage. Social commentary with a knife edge. Many others have stepped up to recommend this work. Please allow me to join them!

With a nod to William Inge and Horton Foote, Craig Houk's "Syd" is a theatrical treasure of drama, social commentary and vivid storytelling. Oh, and let's not forget the characters, rendered with such complexity and intimate feeling that each one leaps off of the page. Mr. Houk has taken an actual occurance and placed it in such an unforgettably dramatic context that it is sure to burn in the readers or theater goers memory. This work was a pleasure to read.

As a born and bred 20th century kind of guy, Jonny Bolduc's "Doomscrolling" was something that I could definitely relate to. Yes, I've been in those situations in which cellphones and social media have given me a demonic-sized headache!!! . . . What am I saying? I still get those demonic-sized headaches! Nice work, Jonny! This is definitely a piece for our time!

With a nod to Luis Bunuel's "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and Edward Albee's "American Dream", James Kelsey Nelson, in "Shipwrecked Supper", makes use of caustic, absurdist humor and fantasy to great effect. Not a word or note is wasted. And nothing in the play is so obtuse as to become boring. All that's missing is a live performance!

A tale of racism and social injustice told in the manner of an allegory or fable. We get just enough information on the characters to keep us intrigued - long after the story has been told. Nicely done!

Many others have stepped up to recommend this highly compelling work. Now, it's my turn to give Mr. Baker his flowers. "Grand Dragon in Power" charts the rise and fall of an American demagogue. And is so unabashedly prescient that it's downright chilling. The final line, "I. Was. Just. Ahead of my time . . . " sent a shiver up my spine (because I know to whom it refers). This represents the kind of playwrighting and theater that we do not see enough of in America. And is so needed in our time. Nice work, Donald.

I absolutely love it when writers "riff" on music, namely songs, be it jazz, country, rock, et al. I've been hooked on Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" since it's debut on the album "The Wall" in 1982. And Mr. Plumridge's riff, "Comfortably Mum", serves as an engaging, funny and even poignant comment on a well known classic rock tune. I can only pray to see it live!!