Recommended by Vince Gatton

No one blends the uncanny, the inexplicable, the horrifying, and the hilarious quite like Daniel Prillaman. This one involves a goose. I'll say no more.

Except to add that a goose tried to kill my elderly mother once -- in a cemetery, no less -- so it's worth asking: how fantastical is this really? Perhaps not very. Prillaman knows things. I'm convinced of it.

Tense and unsettling from its first moments, Sugar is a scary and suspenseful real-time two-hander that upends expectations in a powerful and emotional way. The reveal of the misdirection at play here is not only a throat-catcher on its own terms, but speaks volumes about the characters, their circumstances, and their histories. A scary, compassionate, and urgent piece of work.

I love a ghost story, and really love a ghost story that lets characters *live*: they breathe, joke, complain, act out...and watch TV. Great Hollow gives us sassy, prickly, witty characters, fun theatrical language for its haunting effects, a satisfyingly heartbreaking family drama, and a lovable unseen character -- plus a particular bit of stage business toward the end that offers a lovely grace note to the entire encounter. (It also features one of my favorite movies of all time - one Jillian Blevins clearly appreciates for all the levels that make it tick.) A winner.

If I can indulge in a little cross-medium marketing speak: if you liked Madeline Miller's novel CIRCE, you will love this Nora Louise Syran solo piece. Here Medusa is reimagined with a dry, weary wit and rich inner life -- one shaped by a too-long history of curses, potential assassins, fraught reproductive choices, unfulfilled dreams & wishes, and more. A lovely meditation on stagnation and the hope of change.

Reading a romantic comedy from Aly Kantor means investing in characters who who are never just types. Paige and Hector have brains, needs, skills, weaknesses, senses of humor, depth, and weird hidden corners -- and watching them find and explore each other's as they also decide how much to reveal of their own is a charming pleasure. The impending hurricane serves as an effective ticking time bomb and lovely metaphor for what's brewing; and scattered among the great naturalistic dialogue there lie stunning little poems -- one line in particular simply took my breath away.

The trick Adam Richter pulls off here is remarkable: his invented history for Scrooge and Marley adds layers and shading to our understanding of them, without redeeming, excusing, or re-writing who they become later in the events we know from Dickens. The coldness, cruelty, and greed remain, despite the secret love, care, and passion that exist behind closed doors...and possibly even because of them. A very smart, admirably restrained examination of the twisting effects of stifled and hidden love.

This gut-busting short comedy finds the profane in the sacred, and maybe even vice versa if you squint a little. A group of unquestionably holy men find their newly-commissioned sculpture of Lucifer to be wholly unacceptable for unquestionably holy reasons. The absolute filth-talk that ensues is flat-out hilarious, and the comedic hay Grant MacDermott makes of this ripped-from-the-headlines-of-the-1840s based-on-true-events premise is a witty, steamy, sparkly delight.

Miranda Jonte has the soul of a poet - but also a storytelling eye and ear deeply grounded in physical reality. Her path to the transcendent is usually carved through the specific: tastes, smells, colors, even erotic itches…her keen sense of the telling detail delivers huge emotional dividends. This is especially true here, in a metaphysical yet very real-world, human-sized, lived-in story of love, loss, and the relentlessly-forward pull of time. Excellent.

If the notion of a "Little Mermaid" set during the Holocaust sounds to you like a tasteless joke, let me reassure you that this is an Aly Kantor play -- which means this unexpected idea is handled with enormous intelligence, craft, and care...and just the right amount of humor. Zelde and Lara are winsomely sharp-minded and sharp-witted, bursting with life and sass even as they navigate big ideas about identity, safety, and self-determination in historically awful circumstances. Really smart work here.

Scott Sickles is an absolute master of the wistfully semi-romantic two-hander. Whether his characters are starting something, stopping something, or missing the something that's staring them in the face, no one handles the lived-in realities of love and longing with the unique mix of wit, insight, nuance, and care that Sickles provides. Here, two long-time best just-friends have a brief non-encounter...that may be more...or may be not. But maybe...could? A lovely theatrical coup gives this sweet small moment a big swell of feeling, and all of us a wonderful holiday gift.