Recommended by Vince Gatton

This is just damn gorgeous. Dante Green writes a liminal-space love story that hops around in time, building in plenty of space and air for these fleshy, prickly, yearning souls to connect, disconnect, and possibly re-connect again. Here's a play that both demands and reward actors who are willing to breathe deep and give it their whole selves. Intimate magic.

A hilarious imagining of what it must have been like to be the unseen Peanuts parents. Expertly borrowing the tone of a 1950s sitcom, Mom and Dad fret over young Lucille's latest aggressive project, and wonder at their precocious children's baffling familiarity with psychiatry and Karl Marx. It's probably unintentional that it called to my mind The Bad Seed -- but it's certainly intentional that it made me laugh my face off. Bravo.

There's a lot going on in this short piece -- live TV, a seasick cameraman, tons of information about sharks, and a very ill-timed helicopter and dolphin release, to name a few -- but at its core it's a simple story of a relationship hitting a crossroads. Sully is most alive when she's out shark-chasing with Ben; Ben's ready for a more stable, settled life. Ben's choice and its consequences chum the waters for a funny and heart-stirring confrontation filled with science nerdery, big feelings, and that delicious gift of an ending. Bursts with life.

An absurdist winner, this wonderful spoof of experimental, movement-based theater never descends into mockery -- it's way too skillfully done, too actually good in its execution, to go low. This sequence of blackout-sketch lazzi is so cleverly calibrated, so finely escalated, that the laughs, the horror, and the pathos blend magnificently, yielding a tongue-in-cheek love letter to barebones theatricality that also stares into the abyss. Downes has succeeded in having his cake and eating it too -- well, no, actually: his watermelon. Brilliant.

I absolutely adore this witty, thoughtful, and ultimately very moving short, which brings breezy doof Achilles and angsty loner Iphigenia back together in the underworld, long after their one momentous encounter during the Trojan War. What begins like a very funny accidental reunion between the class jock and the emo girl turns into a deeper meditation on legacy, death, and what gives a life meaning, with both characters revealing unexpected depths. Kantor's wit is a joy, her play thoughtful, loving, and kind. Highly recommended, and not just for classics buffs.

The entire enormous series of Phillie McDougal plays is an equally enormous joy, filled with a sprawling cast of messy, mouthy, finely-delineated and unforgettable characters. This particular time-jumping subset serves especially delicious focus on Phil/Phillie’s complicated relationship to his mother, the balls-out brilliantly…well…self-assured Veronica, and to his trusted bestie Barbie/Barbara. 1970s queer adolescence, grotesque behavior from priests and nuns, and contemporary middle-aged grief and loss come in for the kind of ruthless, funny, and moving examination that only the sharp mind of DeVita can deliver.

Boy, oh boy, did I enjoy this disarming and witty father-son piece about what happens when Abraham and Isaac have to get home after...well, after what famously *almost* happened in the Bible *didn't* happen. Isaac's mouthy and unremarkably gay outrage is a freakin' joy to behold, and Abraham's desire to connect with his growing stranger of a son is beautiful and sweet. There are throwaway lines here that sparkle with such wit I want to quote them -- but won't, so they can slap an unexpected laugh out of you, too. Charming and winning and delightful.

Whew, what a tense multi-layered play this is: this claustrophobic cat-and-mouse drama about a parent-teacher conference with a loaded gun in the room also boasts a vividly emotional power-and-status struggle among the unseen kid characters bubbling underneath. I felt creeping anxiety right off the bat, and then white-knuckled through all the subtle shifts and reversals and turns, dreading all the places it might go...to then wind up someplace unexpected, unsettled and impressed with O'Day's masterful control of his characters and story. Effective and disturbing.

It seems that a lesson we often get in stories is to say "yes" to life, and see where it takes you. Here Daniel Prillaman spectacularly, egregiously, and hilariously tests that premise, in ways I guarantee you will not see coming. Jaw-dropping and utterly not right, this short play cracked me up and made me want to protect my sweet elderly mother from the knowledge that it exists.

A charming and intriguing guessing-game of a scifi two-hander, with great roles for actresses: the younger Maggie, a complex haiku of a role and no mere robot; and the elder Patricia, an ornery, fun, witty, kind, and emotionally deep character that any actress will itch to play. Full of questions and surprises about the choices that make a family, a life, and a human, not to mention the simple pleasure of making toast. Very satisfying.