Recommended by Vince Gatton

On so many levels, this short play is a JOURNEY - an actual, physical one for our main character, and a terrifying, heart-straining emotional one for the audience. Told primarily through voicemail messages and with a WTF-worthy plot turn, Daniel’s fun night out goes grotesquely, apocalyptically wrong, and his only thought is to save his best friend/no-longer-secret crush from the horror — and maybe save their friendship. But is it already too late? With its structural simplicity, enormous emotional stakes, stunning set-pieces, and a heart-in-your-throat climax, You’ve Reached Justin is a marvel of a short piece. Damn.

Well, crap, do I love this — it’s funny, damn serious, hard, warm, and sweet. Christian St. Croix shows a terrific mastery of character, dialogue, and the small actions between people that speak volumes. Erica and Julian feel specific and individual, rounded and real, their complicated mother-son history made clear to us without a breath of clunky exposition. Filled with wonderful moments and rich material for actors, I’d hope to see this done far and wide.

A sequel to Twelfth Night that's a charming, funny, and thoughtful winner. Refreshingly modern in its notions of gender and sexuality while staying fully grounded in the world of the original, Pflaster gives us a respectful and respectable pastiche of Shakespeare (including some delicious wordplay) that's fun and funny without devolving into spoof or parody. (There's a "Good Knight" bit that heads into "Who's on First" territory in a great way.) Made with (and about) love and care, Malvolio's Revenge sees 12th Night's happy ending, and gets it, sure, but...has a few questions.

As invaders burn down their village, two medieval serf sisters have to make some important life choices in this damn funny short play. While delivering all the wit of a great Monty Python sketch, Fire and Bread also digs deeper, slyly contemplating the existential absurdity of life and asking questions about what gives it purpose and meaning. (Plus, the conclusion aligns pretty much exactly with my own personal approach to problem-solving, so yeah, Ky Weeks gets me. Or at least his medieval serfs do.)

To say that Nandita Shenoy’s RAGE PLAY is timely and powerful and important would be entirely true, but that would give unfairly short shrift to how flat-out hilarious and wildly entertaining it is. Starting with a bang and letting up only in the most unexpected ways, this violent and absurdist ride is thought-provoking, deceptively simple, and playfully theatrical in the best sense; any production promises to be a helluva workout for its actors, its fight choreographer, and its audience. May there be many.

OK, look. I may be a jaded old sumbish, but I unexpectedly misted right the hell up at the money moment in this sweet, easy-going short story about a genius and his former love. As the pair share a relaxed and private moment both in and out of the sight of God, they end up contemplating the past, the future, and the eternal -- a lot to pack into one brief reunion scene, but Lee Lawing makes it appear effortless. Likable, actable, and very moving, this one's a winner for the secret (and not-so-secret) sentimentalists among us.

An excellent vehicle for young actors and a nice riff on being the new kid, Places also takes a metatheatrical turn that ends up being more than just a gimmick. Andrew Martineau gives us a solid metaphor for displacement and belonging, wrapped in a highly entertaining short package.

Imaginative, moving, and often weirdly fun, Void is a tense and rewarding two-hander featuring two compelling young women. The story is infused with dark magic and folklore, but the play is grounded by disarmingly down-to-earth dialogue and acerbic humor. The cat-and-mouse between these two young women, one of whom thinks they’re strangers and the other who knows they’re not, yields to a deeply-felt family drama at the play’s heart. Playful and sad, intimate and spectacular, magical and mundane, Katelynn Kenney has stirred together something really satisfying here.

I always love it when a play is not about what the characters think it’s about, and such is the case in Debbie Lamedman’s The Incident. A comic-ish mystery-ish about confronting a scary neighbor over a suspected crime — which turns out to be both less and much more than anyone thinks — this sly little play is more revealing about the characters and their relationship dynamics than some of them ever realize. Great fun on several levels.

I love this play so much. Sara Farrington captures these 9-year-olds in all their imaginative glory without ever condescending: Sage and Mickey are such fun, but also complicated, full humans, their lives increasingly shaped by the messy off-stage adult dramas they can only see through a glass darkly. Their joys, thrills, and terrors bond them to us, and to each other, in ways that are funny, painful, and ultimately deeply moving. Such good stuff.