Recommended by Vince Gatton

Well, if you can finish this play without wiping smeary tears off your face, you are made of stronger stuff than I. In IZZY AT ZOOM THERAPY, Jillian Blevins melds Greek tragedy with the existential despair of the world we are muddling through today, and makes it all deeply personal and profoundly moving. Blevins’ natural wit and disarming way with dialogue make room for big emotions and a gorgeous payoff. Small, quiet, chilling, and poignant, this one will stick with you.

Vampire stories that are queer and sexy are pretty easy to find, I grant you; but one that's also exceptionally witty, romantic, wistful, and forward-looking? Loaded with wry repartee and metaphors that resonate in entirely new ways? For that, you'll have to search harder...or just read Sam Heyman's Literally Forever, a fresh and utterly charming addition to the genre. Better yet, produce it, so more people can find it.

Justice delayed is justice denied, sure, but sometimes you just gotta eat the lava cake. Kate's deranged activist spirit and Holly's wry, patient pragmatism combine here to delicious, witty effect. The urge to quote favorite lines is strong -- the dry wit in the repartee on these pages punched laugh after laugh out of me -- but I shall resist, so that you can have the pleasure of discovering them all for yourself. A winner.

The beauty and terror and threat and opportunity of the world around us get a clear-eyed, passionate defense in this invigorating, appropriately jaded, yet fiercely humane short monologue. (And yes, those animals in Australia are no freakin' joke.)

A young woman discovers something weird about herself, and plunges down an absurdist, bonkers, funny, and ultimately very moving metatheatrical rabbit hole to understand its meaning and implications. Some things, it turns out, you just have to crawl through fire to learn. Kudos to Daniel Prillaman for bringing a happy tear to my jaded old eyes.

There are few things I find more comedically satisfying onstage than seething, boiling, incandescent rage. Happily for me, the always deft David Hilder has written a three-act, 10-minute marriage play that serves up plenty of that white-hot deliciousness -- in a script that's paradoxically warm, charming, gentle, oh-so-relatable, and downright delightful. Nicely done.

Funny, quirky, sharp of wit, and deeply emotional, Aly Kantor's 37 Origami Bees hits all the notes I've come to love about her work. One of my favorite Kantorisms is the way she writes friendships: how the people who love us help us through moments of crisis, often just by reminding us of who we are. Add in a dash of wonder and mystery and way too many stimulants, and you get this very current, very funny, very lovely play.

Stunning. Scott Sickles' gift for high-stakes confrontation is in full play here, the sense of danger and a ticking clock gripping you from the start. But it's the extraordinary character of Mitsuko that elevates this short play to another level: first in her watchful silence, then in a stunning tour de force of words, movement, and persuasion. Sickles history lesson is powerful and, sadly, timely; his deft use of metaphor one of the strongest of the Origami Bees plays. Highly recommend.

Endearingly funny, abundantly self-aware, and tremendously kind, Steve Martin's short story about cows, creativity, limitations, ingenuity, and longing for something more will make your heart swell. Martin's signature warmth and playfulness are on full display here, as well as his understanding that disappointment is a staple of life's menu; he reminds us that it's what you do with it that counts. Lovely.

Sweeping, intimate, romantic, sentimental, and made from keenly observed, highly specific ingredients…this is a dense, rich, creamy delight.