Recommended by John Busser

A children's fantasy tale that is anything but childish. This play had me at the get go, with a wonderful mixing of (theatrical) real life and made-up storytelling that exists in a fairy tale way, shifting you between two worlds where both are equally important in telling the true story of what is going on with our heroine, Chelsea. The other characters, family, friends, doctors all become larger than life, serving a higher function than just being aspects or obstacles in her life. We all should have this active an imagination in dealing with our existence. Truly nice work, Jacquie.

Murder goes meta with this terrific piece about a crime scene that becomes a play scene and some characters aren't sure where exactly they are. It's delightfully playful. Call the cops and stage this now.

All the world's a stage alright. And in this case, a very funny one. Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos takes us on a journey through the Bard's world with some heavy duty mashing up, resulting in an hilarious performance. Would love to see this performed as a warmup to the real thing.

Life is full of repetitious nonsensical actions that we grudgingly perform daily, because that's what's expected of us. Jan Probst takes this axiom to task and lets us see there is another way to do things. And she does it with one of the most familiar forms around, the nursery rhyme characters of Jack and Jill. Or in this case, letting her put her best foot forward, Jill and Jack. There is a nice bit about Jack's motivation which prevents him from being a one-dimensional character though and leaves both characters with their dignity intact.

Things fall apart at the worst times (then again, is there ever a GOOD time for things to fall apart?) and Scott Sickles shows us two characters who lose their footing in very different ways. Louis loses both a relationship and almost his life. Kelian also loses the relationship, but through his choice which brings its own instability. Both characters come vividly to life here as Sickles presents some real stakes here. The loss on both sides is palpable. This is wonderful writing and deserves a shot on stage.

Emily McClain shows us some awful personal dynamics here in a riveting discussion about what's fair and what's not in both a board game and real life. Real life cheating (in this case, to hang onto a job) has real life consequences, just not exactly the ones Anthony wanted. He has destroyed two lives here. A co-worker's and his own. This is no game. But it IS a great script.

What a sneaky, low down, under-handed, manipulative, trickster Marcia Eppich-Harris is! And I mean that in the best way. She hooked me right from the start here, creating a crafty devil to rival the best of them. Not with threats or scares, but with some convincing positive reinforcement. I loved this play. Well done Marcia.

Bruce Karp never fails to make me laugh and this play is no exception. Taking car safety features to the hilariously logical extreme, he envisions a car that is the ultimate cock block. I would love to see this staged for an audience of parents who will have had possible thoughts on the same thing (protecting the sexual integrity of their sons and daughters), but who also who might just identify a little bit with the characters themselves.

Playing to the audience in such a meta fashion gives this look at a woman unable to let go of past fame a touching, yet surreal quality. She thinks she's playing to the crowd, the actor portraying her KNOWS she is playing to one, while the other character doesn't and the actor does at the same time. It's weirdly self-referential and all the more fascinating because of it. And while this is a fiction, just like in real life, some people are never able to move on. This is smart stuff.

I don't own a cat, and I'm sure if I did, my life would be filled with lots of bandages, but thanks to this wonderfully hilarious monologue, I have learned one of the most important human-cat interaction rituals. Like the best YouTube instructional videos, this monologue is precise, informative, ENTERTAINING AS ALL HELL, and no longer than it needs to be. I'm a dog person and I'd still love to see this performed.