Recommended by John Busser

I was stunned at how this hit. Mixing the festive with the horrific and then the REAL hit happens. That it all goes unnoticed by those closest. This is maddening and breathtaking at the same time. I've read this over 5 times in the last 5 minutes and it has power every single time.

I read this piece dreading the outcome as it's an all-too-familiar story today. That doesn't make this play any less powerful. Wyndham's writing takes an uncomfortable subject and adds one more knife thrust to it, by having the teacher say he was "trained" for this. As if that would help. Shining a light on the fallacy of arming teachers, this may be a play Wnndham shouldn't have to write, but it IS one that everyone should see performed.

The synopsis alone hooked me right away. Then I read this charmer. I have no idea how you'd stage it without stretching a tendon or two, but I'd love to see it. Not only fun, but you might just relearn something you've probably forgotten. How many other plays can you say that about?

Alien parasites! Lawyer jokes! Earth mating rituals! And some outright political satire! I am so in on this one. Lam's piece made me laugh and ponder just who might really be running things and why they are running them the way they are.

What a delight this was to read. I'll bet it plays even better onstage. A play about that special someone and what it means to meet to woman of your dreams. The punchline is worth the price of admission alone. Nicely done, Ken.

Pardon the obvious pun, but this piece gets to the "heart" of the matter of how difficult it is to sustain a relationship in the long run. Especially when one's perception changes over time but maybe the other person's doesn't. Max takes what could have been just a fun piece about a vampire (and make no mistake, there's plenty of clever humor here), and infuses it with both heart and soul. This vampire tale doesn't suck!

There are those who will get this play and there are those who will REALLY get this play! Either way, it's the beginning, middle and end of a beautiful play.

A tender look at how we deal with the death of a friend. I loved the way Molly portrays the awkwardness of conflicting emotions. How we deal with not only the passing of someone we know, but also with realizing we might not be the friend we thought we were is central to this play. Are we judging ourselves too harshly? Another part of this play I found wonderful is the idea of having unique, yet unlikely, mementos of your connection to the deceased. Special bonds are created in unlikely places. Well done.

Gill has his finger on the fevered pulse of a society that wants to go down partying in the midst of a world-wide plague. How prescient and timely this is! With a heaping helping of gallows humor, the characters treat a global disaster in terms they can get their heads around, by noting how inconvenient the curfews and quarantines affect their endless bouts of gratification. And when a late addition partygoer shows up, it's business as usual. This play shows a small world view of a big world concern in a darkly funny and ironic way.

While reading this, I was struck how the two versions of the fight were seen (and justified) by the participants. What exactly is the real truth? I have a feeling that all the viral videos in the world won't answer that definitively, and Colleen O'Doherty's play perfectly encapsulated this. The point of view (on both sides here) takes on a dangerous slant in getting to the core of what really happens in any story. Well done.