Recommended by John Busser

This play will thaw the hardest of souls with a heart-breaking look at a relationship that appears to have ended (even though they had broken up earlier, they still cared deeply for each other) through a catastrophic brain injury that has robbed the victim of his most precious gift, his creative spark. Watching Vaughn try everything he can think of to reignite that spark but ultimately failing was devastating. You want a happy ending here and it just may never happen. The ambiguous ending allows us to imagine that hope still exists, but we may never know. Astonishing and agonizing.

Like a lost hidden gem from the Crypt Keeper's vault, this tale of blackmail, revenge and murderers getting their comeuppance is best served up hot, cold, any way at all, as long as it IS served! Scott Sickles never disappoints with the twists and turns. Would love to see a couple of actresses weave their way through this web of deceit. Produce this piece!

I see I recommended this way back in 2020 and raved about it then. Well I just REREAD this along with the rest of his HELLISH DELIGHTS collection, and it's even better than I remembered. I WISH I could write characters as vivid as Scott Sickles does here. These are real people to me. They are funny as hell, passionate to a fault and will love each other until death do them part (not even a stretch in the joint will keep them away from each other). This is romance done right (no matter how wrong they were).

Mrs. Ferria just wants to feel like she matters. Like she has some control over things. And reclaiming her landscaping rocks is a way to help her do that. Even if nobody else really understands that. This is smart stuff under the guise of a gently comic story. But then, Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn is always writing smart stuff, even while she makes you laugh. This play is a followup to the earlier Backyard Stonehenge, and you would do yourself a big favor to seek that one out as well. Or better yet, just read ALL her works.

This was wonderful. Touching, funny, sad, and relatable in the best way. I think even non-pet owners will find a great deal of empathy for this relationship between a human and a dog as life happens in stages. Inevitably, one journey ends and the other goes on. Ellen Koivisto handles this transition with real delicacy and tenderness. I loved this piece. And now, I gotta go hug my dog...

Like Dick's problem with Anne, this play ends much sooner than I wanted. These two characters by Marilyn Ollett have a great rhythm and, despite their bedroom antics, fit well together. Dick may have trouble finding G, but you won't have any trouble finding L (laughs).

Love is never easy to navigate in the best of times, but here, Melissa Milich shows us that love finds a way even in the worst of times. A soldier just ready to ship out has to walk a tricky minefield back home as he tries to propose to a sweetheart who had no idea he was getting ready to ship out. Not only must he prepare for her "friendly fire", but he has to deal with unsympathetic neighbors who don't appreciate his late night incursion. This is bittersweet and yet as we find, some battles are totally worth it.

Completely bizarre and eminently watchable, tell me the audience that wouldn't be picturing this all in their heads even as the customers onstage are losing their minds trying to do the same. I love experimental plays like this and Daniel Prillaman doesn't disappoint.

In a strange way, this seems to be what we're heading towards, doesn't it? Dating waters are tough to navigate and while there is something to be said for spontaneous interaction, people like their boundaries set right up front. Mike Byham shows us where this could logically extend to. Mike makes us want to root for these two folks and while a coin toss can't be seen as a sure thing, here in this play, maybe it can.

An imaginative take (or takes as it turns out) of Frankenstein, as Aly Kantor gives us a number of mini scenes that all have their own unique look at the consequences of bringing the dead back to life. I loved the multiple choices presented here and each was as valid as the next. What a fun experiment for two actresses to be able to pull off.