Recommended by John Busser

I don't know whether I should feel guilty or not for thoroughly enjoying this short play from Aly Kantor, but she certainly seems to have perfectly captured the mix of emotion, inquisitiveness, shame and delight that being a teenage girl is (I'm guessing of course, but I DO have sisters). Mixing fact, fiction, and the internet, that bastion of truth, these characters are wonderfully realized. We get to know how curious they are over their changing bodies, and how scary some of those prospects are. It's all wonderfully realized by Kantor's dialogue. Just terrific stuff.

Dontcha just love a twist ending?I do. And John McDonald provides a doozy here. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the home goods store, some purchases can bite you on the... well, light a candle and find out.

Well, I did NOT see that coming. This is a tale we've seen before; Death (here personified as Mortis) challenges a somewhat arrogant someone to a game and we expect to see his comeuppance. But James Perry puts a fun little twist to the game in it's conclusion. I'd love to see this "played" out on stage. Chess might not seem like the most riveting visual for an audience, but there's enough tension and dark comedy to put an audience on the edge of their seats.

Absolutely hilarious! Kate Danley obliterates her target here, but in the most hysterical way. Who here can't identify with John and Mary, desperately trying to vamp while waiting for an oblivious co-star to get his dance belt on? We've all been caught in this onstage battleground. I loved the escalation of their pretending to put off doing... the THING. And my favorite line was Tom's first. "I'M NOT READY." (I heard it in my head as the character from Holy Grail who says "I'm not dead yet!") The chill that sends up John and Mary's spines is priceless.

A reminder that, history may be written by the winners, but it's the losers who take up the editorial process. This scathing indictment of censorship is short, darkly disturbing and funny AF (provided you don't let the terrifying implications settle in.)

In two minutes, Vivian Lermond makes you want to see the last two years of the journey of old Geeky Gerry. Here we see the journey completed (up to this point, that is), but In listening to Mitch spin you Gerry's pre-transformation image, you are left longing to know what twists and turns Gerry took to be the man he is now. Everyone's life path has such twists, as Vivian makes clear. And in only 5 short paragraphs. That's amazing writing.

Kevin B proves that the real menace to any tourist beach town isn't the blood-thirsty man-eating killing machines in the water. It's the town council. In deliriously short-sighted fashion, the tourist planning committee makes it clear where their priorities lie. And while sharks may not have evolved in millions of years, we get to see that humans do... as they turn tragedy on it's ear and figure out a way to make a profit. We're gonna need a bigger budget.

Never judge a book by it's cover or a Krampus by it's... krampusing, I guess. Monica Cross shows us everyone has a public persona, and then there's the side they never show the public. And hilariously enough, it's one I never expected. I mean Krampus LOOOOOOOVES his job, right? (And c'mon, if YOU had HIS job, you'd secretly love it too) But here we see the softer, squishier side of this guy. And we love him all the more for it. Thanks for this Christmas present, Monica.

I certainly didn't see that wonderful twist coming. Wendy Vogel suckered me in to thinking this was going to be one type of interaction, one that we've all seen before, and upended my expectations in a way that delighted me to no end. I love this kind of misdirection (and I hesitate to tell you what that is. Experience it yourself) And I would love to see an audience react to this. Hopefully they will the same way I did. Fun and relatable to anyone who has a child, or heck, has BEEN a child.

A wonderful idea for a play. Showcasing the richness of a single character's life isn't an easy thing to do in most circumstances, mainly because we are almost always getting the character at their "present" state. Here, Arianna Rose cleverly allows us a tour of a lifetime of experiences, both good and bad, and the result is a telescopic view of an entire life. We see the roads taken, not taken, missed, and avoided but mostly we learn how the past journey informs the present. This is terrific character work and I would love to see her at 85. Beautiful.