Recommended by John Busser

This piece from David Lipschutz is absurdly comical in plot and would be a blast to see onstage. While waiting for the titular event to take place, we get to see a courtship also take flight, so to speak. But the true genius of this is watching this scatological love story turn into a true learning moment as we get a PSA about the really important things in life. Better start wearing a hat.

There are all kinds of isolation. Some may seem, ironically enough, more glamorous than others but it doesn't belay the fact that isolation brings helplessness. Bruce Karp shows us this in a terrific short play that makes us feel both helpless at the situation and hopeful knowing that, although we can be separated by distance or circumstance, we really are all in this together.

As spook stories go, that was right up there with the best of them. First, subverting your expectations with the monster in the woods trope, then giving you a neck breaking twist on the last few pages. Not where I thought this was going AT ALL. As an added plus, making it an audio play just lets your mind go bonkers filling in the visual gaps between the audio cracks. Loads of fun.

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.