Recommended by John Busser

A wonderful tribute to the type of comedy dialogue I grew up with, The Blowout features a loving couple with a bit of bite to them as the lovingly bicker and bait each other while waiting for a pair of pants to be mended. You see their chemistry immediately even while petty jealousies and insecurities pepper their interactions. Classic Simonesque banter.

Of course, Robert LeBlanc had me at "Rubber Fuck Monkeys!"

Wow! I didn't expect that turn of events. Eric Moore's Life Raft was a real kick in the teeth after setting up an intriguing premise (stranded survivors in a life raft), then introducing an unseen element to heighten the tension, and filter it through the viewpoints of two opposing philosophies. This play grabs you and hooks you in with the possibilities and does not disappoint with its ending. I loved it.

The character of Thalia says at one point "People aren't really boring. They only seem boring." And it's true. There are hidden depths to everyone. And Kim Ruyle shows this in a most elegant fashion by giving us 4 characters having a seemingly innocuous conversation about creativity and where our inspirations come from. Although nothing earth shattering happens in the course of the ten pages, all four characters emerge as fully-fleshed out personalities, all fully capable of being the the most interesting character in their own life story. A wonderful slice of life in ten minutes.

A fun little monologue that does a surprising amount of world building to go along with the story of the terrors of dating nowadays. Her last minute thoughts on whether she made the mistake of sleeping with a possible pre-zombified cannibal made me laugh out loud.

As much as we don't like to admit it, friendships never last in their original form. Some have a hard time getting past it while others let relationships fade away or at least change into something else. Here we have the central conflict of this wonderful 10 minute play by Rachael Aberman. This sounds so true to life, it's painful.

A blissful setup and what looks like 4 friends enjoying fresh air turns into a nightmare with the push of a button. And not just from the remote in the play. Mara is discontented and tries to instigate a change, gently pushing the others to take matters into their own hands. It does not go well. An extremely intriguing payoff (all the more interesting as no clear explanation is provided) offers multiple shocks as characters turn on each other. This play would be wonderful to see staged.

Amazing and terrifying at the same time, this is a fairy tale nightmare that resonates so true when we consider the atmosphere of "alternate facts" and "Big Lie" storytelling that is our real life landscape today. A leader with too much power and not enough wisdom brings about the downfall of those who blindly follow her in a way that seems impossible. But words have an effect on an audience that can have dire consequences. The words of this play however, will have an even greater effect on a theater audience. Pure enjoyment.

A gut punch of a short play that runs the gamut of emotions and genres. Starting out as a possible(?) meet cute over a phone, it quickly turns strange, then unsettling as the calls persist, no answers are found, and more questions keep coming up. Then terror sets in as the implications of this being a global phenomenon come out. Most upsetting is the identity of the caller is never fully explained. Sure to give an audience the creeps. Really effective!

The risk of time travel and changing paths is skewered in funny fashion by Mark Harvey Levine in this fast-paced, but smartly written ten minutes. Having a man meet multiple future iterations of himself doing the opposite of the preceding version adds to the frenzy, and then, just when you wonder how he can reconcile things in a satisfying manner, Levine manages to pull a solution out of left field and tie everything up in a nice Moebius shaped bow. You never go down the wrong path with this guy. Great stuff.

Talk about method acting, this hilarious short piece soars better than Icarus in a catapult thanks to Rand Higbee's zany premise, inspired dialogue and an ending that kills, so to speak. Really fun stuff here. Would love to see this staged.