Recommended by John Busser

An interview that starts out spectacularly weird and gets even weirder as it goes, which is the charm of this piece by Cam Torres. Despite how much Dylan flusters and blusters his way through what could have been a painful interaction, his quick wit and nerve win over the interviewer as they connect in a real way that is usually absent from these kinds of dealings. Dylan may have been applying for a different job than the one he ends up doing for Donna, but he wins both her and the audience over. Fun stuff.

This is just the sort of absurdity that brings a smile to my face and makes me think laughing thoughts. This was hilarious in its buildup and perfect in execution. Tom Moran has written a wonderful gem of a play. A silly situation with enough real-world familiarity to make it sing true. I would love to watch an audience of parents who wished they had the foresight to do what Mark did in this play. Just terrific.

What are our dreams REALLY trying to tell us? Monica Cross presents us with one such scenario in this odd yet strangely meaningful monologue looking at one such dream and its message. And although the setup is familiar, the dream takes us to an unexpected resolution. Can salvation come from a zombie? Cross makes me think it can.

Filled with tension and a mounting sense of dread and inevitability, this piece by Dan Taube starts one way and then pulls the rug out from under you when you realize what is really going on. Two great roles for actors who want to go to a dark place, this would be terrific to see staged.

As someone who swears liberally, I was fascinated by Christine Williamson's experimental piece, Colorful Metaphors. Like listening to a foreign language, you can pick up more than what's actually said by paying attention to pace, volume, inflection, body language and other indicators of meaning even if you don't understand the words, or more importantly if you DO, agree with the words. I'd love to see this performed with an actual audience as I would be paying attention to their reaction as much as I would the play. Really intriguing!

Squabbling siblings is always fun to watch and Erin Osgood creates two good ones in Lizzie and Brant (PERFECT names) as they wait for the reading of their late father's will. Then the bombshell drops. A secret wife, much too pretty and much too young to suit them, they ramp up the fight factor to great effect. Then the real twist comes. Fast and funny, with some great character roles.

Oh my God, I laughed my head off reading this. Like an exercise in herding kittens in a waterfall, no one stays on task in this hilarious 10-minute play by Ave Love Hanna. And we are rewarded with a blazing fast look at a Home Owner's Association Board that disintegrates into chaos. Like a train wreck you can't look away from, this play should be seen by everyone!

Even the most horrific situations need to be dealt with in a calm, organized matter or else it all goes to hell. Vince Gatton shows us this in a terrific 10 minutes that lets us in on one family that tries to deal with the direct effects of an unusual crisis and the varying degrees of success. Not at all what you think it is at first, we delve pretty quickly into Twilight Zone territory and boy, is it fun. Would love to see this on stage or Zoomed.

We've all been there. Bored out of our mind, all suggestions shot down, easier to bitch about than do something about it. Julie Zaffarano gets it exactly right. Then "The Jar" comes out. A receptacle of suggestions from when they were more adventurous, more daring, more indulgent. The only thing stopping them is... themselves. And again, how universal this feels. When did we lose such confidence in ourselves, especially with our significant other? An added plus is that these characters can be any race, age and gender, giving their choices added spice in the variety of combinations. Great stuff...

Michele Miller presents us with Victoria Gold, an all too present personality in our current climate of fear-based "fact", science denial, social accountability and too much time spent online, alone amidst thousands un fellow un-thinkers. This play is frightening in showing how intractable their "alternative-fact' thinking is. All in the name of followers, of course. This is good stuff here. Michelle has struck gold with Victoria Gold.