Recommended by John Busser

Oh what fun... it would be to see this play performed. Especially for all the overzealous types this play satirizes. I think there is a manic case of overcorrecting on both sides of this issue and both sides get spanked here. Terrific.

Jack Levine's play is a terrific reminder that life at the back end doesn't have to be a series of diminishing returns. People can continue to enrich their lives with gusto... and pancakes. And broken bones. But hey, life is like that. You take the good with the bad. And can still enjoy the hell out of it. I hope I'm as up to the challenge to keep trying new things as I get older. Life begins at whatever age you are.

Anyone with a creative soul will identify with Paul Smith’s touching inside look at an actor who feels he never got the chance at the role he always longed to perform. The wisdom that comes with age allows him to realize that, although Hamlet is now in his rear view mirror, he still has a part to play in the creation of art. Sad and uplifting at the same time.

"Elbow room" never sounded more appropriate in this dinner party gone wrong by Emily McClain. a comedy that would be fun to stage as it is rife with opportunities for physical comedy. Dinner and a lot more gets served here, with hidden secrets, agendas, and highballs getting spilled. This would be fun to see!

This just wrecked me. A woman dealing with having part of her ripped away is comforted by her mother who has a unique insight to her daughter's pain. Powerfully told, this play should be required viewing.

I loved the resolution to this only because it makes absolutely the best sense. Glad the characters felt this way too. A fun little play with a really intriguing setup. This sort of this IS going to happen, and quite possibly in our lifetime (Maybe not the specifics, but the overall goal, assuredly). This very thing may happen. You never know, right?

Emily Hageman writes about a tragedy in the most heart-breaking of ways. She sets us up with two characters and lets us get to know them in the best of ways, laughing and joking and letting us see how they love one another. Then the afore-mentioned tragedy comes out and she shows us why theyARE in love with each other. They help each other weather the storm their lives are currently experiencing (with the help of a sock monkey, of course). Sad and uplifting at the same time, this is a wonderful tale of love and loss and love again.

Sometimes the scariest thing of all isn't what we see or hear. It's what we conjure up in our heads. And this play perfectly illuminates that fear by presenting us with a couple who bring more of that fear to the table with what they THINK they know than what they actually do. The payoff is wonderfully charming too. Like a more light hearted Twilight Zone episode. At least, that's what I'M bringing to it.

Sharp as a knife and blisteringly funny, Michael Tricca posits a seriously funny scenario which is so fitting for this time and place in America today. Like throwing a bag of fireworks on a dumpster fire, the result is chaotically funny and fun as hell to look at. This play made me laugh out loud a number of times in the reading. I can only imagine how much an audience would howl at seeing it performed.

It's not the destination, it's the journey that makes life so satisfying. And with that, we have a valuable life lesson for all the Ida Invisibles out there, barely registering through their own sense of (or lack thereof) worth. Jacquie Floyd presents us with a fairy tale that is anything but ordinary and a heroine who is extraordinary, but would never acknowledge it. But maybe living life with all it's problems and pitfalls is where we truly find a happy ending. Ida makes me believe in that.