Recommended by Mike Byham

Who doesn't like a good old-fashioned farce - and Tom Erb's WEDDING SECRETS is just that! Creative staging elements and hilarious mishaps result in a wedding to remember. The characters are sharply-drawn and their choices are suitably questionable leading to the intended fun and funny. This would be a great piece for adventurous community theatres.

Love this! We get a lot in our one minute - said and unsaid. Not sure where I thought this was heading but certainly where it went. Wonderful concept, genuine dialogue and relatable characters bring you a WTF ending. My kind of play. Well done!

Tom Erb's PAPA'S WORLD SERIES is a march down memory lane - especially those of us with Pittsburgh roots having spent time at Forbes Field. It's not an entirely happy parade though as disturbing family secrets are revealed and digested. Are we dealing with a ghost? Or perhaps Tommy is navigating a conversation with an inner voice? Either way - this is an effective piece highlighting the power of reminiscence. Very stageable.

What a clever little play this is. The clues for the final reversal (perhaps just a realization?) are sprinkled throughout. "Everyone hurts each other. All the time." On its surface - THE BED TRICK appears to be an exploration of misogyny and power dynamics between sexes. At its heart - Jillian Blevins creates a masterpiece commentary on what we're willing to put up with when we find the object of our desire, and what happens when this desire is unrequited. Love hurts. Impressive work.

What a sweet reminder of the joy of finding the right someone - even if that right someone has been right in front of you the whole time. The dialogue is natural and flows effortlessly. This short would be a real crowd-pleaser at festivals. Well done!

This play is a dagger to the heart of parents, eliciting feelings those of us familiar with the pain will recognize, while creating a space for empathy in those who aren't. Only five pages and yet the story shared resonates as a much larger tome. Brilliant writing.

Yeah - this is fun! I can see this staged pretty effectively. A humorous, creepy delight, Jonny Bolduc gives us ten minutes of marvelous mayhem on the playground. Thank god I was never a teacher - although the pair of lead characters in Bolduc's play prove to be up to the task. Kids these days ...

What makes humans human? Marilyn Ollett answers this question in THE FOURTH PYRAMID. The play effectively intertwines the power of love and music as the magic ingredient differentiating feeling being (most of us) from soulless machine. This short play hits the mark on a number of levels - the setting and tone are just right for the message. Very well done!

12:34am is a fever-dream darkly-tinted rom-com where the unimaginable should be expected. A runaway bride, a couple of her friends, a frat-house boy with a milk fetish, Russian spies, a clueless lawman and a human cow populate the stage in a frenzied car chase across the pending apocalyptic American landscape, leading to an actual wedding accompanied by nuclear fireworks. Fast-paced witty dialogue (some in Russian) propels the action. This is fun!

Wow! So much said in one minute! CREAK is simple story-telling done effectively well. And the ending is simply perfection. Sublime.