Recommended by Tom Moran

I saw this piece at the Valdez Theatre Conference, and it was as emotionally affecting as anything I saw all week. It unfolds like a series of gut punches, as the entirely relatable protagonist finds herself sucked deeper and deeper into the delusions of her malignant narcissist lover/captor. You could hear a pin drop for the entirety of this gripping piece - and this was only a reading. Seeing it fully staged, complemented by the (sub)titular monsters, would truly elevate the experience.

I had the privilege of participating in a reading of this piece at the Valdez Theatre Conference and enjoyed it immensely. It is thought-provoking, timely, thoroughly modern in conception and yet timeless in structure, and full of characters that are somehow both archetypes and well-rounded, relatable individuals. It's also constantly surprising and gut-bustingly hilarious. What a pleasure.

Pointed satire that is simultaneously ridiculous and scary. Would love to see it staged, especially to watch the physical comedy.

A nuanced meditation on reality TV and how unreal it is, and just how twisted the family dynamic can become when it's all done for the camera. Compelling and believable throughout.

What a fascinating piece. It starts out with a fun and wildly entertaining clash of genres, but devolves into something much darker. It starts out silly and could have easily concluded that way. but O'Neill chooses a less obvious and more fraught path, and has created a play that I think will long linger in audiences' minds.

An intense, sad piece that builds up to a strong, affecting reveal. Though it deals with universal themes, it draws much of its power and effectiveness from being strongly rooted in a specific place and time.

A silly, breezy piece that lives up to the title. Radtke does a good job at writing a piece that is both a bad play and a self-aware critique of bad plays, and that leads to a convoluted but very satisfying reveal. Fun to read and would certainly be entertaining live.

Gibbs' piece starts out silly (and meta) and ends with an unexpected spurt of emotional honesty. Gibbs does a good job of modulating both, and crafting a substantial-yet-entirely-believable arc of change for a short play. So many plays about people separating never quite establish what brought them together in the first place, but "Interplanetary" shows how some of the things that attract us can also ultimately pull us apart.

A funny, well-crafted, and thoughtful meditation on what makes life worth living. Which is a hard thing to do in a 10-minute piece, but Dellagiarino pulls it off with a tight script, engaging characters and a plot that hums along at just the right tempo.

The term psychopath has (unsurprisingly) a pretty much universally negative connotation. So it's fascinating to see one both treated sympathetically and inserted into a love story. That bold choice has resulted in a well-crafted, tight narrative that raises a host of interesting philosophical questions and continually goes in surprising directions.