Recommended by Robert J. LeBlanc

CALLING CHARACTERS by Rachel Feeny-Williams is a Toy Story for playwrights. What do your characters do in your mind when not in a show? Feeny-Williams shows us in this fun and delightfully inventive play. Stereotype? Lead? Support character? Voiceover? All are represented in the Character Lounge, a bar on the edge of a playwright's mind. It's where the characters wait to be recast in their next piece. Its a witty show that will make.you want to write an apology letter to your characters.

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS is a beautiful story about loss and hope. Luke is spending a quiet afternoon watering his plants and talking to his philodendron like an old friend. Jared interrupts his day trying to collect a debt. The show is a masterful mix of comedy and drama driven by Philip Middleton Williams's gift with dialogue. At its heart, Forgive Us Our Debts is about hope and closure. The story is sad, funny, heartfelt, dignified, and completely relatable.

VISITATION by Andrew Martineau is a beautifully touching and suspenseful two-hander. It's a tight and emotional journey of love, guilt, and regret. Iris is suffering in prison for mysterious reasons that come to light by the end. Ben is suffering from an act that led to his mother's imprisonment. Visitation is a wonderful punch that leaves you aching with understanding.

Doug DeVita's, THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW, is a brilliant look at expectations, dreams, and escape. Its wonderfully rich characters and fast-fire dialogue accurately recreates the high-stress world of advertising, the frustrations with toxic management and problem clients, the long-term effects of following through on expectations when your dreams were waylaid by reality. Anger, fear, loss, bigotry, hope, toxic people, and loving friendship are the foundations of the narrative. There are characters you love and characters you love to hate all written in a realistic, honestly funny, and biting way. This play is smart, fresh, and very well done.

SORTING IT OUT by Neil Radtke is as touching as it is unexpected. Emily is graduating from High School. Cindy, her sister, did whatever she could to make sure that Emily had the path to the best future after their mother's untimely death. Cindy made mistakes while young and tried to impart a message of responsibility to Emily. This is a play about cause and effect and the touching relationship between a child and her older sister. It's the type of play that lets the audience sort it out at the end. Wonderfully done.

2020 left us all with a deep understanding of fear and loss–fear of infection, of transmission, and the loss of our normal, of what we used to love. DC Cathro's FEVER (Radio Play) is a complicated and touching analogy of the world during the pandemic. Angel wants to go out to see a band and dance outside with her boyfriend. Mama is wheelchair-bound, high risk, and is afraid to let her. Fever offers a complex relationship between mother and daughter made of love, guilt, sadness, and longing. It's a story of before-and-afters and of finding grace in the new normal.

2020 left us all with a deep understanding of fear and loss–fear of infection, of transmission, and the loss of our normal, of what we used to love. DC Cathro's FEVER (Stage Play) is a complicated and touching analogy of the world during the pandemic. Angel wants to go out to see a band and dance outside with her boyfriend. Mama is wheelchair-bound, high risk, and is afraid to let her. Fever offers a complex relationship between mother and daughter made of love, guilt, sadness, and longing. It's a story of before-and-afters and of finding grace in the new normal.

The best dramas have elements of comedy to lighten the mood, relax the viewer, and sneak in to heighten the emotion of the show. MISSION by Robert Weibezahl does just that. Lee and Jamie have a failing relationship. They lost their connection to each other and are on a mission of their own through their travel. Weibezahl crafts a realistic couple navigating a rough patch while keeping the roles gender-neutral. This dramedy would be a dream to cast. You could simply pick the best performers from the audition and pair them together.

IT'S TOTALLY NOT by DC Cathro is a quick funny two-hander with amazing quippy pacing. Coincidences build and Margie is beginning to think the world is trying to tell her something. Her partner Duane tries to bring her back to reality. The play shines with its witty dialogue. The conversation feels real, the jokes are very well written, and the pay-off at the end is superb. I laughed out loud reading this show and would love to see it performed live. This show would be perfect for a festival with a supernatural theme.

BE THAT AS IT MAY is a show that will be a stand-out in festivals. Andrew Martineau's quick-witted comedy has some great unexpected twists and fantastic opportunities for the actors to shine. In the show, Russ, a professor at a local college, gets laid off and takes drastic measures. Joe, the dean of the school, tries to stop him from making a mistake. The layers of this show are what really sets it apart and lays the foundation for a hilarious punchline. Well…be that as it may, I think this show deserves to be seen on stage.