Recommended by Toby Malone

'KINDERGARDEN' is a devastatingly frank discussion of sexual abuse made almost more unbearable in the casting of grown actors portraying five year olds who openly (sometimes blithely) discuss situations they can't understand but are scarring them deeply. Add to that the juxtaposition of a hyper-sexualized schoolyard choreography of Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball' and this piece will leave you gasping. An important, devastating piece.

I've always loved the hopelessly sad story of Lady Jane Grey, the 'Nine Days' Queen', who found herself and her faith at the wrong end of the wrath of the woman who would become known as Bloody Mary, the quintessential footnote of sixteenth century England. Rachel Luann Strayer has created the story that Jane has always deserved: an irreverent, witty, irrepressibly modern take on Jane, her family, and what might have been. This is an absolute delight with incredibly strong roles for actresses and is the rare play to truly cast new light on history. A real find.

The fact that this rollicking, quippy ride was inspired by actual tweets from Jose Canseco and his desire to capture sasquatches alongside fee-paying fanboys is one thing, but for Evan Baughfman to have interwoven Nate and Marissa's long-standing arguments, abandonment trauma, dystopian Supersquatch futures, and a time-travelling plea to not squander your future kid's college fund is an act of pure magic. I love a play that takes a kernel of a concept and draws it out to its ridiculous ends: this one just nails the idea.

Wow! This is one of those plays that you pass through warily, trusting that the playwright will look after you - and we all know that Ruben Carbajal will - only to get to the detonation at the end that makes you immediately re-read with the new context in mind, effectively giving you a new play entirely. A beautiful imagining of an unfathomable truth.

An incredible ride: Charlie O'Leary sets us up in familiar environs and uses language we think we recognize, but with an incredibly deft touch, uses world-building techniques that are never prescriptive or overt to show us that this is much, much deeper, until finally we are hit with a hammer blow: the final moments literally look my breath away. O'Leary is striving to do something important here, and I'd venture to say that it's succeeding. Read this work.

A knowing ride through a horrifying (but you _know_ there are people out there who think this stuff is valid) patriarchal construct, where daughters are treated like commodities and vessels to be protected, Erin Mallon's short play holds a great deal of punch but doesn't come down on the predictable side of 'educating' those who are 'wrong' in this world. Constance and Jeremy presumably speak for most readers, but they exist in a world where despite their protests change is not inevitable. This makes it relatable and real. Good work.

A beautiful, heartbreaking piece that explores the way we romanticize the past and fixate on how we might manipulate our future without actually considering the mundane living that has to be completed in between the grand gestures. I spent the entire play anxiously certain that Damian's romantic infatuation with recreating his parents' meet-cute was going to torpedo the reality of what he was striving for: it's a story that is bittersweet but hopeful, reminding us that the rose-colored glasses have their limited use as a guide for the future. Excellent work.

A breathtaking, fearless, necessary play that goes straight for the throat and speaks directly to the insidious swamp that is the internet's comments section. The masterful device of the Chorus of Neckbeards would be reason enough for a recommendation, but the finely drawn characters, metatheatrical breaks, and real-world consequences (including the best use of guest-star meta I've seen in forever) make this necessary reading. This shows us how low we've sunk, and how impossible it is to find our way out. I left acutely depressed about where we are in the world, but elated to have discovered this voice.

The things that kids overhear can often take on a life their own, and Megan Ann Jacobs explores that idea with glee as she sets up a vengeful tyke hell-bent on exacting revenge for his mother's abandonment, which, to his youthful ears, equates to clubbing Santa Claus to death with a bat. Quippy, witty, and full of life, this is just the tonic in this ever so bleak Christmas season.

Josie Gingrich's 'Over the Fence' is a dead-on, furious two hander that explores the wreckage left in the wake of men who blunder thoughtlessly through life and the abuses of academic power. in a college town, where there are no secrets and where boundaries appear to be an afterthought for those who feel invincible behind the screen of tenure.