Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

This play is beautiful! It turns from funny to heartfelt and back again on a dime and is wholly original. I would especially love to see it staged to see how the designers handle Tinkerbell and the butterflies. Gorgeous!

This post-apocalyptic play flies by, thanks mostly to the great dialogue and wonderful characters. It's about the need for human connection (I loved how they kept touching each other when they realized they weren't alone in the world - completely platonically, just a desperate human need for touch), and the play also serves as a beautiful example of how the arts (pictures, music, stories) are lifelines, not luxuries, when everything falls apart. This play is beautiful and tragic, sad and hopeful all rolled into one. Plus, with one location and a small cast, it could &should be easily staged everywhere.

I saw a slice of this play as part of Bramble Theatre's Festival of Unfinished Works last June. It was a standout for me, and I wanted to know how the play ends. It does not disappoint! This play is packed with righteous rage on a variety of topics - racism in America first and foremost - and yet it still manages to have some real moments of humor. I was impressed by how much Ben Locke was able to weave into this play, and with such a deft touch.

Oh wow. I did not know ANY of this about Edward Hopper's wife, but now I'm obsessed with her. What a sad, familiar story of a female artist silenced, told beautifully, somehow both simple and complex. It's not just about what it is to be a woman whose art is overshadowed by her husband's, but what it is to be an artist who never quite makes it in their own right, but plays a pivotal role in the creation of someone else's art. So much to think about in this short. Just lovely!

This fairytale in one act is beautiful! It's about the meaning of home, and belonging, and the desire to feel comfortable in one's skin. I love Aly Kantor's writing so much. What starts off seeming like a simple, straightforward story quickly becomes a beautiful lasagna of layers, with nuance and richness to all three characters and surprising connections between them. I want to see this staged so badly, both so I can hear the dialogue out loud, and also so I can see those WINGS! Such lovely visuals and a warm, comforting takeaway that everything returns to us eventually.

This play manages to be two things simultaneously, with great success: It's both a story about a particular religious community in a particular time and place and also a study on the nature and fragility of faith - how desperately people need something or someone to believe in, and how hard it can be to return to a place of belief once that faith has been shattered - especially when one feels complicit in aiding a charlatan. This story is both specific and universal, and with a cast of three, this would be an easy and powerful play to stage.

This play opens with a Little Caesar’s joke, and then quickly devolves into an Ancient Roman Jerry Springer episode- but with more highbrow jokes. (The Bentsen quote caught me off guard and was delightful!) The crowd’s reactions all along the way - sometimes hesitant, as they’re unsure what reaction would be appropriate in some moments - add an extra layer of silliness. This would be a fun, high-energy addition to any short play festival.

What I love about this dramatization of a Japanese folktale is the range of what’s included: there’s a talking turtle (whimsical!) but there’s also a box that Taro must never ever open under any circumstances (ominously mysterious!) This play will take you on a true journey, in every sense of the word, in under 10 minutes.

This short play is a lovely study on faith and doubt and the struggle between the two. I love the modern-day language of these two girls, and Phoebe's summary of the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter's attempt to join him: "Well, then I think he messed it up, because, you know, dudes." I would watch an entire full length play of these girls chatting about Jesus's adventures.

What a fantastic idea. This lovely adaptation of Pride and Prejudice incorporates songs that Jane Austen is known to have loved and played, making the story sit even more richly in its period and adding a new, delightful layer to a tale so many of us were introduced to in high school. This would be a perfect play for high schoolers to tackle, as it deals with source material they'll read in English class, and the cast of characters is large and rich. A great piece.