Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

I love this! A pair meet up for a blind date in this short play, and at first it is... really not going great. But then a turn happens, and they end up having a really wonderful, nuanced conversation without either of them shouting the other down, and wouldn't it be great if there were more of that in real life? This play left me feeling more hopeful than I was expecting.

I've read very little Poe, so I walked into this short play knowing nothing, but I suspected I was in for an adventure from Montresor's description in the cast list as "late 80s, then late 30s." And I was RIGHT. Steve Martin captures the essence of what I know about Poe perfectly. This was dark, brooding, and unsettling in all the best ways. Edgar Allan Poe would be proud.

I saw A Short Leap Theatre's production of this play in Chicago, and it was such a beautiful testament to the rewards reaped when one finds the bravery to branch out and try new things - and how reinvention isn't just for the young. You can change for the better at any age. A lovely, lovely warm hug of a play.

This short spooky monster play turns the expectation of who will be the monster on its head and also ends in a more empowering place than I was expecting! I love that the elements of reality are scarier than the elements of horror in this one.

Spooky!! I love how this one act ladles out information to us a little at a time, as the full picture slowly comes together. A bar in the middle of nowhere after hours in the winter is a perfect jumping off place for a horror play, and things only get scarier from there - both because of legend and lore, and because of what certain kinds of young men are capable of when they're drunk.

Vampire romance?! Amazing. This play about a college student who falls for a vampire, asks to be turned into a vampire, and has to learn how to navigate the fallout is cute and sweet and funny and sad and surprising. Bonus points that it's easy to stage, with a small cast and simple sets. I love this take on vampire lore, with self-aware jokes and some twists on how we imagine vampires to be. Wholly original fun!

Oh boy. This play, set in the dystopian not-too-distant future, is about so many things blended together: sibling responsibility and rivalry, anxiety, cults, radicalization... the list goes on, yet the play doesn't feel like a wild mess pulling in many different directions. It is tightly focused on two sisters, reunited for the first time in twenty years. The big themes of the play swirl around them, making this feel like an intimate story about very big things.

This mini-sequel to "The Shining" is so clever in the way it blends nods to the original story with the present-day horrors of an IT help desk. It mixes comedy into the horror in a very effective way, and it paints a picture relatable and recognizable to a wide swath of people, whether you're familiar with "The Shining" or not.

Oooh this short play is spooky from the very first moment thanks to the atmosphere (a ship that has run around in the middle of a storm), and it only grows more ominous from there. What a gift for a design team! I would love to see how a production team handles the final moments of this one. Chilling and thrilling!

I spent my youth more worried that I would accidentally summon Bloody Mary in a bathroom mirror than I needed to be, but if I had known this is what she might be like, I would have had one less thing to worry about! I love this take on the legend of Bloody Mary, the way she interacts with each of the girls, and the button at the end. I love a good twist on expectations, and this short play does it effortlessly.