Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

I love this. At first you think it’s a monologue about a young woman helping the guy she loves, but for whom she’s ‘not even the girlfriend,’ and then it pivots and becomes a commentary on the theater world and what roles are available to women. I was thoroughly wrapped up in the monologue, and then after the shift, I kept muttering “Yes... YES. EXACTLY.” This is wonderful. What a gift for a young actor.

This short in which two broken people become almost-friends is sad and sweet. I especially enjoyed the effect of it seeming to mirror the beginning as it nears the conclusion, but then morphing into something different, with less loneliness.

I love plays where you have to figure out who to believe, and this short is a great example of that. Susan seems to be going crazy, but is she? I also enjoy that what she experienced that led her to fortify her apartment against evil is mentioned, but never in detail, allowing your imagination to run wild. This play is a great mix of comedy and horror.

This play feels like a time capsule in so many ways. Taking place at the end of the Nixon administration/beginning of the Ford administration, full of music from the era, and with a heavy dose of magic realism, this is an engaging story about coming of age and coming to terms.

This short is so sweet! Two 2nd graders play house at recess. One has a great home life and a clear vision of what that entails. The other doesn’t and struggles to yes-and her as they play. I enjoyed the enthusiasm they had for the weirdest things, and the flash-forward moments added poignancy. Very clever!

Ooooh SPOOKY. This one act about a mysterious bridge in a small southern town at the center of several unexplained disappearances gets creepier and creepier as it goes along. I love all the instances of uncertainty over what is real versus what seems to be real, James's creepy, cryptic warning, and the twist ending. Also, this play would be a sound designer's dream. I'm glad I read it during the day. Hope I'm not too scared to walk down the hall to the bathroom tonight.

This play is an amazing combination of angry and funny, and so, so theatrical - one of the characters is a rape joke and we keep sliding between some otherworldly comedy club and Lily's dressing room. From the stage direction "And then the Rape Joke strolls in the door" to the end, I didn't know where it was going, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and all the surprising twists and turns. What a creative, timely piece.

Well this is delightful. A pair of actors with good comedic timing would absolutely crush this informercial in which a pair of lawyers pitch their services to help obviously guilty criminals become “less fucked.” What a fun, all-American short.

This play dramatizes the plagues from the Book of Exodus, but from a perspective I had never even considered: Aaron's body creates the plagues, and causing widespread sorrow like that takes a toll on a person emotionally (not to mention the physical toll of, say, vomiting up frogs). Watching the toll each plague takes on Aaron, the guilt Moses feels in what he's doing to both his adopted and biological brothers, and how the women are the rocks who hold things together is fantastic. Also there's a joke about golf balls that I wasn't expecting but absolutely adored.

YES, PREACH. Birds are not to be trusted. I have always known this. This dark and delightful short centers two people being stalked by an evil goose (adjective unnecessary- all birds are evil). Listening to their story of being hunted by this goose is fantastic, and the ending is perfect. What a weird and wonderful short. Daniel Prillaman always comes up with the best twisted stories.