Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

This short is adorable and hilarious and constantly surprising! I love the way Aly Kantor uses language. Her characters are so real (even when they're outlandish) that I recognize people I know in them (even when I maybe shouldn't). This is a sweet, hysterical play about fate and love and homemade bombs. I adore it!

“Your words solidified for years in our culture what’s acceptable. What’s electable.” I love this short. It’s the future, and Brett Kavanaugh comes before the Court of American Women asking to be officially declared a “good guy.” After all, he’s done some good things! He wrote the majority opinion in favor of women getting real pockets! But just because you’ve done some good things doesn’t automatically make you a good guy. What a cathartic read.

Oh my GOODNESS the twists keep coming in this short, darkly comedic epilogue to Little Red Riding Hood! What a blast this would be to watch (to say nothing of performing!) The jokes come fast and furious as you scramble to keep up with the ever-shifting landscape of what's what and who's after whom - Plus the recurring references to "The Mauling" are delightful.

You guys, this short. A studio executive meets with God to pitch the New Testament like a sequel expanding God’s version of the Marvel universe. The desperate, flattering energy of the executive is perfect, and God is SUCH a diva. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I love this monologue. Richard Cornish, hanged for sodomy in 1624, enthusiastically welcomes Sodomy Heaven’s 8 trillionth member to the forever paradise they deserve. This monologue is so energetic and Richard just oozes joy. I love that people who were persecuted, condemned, and executed in this world get a nonstop celebration in the next. I smiled the whole way through this piece.

This play takes place in the not-so-distant future when climate change has completely altered life as we know it. Seeing the characters go about their little lives despite the dust storms and the dead fish and the fact that cockroaches are flying now feels like a highly plausible emotional place where humanity will end up in a few decades. The argument that we have to keep trying and not get complacent is a powerful and necessary one for all of us. I particularly loved June's monologues, which read like poetry.

Vince Gatton’s plays are always so consistently wonderful. There are a lot of stories about teenagers realizing that they are definitely, absolutely gay, but they’re rarely this creative and fun - and simultaneously stressful and sweet. All three roles would be fun for an actor, especially the actor playing a box of Calvin Klein underwear (THAT’S RIGHT) who only utters the word “Hey,” but imbues it with a zillion different meanings.

It's hard to make a Zoom play that's touching, but that's exactly what this short piece is. An apocalyptic catastrophe has occurred, and the only known survivor makes contact with an astronaut stranded on the International Space Station. Their loneliness and their need for connection is palpable, but never overdone. This is a lovely play about a friendship - and the hope that friendship fosters - keeping two people alive for years. I can't believe how powerful it is for as short as it is. And I really liked the ending.

This play touches on so many things: The criminal justice system in America, our love of sensationalism and stories by and about murderers, addiction, forgiveness, and the meaning of redemption - but my favorite part was the throughline on pens and ink, which turned something I never think about into poetry and magic. I'm going to be looking at pens differently from here on out.

Oh my gosh, I love this. I LOVE this. Being a woman - whether in the eyes of God or the eyes of the law - is hard, and this short play captures the anxieties and heartaches of both 13-year-olds and 20-somethings so well, and with such humor and, ultimately, hope. Like... I really, really love this.