Recommended by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend

Oh my gosh, this is exactly how my parents go to the movies. Well, maybe not quite this bad. But very close. This short play felt like a familiar trip home. I love the way the dialogue zips along and how funny it is from start to finish, even as it deepens into more serious moments/emotions. Wonderful!

This short play manages to be both funny and touching. A good reminder that there are many ways to measure success. This would probably be a big hit in any evening of short plays.

Ooooh this play took a turn I was NOT EXPECTING. Sooo good! I don't want to give anything away, but this is a fabulous 10 minute play.

This is such a sweet short play. A mother breaks the news to her autistic son that his dad is moving out, and Pamela Morgan manages to make you sympathize with each of them individually as well as collectively, as a family unit. So well done!

Ooooh this play! The dialogue just flies along and the characters sound so much like teenagers. ("Get the fuck off my nutsack, Mom" in particular made me laugh.) Nick Malakhow has a great ear for dialogue. I also love the way texts and other social media are projected onto the wall. This play is wonderful, and it's a perfect vehicle to draw in young people who don't think theater is for them.

Oh wow. Neil Radtke does a lot with a little in this one minute play. Only four lines of dialogue, but it still managed to leave me touched and saddened. I read it through three times. Wonderful!

What a clever short play! Four masks gather in a support group for discarded COVID masks. I hope this play has many productions because, years from now, when the details and the feelings from this past year and a half are fuzzier, this play will be a great reminder of what this time was like.

A play about a teenage vampire hunter who writes Buffy slash fiction? YES. This play is in turn compelling, creepy, surprising, sweet, and one of the fastest reads you'll find. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I was lucky enough to see a production of this play in Chicago ten years ago (I am, myself, one of the girls who loves Bobby Kennedy) and what a pleasure it was to reread it on NPX. "All the Girls Love Bobby Kennedy" captures the spirit of being young in the late 60s, as well as articulating so beautifully what the U.S. lost when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Such a lovely play.

Astor Place tells the story of the 1849 Astor Place Riot using a large cast of characters (including some famous cameos!). It jumps around in time as the story unfolds, allowing you to both watch as events rush toward their inevitable conclusion and simultaneously witness the fallout afterward. For someone who used to live very close to Astor Place, I sure didn't know a lot of the details of what happened there. This play was the perfect way to learn. Famous people who feel they've been wronged have been inspiring their supporters to acts of violent chaos long before 2021.