Recommended by Aly Kantor

Every theatre artist has been in a room with a bad script, an inexperienced director, or both, but this play takes this dreaded scenario and turns it into an ode to theatre as a collaborative art form! The characters are bright and specific, and the dialogue is full of big laughs and unexpected reversals. The moment when the actor and the director begin to work together and truly play is dynamic, and I could feel the renewed energy popping off the page!

The characters in this play are so rich and specific that by the end of ten pages, you'll feel like you've known them for years - but what could a feminist and a "dinosaur" have to talk about? It turns out, a ton - and this play utilizes clever theatrical asides to add plenty of moving context throughout. The conclusion? Love and affection isn't about masculinity or femininity, but how someone makes you feel. If you feel safe and cared for, all else is secondary! A gorgeous conclusion to a smart and genuine short play!

This charmingly anachronistic play is set in 1918 but could easily be taking place in America today. Three funny, specific young women grapple with pandemic isolation and the anxieties of a distant war.

While, in the 21st century, we talk about screens and feeling "too connected," this group of girls is left to speculate about the whereabouts of a lover stuck "over there." Audiences of all ages will be able to relate to the helplessness and anxiety these girls feel - but there are plenty of laughs throughout to keep things light! A sweet and moving short for teen performers!

Watching this story play out is like watching a train derailment - you can see it coming, but you maintain hope that things will right themselves... but when that anticipated collision comes, it's impossible to look away. This is a story about power, exploitation, and what "success" really looks like - and how one character chooses to reframe what she considers worth pursuing in both her personal and professional life. It's efficient, gripping, and dynamic, with some brilliant stage pictures throughout. It feels incredibly classic but maintains a fantastic contemporary sensibility. Really tight, effective writing here!

This is a piece that takes teenagers seriously, deftly showing all of the ways they're almost adults... and the many ways they aren't. If you've spent any time with this population, you will fall in love with the raw, silly, truthful characters in this play. These girls truly pop off the page. There is a ton of gorgeous poetry hidden in the dialogue, which somehow felt uncannily like the ways teenagers talk at sleepovers - with a weary, goofy honesty, making their strongest connections in the dark. The ending is beautiful, moving, and cathartic. A really beautiful play!

The multiverse is having a moment in popular culture, so this story, which is set outside of linear time and takes place over a lifetime and all at once, couldn't be more—excuse the pun—timely! The form, which is fragmentary, with gorgeous moments of synchronicity across timelines, does a phenomenal job of reflecting the content. This short doesn't waste any time explaining the "why" behind David's unique lifestyle, instead focusing on the central relationship. The ending was satisfying and well-earned, and I love imagining the way it might literally resonate from three directions throughout a theatre. Lovely.

This delicious, specific one-act is both heartfelt and hilarious, delivering emotion and theatricality with the concise intentionality of the best tight fives. Despite their ample flaws, I fell in love with both characters immediately and found myself deeply invested in learning their stories. Morey did a fantastic job setting up the stakes so that the final monologues came with an additional air of tension, and the final, sweet reversal was a pitch-perfect conclusion to one legacy (and, perhaps, the beginning of another). This piece has the power to both enlighten and entertain - great work here!

This prequel to Romeo and Juliet is SO SMART, and I enjoyed every second of it! Those who were not satisfied by the vague feud between the families Montague and Capulet will love this high-stakes backstory, in which Lady Capulet is given something even more precious than a first name—she is allowed to be a smart, cunning, capable agent of her own destiny, though her tragic end was always set in stone. The plotting is air-tight and brilliant, making the families in its iconic inspiration feel thoroughly three-dimensional. This moving piece will leave you hoping for a softer ending.

What a sweet, funny short about a common fairytale trope that, in only a minute, still manages to reflect something genuine about contemporary beauty standards and the performance of femininity. Women are under a lot of pressure, with or without a ticking clock - if only we could all feel free to stay at the party past midnight!

What does a woman look like, and what does it take to look like one? Why does it "take" anything at all?

This play introduces us to two triple threats auditioning for the role of Madonna, asked to do the impossible in their attempt to meet an imaginary ideal. Even when you think you've done the most, the patriarchal world is always looking for a little more (and for women to be a little less). And women perpetuate those standards again and again and again. All of that is gorgeously illustrated in this high-octane, surprisingly emotional play!