Recommended by Aly Kantor

There is a lot of pressure on moms in the age of social media, especially at Christmastime. At a certain point, are you doing it for the kid or for the engagement? This play does a great job illustrating the fact that holiday magic is not, in fact, magic - that "magic" has a cost, and it's usually mom's sanity. I love the way things escalate in this play, with the online "hacks" growing more perverse, and the button at the end had me giggling! A packed little holiday short!

You get a reindeer pun! And you get a reindeer pun! Silly but clever and never cloying, this holiday comedy has some serious heart behind the wordplay. There's some really brilliant worldbuilding beneath all of the silliness, too - once you suspend disbelief, it's very easy to get wrapped up in the world and its drama (reindeer games?). Plus, we all know someone who puts so much energy into making Christmas magical that they forget to enjoy it. A charming, family-friendly holiday treat!

As someone with an early childhood development background who spent years of her career in classrooms, this play had me in stitches! "From the mouths of babes" doesn't even begin to cover it! The balance of child-like dialogue and ultra-adult nudges at the audience is just great. Each of these little creche warriors is unique and specific in their own way, giving comedic actors the opportunity to play BIG...while they play LITTLE! The over-the-top ending just about killed me! Goofy fun!

This may be a lighthearted, family-friendly Christmas play, but I'm willing to bet there will always be someone in the audience who relates to poor Ash the Chimney Monster - someone for whom Christmas no longer feels magical, who needs to learn that the way to regain the "spark" (literal or metaphorical) is by giving to others. The dialogue is quick, clever, and sweet, and a chimney monster would be a blast to design and costume! This would be a charming addition to a holiday festival of shorts!

The characters in this play are offended by anything deemed "candy-cane sweet," yet that's a perfect way to describe this wholesome father-daughter holiday drama. Sci-fi fans will love all the references (Cassie's childhood sounded a lot like my childhood!), and it's full of delightful puns and snark. You really believe these characters are father and daughter and know how to make one another tick! The resolution was carefully constructed and very satisfying, and definitely made me smile!

CHICKEN PUNS! GET YER CHICKEN PUNS! THEY'RE ALL RIGHT HERE! And I do mean ALL of them! This short play is like if your community theatre's production of HONK! was geared toward the grown-ups in the audience instead of the chickies. The only thing funnier than the barnyard banter and bickering may be the stage directions! You won't find a more irreverent play about chickens than this one...if you're looking for an irreverent play about chickens for some reason. This one is an outsized BUH-last!

This play starts out feeling like a weird "I'm back in school, and it's the day of the test" nightmare, then warps into something much more compelling! The uncanny world of the play becomes more and more detailed and specific as the story goes on, with a charming reveal and a shocking, very clever, and theatrically satisfying reversal! This is the best of sci-fi on stage: intellectually engaging, deeply human, and simple to stage with your standard theatrical toolbox. And it's funny, too!

The rumors are true! A play with the title GODFART can, in fact, make you cry! Great writers (like Matthew Weaver) recognize that simple language is the most effective when you're speaking to big universal emotions. In this play, he puts those words, honest and direct, into the mouths of two childhood pets... and what pet owner doesn't want the assurance that their furbabies love them back and always will? Involving both theatre and theatre-of-the-mind, this piece is sweet and uniquely engaging!

This is a messy, tension-filled, but ultimately heartwarming little play about two former step-siblings and the broken adults who chose to be right rather than allow their kids to be happy. It's loaded with tiny reveals that evoke that fantastic 'surprising but inevitable' feeling that everyone loves in a play. The action of the play is vulnerability, and I loved watching each character slowly but surely reveal their deepest wounds. Because of this intimacy, this would be easily staged anywhere!

There is a deeply melancholy sense of inevitability in this monologue, delivered to a person who, by design, will never hear it - a relationship between the ghosted and the ghost. The imagery, while simple, is sublime, with a universality that we can all relate to, for better or for worse. I also love the way it describes the transience of loss. Effective and affecting work.