Recommended by Michele Miller

Marc Paykuss' play Trigger Warning reminds us that there is only a hairline between humor and offense. And sometimes we have to truly listen to one another to understand both.

Numbers are simple except when they aren't. Family is simple except it never is. This play gives us familyadding from one to five and then subtracting to four again--beautiful and poignant.

Sigh. So true it's funny, but it's not.

I'm pretty sure I've been to this meeting. And I've been every one of these characters. And my kids are savages. Sometimes. A.J. Ditty has it down. All the glory and the pain, of kids, parenting, Covid, school administration. Yup. Turns out these meetings are even worse on zoom than in person. But the play is spot on and hilarious.

A short and sweet vignette about a mother and son relationship that is both real and loving and like the pond itself, calm but with much life hidden under the surface.

Having a sister--and a feral cat, and coyotes--this play felt very real to me. The banter between the two women, seemingly on the surface, deftly reveals so much more. I am reminded how important it is to have that person who will sit with you in the dark--where ever, when ever--just accepting that you need to be there.

I was just about to write a ten-minute play but why bother--Ken Levine has encapsulated them all with wit and humor. A fun romp with familiar tropes. Looking forward to seeing this one on stage.

It is difficult to write a meta-play-within-a play without the hand of the playwright coming through a too clearly or being a bit too twee but Hilary Bluestein-Lyons manages to pull it off--twice! The play is well-paced and there are just enough hints so we are taken in by the scenario at first but soon are carried along to the sweet, delectable ending.

This play was on my reading list for a long time and I procrastinated reading it because I knew I would find it devastating for the topic of mass shooting alone. And I was right. But I also overwhelmed by the evocative writing and how well Ali MacLean was able to draw us into the hearts of these characters. The play not only shows us the obvious horror of this appalling and unnatural death but the horrible and inhumane aftermath. As these parents are grieving they must deal with a deluge of others who reach out to them for their

A little gem of desperation, of wanting to create some heat on a frigid winter night, even if you know you will only be colder in the morning..