Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

The interpretations that exist for this play are numerous and each can cause as much unease as the other. Nelson Diaz-Marcano has made a parable and an enigma with these few pages. You can't help but read again, and then read again, and then again until you go for hours wondering what you read and why it unfolded the way it did. The stages of the creative process are laid bare, whether it's fans or a metaphor for our creative impulse against our bitter cynicism. It's an interesting premise and keeps you from beginning to end.

The heartbreak of leaving behind what you know, to say goodbye to the things that hold the most value to you and to go into the unknown sit at the heart of this piece that is less drama and more grief examined for the always wounded and always maligned Puerto Rico. Nelson Diaz-Marcano creates a laugh and a quiet reminder of the coming end of anything we held yesterday and leaving us with only the future. A bright one? ¿Quién sabe? But a future, nonetheless. A beautiful play. My only gripe: Chayanne is totally a superstar, not local!

You never know who you're talking to. You never know the full story. A short, yet poignant piece by Asher Wyndham that tells you so many things in so very few lines. Like Brecht giving us a portrait of Germany in his time with Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, or the Private Lives of the Master Race, Asher makes a portraits and gives insights into America at all ages and all backgrounds.

It goes from silly to sobering in an instant. Asher's work is to playwriting what the haiku is to poetry. Short, moving, minimalistic, and all-encompassing. Each short piece Asher is a lesson in economy that more playwrights could follow and learn from. Read this play. Take it in, let yourself go into the world created on this page.

The professional teaches a masterclass to the unlearned "amateurs." A fun play with a message that really should be considered common sense, and yet common sense is rarely so common. Asher Wyndham makes a play for kids and adults to enjoy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to do some pushups...to you know...pump myself up! Yeah!

A monologue, whose deceptive simplicity of language conveys a far deeper meaning beyond a child liking animals a whole bunch. It conveys truths without political pretensions or excuses. It boils down what has been overcomplicated into something quite plain. So many of us are in error and we need this plain statements and truths told to us from the voice of a child.

If the shoe fits, you'll hate this play. For the rest of us who have wondered about the state of avant-garde theatre, Scott Sickles is that child who finally--and necessarily--blurts out, "The Emperor has no clothes on!" It's everything you have heard about or seen with some of those pretentious "necessary" plays in all of its unnecessary glory. You will laugh and you will wonder, and for those whom the shoe still fits, maybe you'll take it all a little less seriously. A fun play lampooning the playwright's excesses. You'll want to see this one staged near you.

You read it. You experience it. You smile sadly and walk out of the theatre and walk home and just halfway you burst into tears. Like so many photographs and memories that Juliany Taveras creates in DESARROLLO, this play is a call to action, helpless inaction, a grief song, a celebration, an unapologetic middle finger, a hug, and the stopping and moving of time. Stage directions as beautiful as the dialogue. It is so many diametrically opposed ideas and concepts that it can only be NYC. It can only be the Bronx. It can only be this play right now.

Through every tragedy and every crisis, love endures. Hannah Vaughn creates a world of spare language where nothing is wasted like you don't waste water in a desert. It may well all be ending and nights grow longer with days so endlessly long, but through it all love endures. It's a wonderful play living in circumstances that are all too frighteningly possible, and the playwright creates a scenario that is all too human in its response to the crisis.

A horror-comedy with so many wonderful pop references and fun combinations that I would have never thought about in pop stars had Hayet not brought them up. It's a fun take on the legendary horror story while still taking on an original voice. Perfect for any Halloween or Sci-fi themed festival.