Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

There is an astonishing amount of the absurd in this comedy that one can only conclude that it comes from a place of truth. Bavoso creates a laugh almost every other line in this play while still creating a poignant commentary on denial in families and awkward conversations at those holiday get-togethers.

Your average run-of-the-mill playwright can tell a good story. A decent playwright can make a quirky play out of something you wouldn't think is the stuff of great drama. Straton Rushing, however has talent beyond that, bringing together far-flung characters and scenarios together in a believable, moving, humorous way. The play sits in a world of honesty and asks weighty questions without self-importance or arrogance. It takes you to surprising places a d you are left happy with how it ends. Take a read and go together with the music and humanity.

Were an audience watching me take a bath without my knowing, I know I would be miffed. In comparison to Marcel--bless his heart--I would be doing far more than just chastising. A fun play that'll get you laughing and chips away at the fourth wall to get audiences really into the scenario--ahem--in front of them. Bultrowicz has created a wonderful piece of absurd comedy that's sure to make you feel really confused feelings about interrupting people during their bathing rituals and the spouses who cause this. Take a read!

Mistaken identity? Comeuppance? Metaphorical or literal? It can be so many things, and that's what makes the play so readable and so endlessly interpretive. You'll find yourself reading it three or four times trying to find new clues hidden in the text and subtext of the work. Playwright Stephanie Alison Walker has created a pitch black comedy that will both unnerve and fascinate you. Regardless of where you stand, this play is a conversation starter and would have people talking and debating long after the show has ended.

It's the stuff of dreams to have that moment of nostalgia, confession, and ultimately love. It's the stuff of dreams to to have that understanding between son and father before the end. It's the stuff of so many things but in the hands of Philip Middleton Williams, it's the stuff of stage poetry and control over the direction of the conversation that you see; this too can be possible. A moment of clarity in a world that's often too confusing and jumbled to make sense of anything, let alone in mental decline. You won't regret reading this play.

Two men, separated by almost two decades, with similar concerns and thoughts about the unmentionables. What truly catches one about Burdick's play is how very believable the dialogue flows. It's as though the playwright put a microphone under a bench and transcribed the recording. It's worth a read and provides an insight into the random spitballing happening outside the stores at the mall. A fun read!

It's a script you dwell on and take in like the ceremonies in this script. There are big questions, and uncomfortable silences, and perhaps even an answer that comes through in the meeting place of the silence trying to find balance and the noise of confusion attempting to understand. It's a play that mirrors the world where there is no easy answer, only the hope and optimism that understanding and love will triumph at the end. Carnes does not fail to deliver in that regard with this gentle, quiet piece.

OUTPOST should be the kind of play that in the hands of a less skilled playwright should be a boring exercise in the absurdity of the human condition and our inevitable destiny. Scott Sickles, however, is no such playwright. Instead of the banal, Sickles creates a story and ends on an image that would give the legendary kiss of Gone With the Wind or the passion of Godard's Le Mépris a run for its money. But, more, much more than imagery and inverting of an old trope is how Sickles presents us the triumph of Love over the Silence.

There is a calm that sweeps through this play, that I must confess made me feel a welling of emotion. Were all of life with its constant hurt and persistent pain to become the scenario presented in Matthew Weaver's UTOPIA FOUND, I think I would be alright with it all. The humor and wit that one grows to expect from a Matthew Weaver play is still here. But there's more, so much more than you bargained for in this heartwarming short play. If I could choose how it all goes, it wouldn't be much farther from Weaver's beautiful vision.

You read this with a goofy grin on your face as you watch two perfectly behaved dogs doing what dogs do. Without giving it away, this play is a fun comedy that will leave you wondering about dogs, their topics of conversation and the people they live with. Check it out! It's brief but you'll get a laugh or two out.