Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

There are short plays that pack so much power and magic within their pages that you can't help but be as moved with it as any long form dramatic work. Diana Burbano captures the quality and voice of youth being forced to face one of the biggest crises in the United States. This is as much a work of fantasy and tenderness as it is a call to our shared goodness. There are too many adventures senselessly ending and Burbano reminds us of the victims without talking heads and political pandering. A human work in the midst of inhuman inaction.

There are entire lifetimes worth of words in the space between two lovers separated by a sheet of glass. Scott Sickles takes us into a sampling of those words in BULLETPROOF LOVE. Through Ambrose and Ramona we see the inner workings and subtext of a relationship bound with a sharp tongue filled with all the snake venom to kill thousands and a taciturn mountain unyielding to anyone. The play is brash, unapologetic, and confrontational while also being tender, making you smile at just what forms love can take and just what one will do for those one loves.

A coming of age story that encompasses three stages of life from the perspective of three women. There is so much packed in so few pages. One is left impressed by Drew Michele's ability to bring together such varied perspectives. A wonderful play for three women where it would be a wonderful (and welcome!) addition to any short play festival.

There's a lot of hurt to be felt in HURT SONG. There's a lot of hope too. There's a lot to take in with the state of America and our decay and dehumanization. It's as if HURT SONG is that call to alarm for the forgotten of this country. Outside of our office and academic jobs are the suffering and the abandoned. Caridad Svich shows economic waste caused by land displacement and displacement from technological progress. Svich approaches a difficult subject and returns rightful dignity to the suffering in this magnificent, poetic drama about the lost and hopeless in America.

There is beauty in the language Svich employs through the pieces of the AMERICAN PSALM cycle. It is at once primitive and essential, as though trying to find the root dialect of the United States. Time will tell if Caridad Svich will be remembered as a great playwright or a chronicler-prophet who is reporting, in dramatic form, on the decaying pillars upon which America has prospered and now balances precariously, but those are for our succeeding generations to decide. For now, read FUEL. Experience Svich exposing our deepest flaws and, in exposure, discover our deepest wells of love and humanity.

A play that subverts our expectations of how this conversation was supposed to go. A beautiful and heartwarming play that truly encapsulates the meaning of Love's patience in the face of searching for answers to questions of the self. And while the play is a heartwarming piece, and maybe even a tearjerker for the more easily moved (like me) this is a genuinely funny play with witty, fast-paced dialogue that would be as much at home in a tougher setting as it is in this tender two-hander with some fantastic roles for women.

That Patrick Gabridge has revealed to me that Santa Claus may well be the largest conspiracy in American history alone made this play worth reading. A delightful and refreshing read on what usually is a tired trope in playwriting. Gabridge's SANTA DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE is like a roller coaster, it builds up and crescendos right into an insane ride that leaves you laughing and rushing through the pages to get to the next revelation. A perfect fit for a holiday-themed festival.

A humorous argument that leads to a sobering reflection on the value of our actions and efforts in the face of grief. Suilebhan doesn't let us soak in the sadness of the moment, however. Rather, we're invited to reflect and find new ways to cherish our loved ones and honor the memory of those long past. As these three unlikely characters come together for what could pass for a barroom joke (A nun, a sculptor, and a mother walk into a bar...) we are reminded of the unexpected support we receive from others sometimes. A fantastic, tender, and heartrending play.

Sartre declared in NO EXIT that "Hell is other people" and that may well be. Death Defying seems a response to that premise. Hell may be other people, but at the same time other people can be your salvation, even indirectly. Kaplan places us in a unique place that is both fantastical and mundane, where histories meet, and the memories we take with us to the hereafter are the only currency worth dealing in. and at the end of the play shows us the depth of human kindness in the face of less than stellar circumstances. A heartwarming play.

A conversation that takes on supernatural dimensions and frightening prescience. Carnes goes back and forth using people talking about the things you'd expect a couple with a baby to talk about and a mysterious man who seems to observe, perhaps guide, people past the moment after a tragedy. This play is a puzzle and bears repeated readings. The description tells everything, and leaves you with questions. Are they protected? What came after? Definitely invokes reflection.