Recommended by Sam Heyman

Good parodies are relatively simple to pull off -- but great parodies require both a commitment to the source material and enough invention to make the new work stand on its own. Well everybody, Scott Sickles has NAILED it with "The Presidential Chili Cook Off."

Sickles lampoons famed political thrillers, the highs and lows of high school football--I mean American chili cook offs, and the inability of most people to properly set their privacy settings on Venmo.

Cramming over a dozen characters, scenes, and laugh out loud moments into less than twenty pages, this play is masterful parodic work. Delicious!

Actors and audiences alike would have a blast with this parodic romp from John Busser - "The Island Timeshare of Dr. Moreau" has the feel of a fully realized, classic comedy sketch, filled with wordplay, zingers, and allusions to its source material, and plenty of crowd-pleasing moments that will get audiences roaring with laughter. This would make a great addition to any short play festival!

"Fixed" is a layered, tense, and emotional two-hander that takes its time to develop its central pair, their struggles, and their pasts. Each character -- the tattoo artist and his at-times too eager client -- transcend their types and gradually have the intimate parts of themselves exposed, literally and figuratively. DC Cathro demonstrates his range as a dramatic writer and joins together two people who couldn't be more different in a one-act that will have audiences rapt with anticipation and empathy for these two wounded souls. Excellent work!

With "juice," Mackenzie Raine Kirkman has created a world that is at turns uncomfortable, moving, and terrifying. Different readers, audiences, and directors will bring a variety of interpretations to its characters and contents. "juice" is a captivity narrative. "juice" is a Rorshach test. juice is juice is juice.

Just as Rhett finds himself transfixed by the sight of Coolidge, so, too, does the reader feel bound to the text of this play by Stephen Redmon-Byrum. Though these men are having an encounter in pursuit of pleasure, the truth that begins to emerge as both confess long-kept secrets of their past proves to have a power all its own. "Bound" is Raw. Transgressive. Captivating.

It's a home run! The circular structure of this memory play from Bruce Karp amplifies its themes of love, adolescent anxiety and growing up and into oneself. A period piece that nonetheless feels timeless, Bar Mitzvah Boy is a romantic, nostalgic treat!

From its tongue in cheek introduction to its spine-tingling, chilling conclusion, The Bed Trick is powerful, incisive and engrossing. Playwright Jillian Blevins plays out a Shakespearean device to its dramatic conclusion and leaves the audience to draw its own conclusions about the fraught morality of it all. Unrequited love, desire, and the relationship between sex and self-worth are all explored with careful nuance and dramatic heft. Excellent, important work that should be staged as soon and as often as possible!

Having provided the title for this play in a Playwrights Thriving title swap, I was curious to see what Daniel had come up with -- and I was not disappointed!

"I'm Gonna Need You to Log off for Me" speaks to the arts-ethical conversation of the moment by treating an AI the way we would if they could truly be said to be their own artists, and it takes aim at those who seek to profit off this new technology's novelty. Like much of Prillaman's work, it is funny, thought-provoking and has something to say. Excellent work!

There is a fullness to this play from Samantha Vargas that had me gobsmacked - when I reached End of Play, I thought, "What do you mean there isn't more??" This is not to say The Garden of Night Blooming Flowers is dramatically thin or overly brief; it is a credit to Vargas' engrossing execution of this familiar star-crossed scenario that the reader is left wanting more. I'm sure audiences will be clamoring for an encore.

Adorable. Infectiously silly. (Un)surprisingly heartfelt.

These descriptors begin to capture my impressions of Captain Flash & Major Bang, but only scratch the surface of what a charming piece this is. Animal advocate Miranda Jonte has done it again!