Recommended by Sam Heyman

Tense, powerful, and unfortunately, a necessary conversation. Rebecca Kane stages a relevant and resonant drama between two strangers with a shared need for safety. "Safe Walk" should be required reading for college students, and everyone else.

They say nothing is scarier, but sometimes, the horrors of the modern world trump even the darkest conjurings of the mind. Chilling and charming, CREAK is a brief delight!

Poignant and powerful, The Savior is an immersive, heart wrenching monologue that will reach out and touch audiences. Steve Martin is a master of evoking emotion in the short form, and this piece is a fine example of his expertise.

…And the waiter never checked on them once!

A romantic romp rife with misunderstandings, Destiny Is A Careless Waiter demonstrates Zaffarano’s skill with tight dialogue and balancing revelatory character moments with farcical switcheroos. Things don’t go quite as expected for either of the play’s couples, as their best laid plans go hilariously awry — I admire the humanity in this piece, alongside the hilarity.

With brisk dialogue, tense moral intrigue, and a lot to say about the ethics of journalism, Above The Fold is a period docudrama that uses its ripped-from-the-headlines premise to the fullest.

Playwright Julie Zaffarano nails the details of the workplace being described as well as her 1930s setting, crafting a play that takes place in a single room, but which nonetheless feels sprawling and compelling throughout. Excellent, well-researched work!

Brief. Chilling. Disarmingly effective. A perfect one-minute play. Bravo, John Busser!

The goalposts keep moving and the gatekeepers keep gatekeeping -- it's hard out here for a playwright! Brenton Kniess understands this well, skewering the hair-ripping tedium of the submission process with humor and wit. "Before You Submit" is a cathartic read for any creative in the theatre-making business.

How do you make a docudrama about the history and development of the casserole interesting, compelling, and hilarious? Why, you hand the task of writing it to Scott Sickles, of course! LAYERS, or “The Casserole Play” sees its three central players wearing a variety of hats and adopting a variety of voices, and the result is a layered, inventive, and surprisingly informative feast that will have audiences clamoring for seconds.

Living with mental illness is not all doom and gloom, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, either. Often times, as it is for the bipolar characters of Dana Hall’s “Refracted Light,” it is both. Hall recognizes the challenges and conflicts, internal and external, that mental illness can conjure and deftly brings them home for audiences and readers alike, with insight and compassion. I can’t wait for audiences to get to know these characters! They may even recognize themselves among the cast.

They say that good stories arise when you visit trouble upon your characters. In DC Cathro's after-life doorslammer, "You May Have 6," Roger quickly has trouble up to his chest, as he attempts to navigate his compromised relationships from his previous life and finds obstacles at every turn. What that means for audiences and readers alike is a evening of vicarious awkwardness, inventive world building, and insightful commentary on the human experience. An excellent single setting play!