Recommended by Morey Norkin

DC Cathro’s short play provides directors and actors with many interesting choices and challenges. The seemingly comic situation and dialogue at the beginning with a somewhat manic new bride suddenly showing up at an old college acquaintance’s door, evolves to a moment of clarity for the bride. And we are left to wonder just how the acquaintance might reconsider her own circumstances. Incredibly well-written and certainly a treat for audiences and performers alike. My first Cathro play, but not my last!

Congratulations to Debra Cole on having this lovely play selected for production at the Crafton Hills College’s New Works Festival for 2022. This is a tender story of a seasoned traveler who usually plans every detail preparing for one last journey and leaving it all in other hands. No doubt a few tears will be shed at Crafton Hills College.

Paul Smith is truly a brilliant writer. This monologue, written in verse, with clever interior rhyming, is a joy to read! No doubt it would be a joy to perform for an actor or witness from the audience.

Paul Smith is truly a brilliant writer. This monologue, written in verse, with clever interior rhyming, is a joy to read! No doubt it would be a joy to perform for an actor or witness from the audience.

Paul Smith treats us to another short play with a film legend. Unlike with with James Mason’s nostalgic recollections in “The Deaths of James Mason,” we see an Orson Welles at a time when he was more of a punchline than a legend, reduced to making wine commercials. Still, the story is told with sensitivity and provides a glimpse of the artist from earlier times. A choice role for an accomplished actor.

What a clever idea! Paul Smith has created a charming monologue for this film icon. I wonder if there is a full-length version in the works?!

A government agency named for and structured according to Maslow‘a hierarchy of needs is the setting for Emma Woods’ very clever, satirical short. Two new hires on their first day of training, through comical role playing and learning new acronyms, learn how the bureaucracy is designed to avoid providing services to customers. PTB had me laughing out loud! This would be a delightful addition to any festival.

The weekend in question was in 1991, when Americans were riveted by Anita Hill’s testimony in the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings. You already know the cast of characters and the outcome of the hearing. That’s what makes Rich Rubin’s play all the more remarkable. It feels like you’re truly experiencing these events for the first time and hoping for a different ending. This play has a history that goes back to at least 2012, but its importance now can’t be overstated. Read it! Produce it!

I struggle to write one play with a coherent beginning, middle, and end. In “1st Impressions,” Samantha Marchant has cleverly crafted three short plays, each of which can go in wildly enjoyable directions depending on audience choices. Regardless of the choices, the stories all reveal themselves to be closely connected in surprising ways. What fun for audiences and actors alike!

This play is just too funny for words! The setting alone, two super villains going over a tax return, is already hilarious. Then the dialogue delivers all the expected laughs. Two great characters that show we are all just one industrial accident away from living out our darkest thoughts.