Recommended by Brian James Polak

This play is smart, funny, and surprisingly moving. The intentional use of anachronisms was a brilliant way to connect a story from WWII with contemporary human behavior. This is an excellent play for ensembles.

Despite the fact the play tells you explicitly what to expect during its brisk running time, you still find yourself shocked at every turn of this dark comic/horror play. That is because Chris Vanderark is a wizard and this play is mesmerizing. Perform it in the round. Place it in a seedy warehouse with only one lightbulb hanging overhead. Put it in a traditional theater space. This play can flourish anywhere.

That restaurant life is all too familiar in Eva Friedman's Treif Play, but the story is far from simple. I love plays about chosen family and the complications that come with them. This play has that plus plus plus. There's an element of fish-out-of-water when a new employee arrives after leaving an oppressive life, and then a former employee dramatically returns to confront and abuser, kicking the drama up several notches. Eva brilliantly weaves together the stories of two woman standing up to abuse, and does so with a sophisticated dramedic style.

Imagine if the lives we curate through social media came to life... yeah, it would be frightening and that is the world Dave Narter is showing is in The Vanishing Point. This play is scary in the way the best Twilight Zone episodes are scary. The writing is hilarious until you catch yourself asking “what if this was real?” Perfect for an ensemble (hey Chicago, Dave’s a local).

Mothers imagines a near-future world wear parenthood is no less terrifying than today. It leaves you questioning how you would behave in these given circumstances and perhaps questioning (if you are a mother or parent) how you do behave now. This is a fantastically smart play that will leave remnants on your mind for days after.

This play is a hilarious and surprisingly touching Millennial existential fever dream, and this Gen-Xer was cry-laughing throughout it.

We are living in a period of time dominated by massive amounts of information coming at us from every direction. This play synthesizes into a narrative the story behind an organization like Cambridge Analytica, which has allowed various groups to weaponize information. It is the story of a great idea coopted for nefarious deeds. "Disinformation" is a fantastic time capsule for this era of social media propaganda and an excellent way to engage audiences on an important issue.

Great play by a great person and playwright. I love the characters in the story and feel deeply for them. It's a fantastic and surreal play about growing up and all the joys and tragedies that can follow kids on the South side of Philly.

I saw a reading of this play at the NNPN showcase in December 2018. This play is so funny, emotional, and genius in the way it weaves a satirical narrative about the world of the past, present, and future. Rastus and Hattie are two of the most fascinating characters I have seen in a play in a very long time.

I saw "The Worst Mother in the World" produced by Halcyon in Chicago. This play shows the anxiety of parenthood in ways I've never seen before. It's rare that a play gets me feeling the feelings of the characters, but I felt unbelievably anxious for these mothers. Neither being a parent nor being a child is always easy, and in this play we get to see that yearning to be better, but feeling incapable of changing. Kari Bentley-Quinn shows us the complexity of real life and avoids any cliche trappings of parent/child relationships. It's a smart and powerful play.