Recommended by Ricardo Soltero-Brown

Donnie and Ted are wrapping up a date, what Donnie tries to suss is their first date, and what Ted seems to suggest is their only date. It's a familiar situation, but only a few of us have committed to asking the question that Donnie does, "Why didn't we spark?" What follows is a journey where two people move from being guarded to vulnerable, to delicate, to honest, to rejection, to acceptance. This is an effective short about pride, shame, and diving deep to discover which one you are placing upon others, and which one fuels you from the inside.

A sweet soupçon of romance, a well knitted and effective short mixed with the ingredients of a 1930s remarriage comedy and a Mike Leigh family drama. Chicky has been living with Norton's peculiar problem for long enough, but what causes her to confront him about it and task him with going at it from each angle possible? It's now effecting their daughter...her wedding no less. Although actually solving every aspect of their circumstance is basically unrealistic, the play serves as a reflection on accepting all of the good and the bad that comes with the one you love.

All sorts of ways to stage this monologue about a woman well already into a state of desperation. So deep in is she, so changed, that it's simply her new normal and no one would be able to declare it without a reasonable doubt until Wyndham does what he does best: turn a sentence into a baseball bat. Nevertheless, remember there are many ways to stage this, and the baseball bat may suddenly be used for a bunt instead of a swat for the bleachers. There are an impressive amount of levels here ready to be explored by any actress.

Svich's script fixes attention with such charm and ardor, they kindle the imagination instantaneously. It feels like a magic trick. The writing is dynamic and spirited, variously clever, playful, sly, incisive, joyful, reverant. There's real love here for the stage as Svich considers the origins of theatre, its originators, gatekeepers, subjects, styles, themes, with characters experiencing the journey. Correlations with society are unavoidable: money, status, disconnect from the natural and animal world. They deconstruct the elements and apparatuses of stagecraft, and when in their world all are eliminated, they're left with traditional storytelling. In which Svich's words have been exemplary.

A stark indictment of overriding mercenary apparatuses implemented by capitalism, an incisive portrayal of a systematized ourobouros imposed upon workers; the play is at times so shrewd it occasionally presses flush against satire. These moments are certainly highlights, as they appropriately highlight absurdities, catch-22s, and paradoxes of debt, loans, advances, interest, advance interest, interest payments, affordable payments and, that bon mot, affordable debt. The human tale turns Noah toward tragedy as debts deepen. Love, friendship, employment, all subjected to damage. Recreation becomes evasion. Timms has written a formidable play about one vulnerable man's lasting grip to keep his dignity.

Scott Sickles has crafted a charming, enchanting, moving evening of theatre with one theme and three plays. Characters sense, witness, testify the existence of true love, but even its presence is invisible evidence. These characters have become comfortable being themselves, that this wasn't always the case is clear, notable, and convincingly rendered by Sickles. Every character has remarkable spirit, infectious, rebellious. They might have come from a Hal Ashby film. They're not outcasts, they're outsiders. Love brings them inside. Inside a hotel room for clumsy misbehavior. Inside eyes where somebody sees a world entire. Inside the ocean of celestial structure.

I waited a few days before saying anything to anyone about ‘Gidion’s Knot,' but mostly all I was thinking was, "thank you," for a superb drama. The script is, frankly, my kind of show. I can’t think of a Drama better than people at opposite ends fighting for their version of the truth. The more you think about the implications a child's actions have on the outcome of the two people whose job it is to take care of him, the more you realize there is to chew on for actors.

Billie, who makes no effort to hide her cynicism, cares nothing about life, save perhaps for the ones near to being lost. Professionally, life brings Chuck, a terminally ill patient, but with the wits which meet their match, bringing Billie down from jaundiced to sardonic. Privately, life brings Nathan, weighed down indefinitely inside Billie's apartment, who were it not for his being so heavily guilt-ridden, would otherwise have no reasonable objection to never seeing him again. Henry's play pits patience towards the desperate, somber reflection with mortal introspection, and our curiously elusive autonomy in the face of a corporeal inevitability.

Caridad Svich's 'Albemarle' is set in the world of decay; in a town so far beyond its better days, the residents, government, even animals have given up on it, all resigned to their fate, some seeking to expedite it, others distracting themselves with simple pleasures, like avocados; it is also set in the decay of hope, the protagonist embarking on a dark night of the soul, speaking to the one who got away about living the ghost of an existence. The play finds connections between growing up, disillusionment, loss, heartbreak and, as a politician once coined, the audacity of hope.

The language here feels visceral and incredibly authentic, fascinating. The micro-aggressions Adams tackles are all too familiar and squirm-inducing. One of them reminds me of a name I was called during these years. Adams sets up a tableau that is piercing and theatrical. The cheerleader is a novel touch. It's a delicate time when people are willing or not willing to understand one another and this play shares a wonderful lesson in that regard, because many times the adults aren't there, physically or emotionally or...you name it. It's also a time where you decide who you are, Adam's triumph.