Recommended by Ricardo Soltero-Brown

This is high poetry from Koivisto, one of the deepest, edgiest plunges into drama I've read in a while, or that anyone could get since the Greeks. The end of the world is something we deal with everyday and Koivisto takes it literally here, pitting characters (siblings) against each other in a way that I haven't really seen since Sarah Kane. 5/5

Astonishing poetry for a female performer, I've never read anything quite like it from Weaver.

Jennifer O'Grady's play has a wonderful mix-up of time and fourth-wall breaking, and an astounding back and forth. The rhythm between the sisters is divine as they reveal their abilities with memory and their Americanization - names, marriage - not just for Italians, but all immigrants. There's sass and flight and disillusionment, an investigative time-capsule for the streets of a long-gone Americana.

This is an important American monologue, even universal, and personally one of my favorites from Wyndham. It's about 8, 10, 12, 16 hour shifts without a break being the cross of a transient. When does someone like this get the chance to unwind, to confess, to have a pow-wow? I imagine Richard doing his jobs day to day without complaining but we all need connection and it's funny when that opportunity comes. Wyndham is a king of empathy and language.

This is a fantastic piece about the spreading of information, factual or not, where that information comes from, and how it spreads; how apt that it begins with the request of information. I love a play that lives in a jargon and while taking out the myths, works with them. Koivisto does clever, very fun, and funny work here, portraying the smoke-filled room with what truly inhabits it: people, just like you and me.

If you're looking for a dark tale, a Christmas nightmare that potentially tops the Santa monologue from 'Gremlins', this is a sure bet. Lawing sends us through an array of emotions, the one constant being nervousness, as he takes you on this Mistletoe's sad journey. It gives you the creeps, an unexpected point of view, that's impressive in how personal it becomes.

A perfect tragedy, how interesting that it centers on clowns. Diaz-Marcano sets up youth and age, reinforcement with deconstruction, to ask questions about art and who, when it comes down to it, has the selfish end. Listener means so well, and for this type of piece, meets a proper end, as do the others. These ends, however, may rightly be discussed as honestly, genuinely, and thoroughly, as the tune which inspires them.

A comedy that uses the force of farce, you have to do a double-take at some of the lines; except that today it's arguably drama. The sight gag of three sweaters is gold. This laugh-out-loud riff on a liberal couple in a MAGA home for the holidays showcases the human connections we need to survive. Burbano is daring and focused with this hit for holiday-themed short festivals. Brava!

Outstanding piece to begin an evening of plays on gun control, or benefit for the victims of gun violence, setting up where the focus should be, and what we are meant to remember. Simple, concise, filled with worlds, and utterly humbling.

This comedy from Rachel Carnes, which will induce a number of spit-takes, centers on two nincompoops and Betty, who's a riot! Depending on who's running things, the honor of being first to mars may end up in the hands of these clowns. With a dose of incompetence, perhaps malfeasance by cabin fever, Carnes investigates what humans may leave behind and bring with them on such an awesome voyage.