Recommended by Greg Mandryk

Aly Kantor rolls a 20 with You Enter the Tavern! Her characters display strength and vulnerability in turns as they struggle to navigate a world full of pitfalls where a slide into self-destruction is as close as the neighborhood watering hole.

With superbly well-layered characters, touching drama, and even a dream ballet (I'm a sucker for a good dream ballet), this show demands to be produced!

Aly Kantor stitches together humor, horror, hope, and tragedy into the highly engaging Come Back Right. The protagonist’s determination to save her dead girlfriend causes her to turn a blind eye to the warning signs that nature shouldn’t be meddled with and sometimes people don’t want to be saved. Dark and beautiful. I loved it!

On the surface, main character Ted's eccentric attempt to prepare for the afterlife is fodder for chuckles and this play would definitely score some well-earned laughs in a performance. But underneath that is a genuinely touching pathos as Ted's preparations for the afterlife are clearly born out of his struggle to see, post-divorce and half a century old, what's ahead for him in his remaining years. A perfect blend of hilarity and heart!

All the Pretty Bottles Under the Sink drops you into a surreal nightmare and leaves you grasping for clues as to what is happening and how did we get here. The horror rises as the situation slowly reveals itself. I'd love to see this one produced.

I adored this one! It's a perfect mix of whimsy and slice-of-life drama.

Maturity doesn't always come with age, as we see in Michael C. O'Day's Coming Soon to the Dowling Bookstore. In a few short pages, O'Day brilliantly captures the frustrated sense of entitlement of his characters, one young and one middle-aged, and we see the tragedy of a man who has clung to his childish mentality long after he should have put it aside and moved on.

Is free will merely an illusion? If you're an actor giving a performance, the answer is a resounding "yes"! HELP! I'M TRAPPED IN A MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY MATTHEW WEAVER! puts a fun spin on the dread of living a predetermined existence. I'd love to see it as a lighter entry in a night of short horror plays.

There is so much affection for old-timey sci-fi in this short play. I couldn't help but imagine everything in black and white and everyone speaking with Transatlantic accents. If you have a fondness for classic B-movie goodness, Rachel-Feeny-Williams' They Walk Amongst Us should be right up your alley.

Much like the celery people, the emotional wallop of YOU SEE THEM IN THE CORNERS OF YOUR EYES creeps up on you. Two close-knit friends enjoy a woodland hangout, but a sense of dread looms over the proceedings. Prillaman’s writing expertly blends chills and heart-touching drama into what would be a worthy entry for any horror-themed festival.

The seven sections of TARTARUS can work independently as self-contained plays, but don't cheat yourself. Scott Sickles's mastery is on display here as he crafts a horrifying tale of twisted evil and lost innocence. That his villain's mindset is a reflection of real-world bigotry lends this work a chilling edge that will stay with you long after the lights come up.