Recommended by Greg Mandryk

This is funny, charming, and kind of adorable! Plus, there are lots of opportunities for some hilarious visuals. I’m particularly fond of the four horsemen (five, sorry) as children, with hoods. Good stuff!

Online dating apps can lead to some pretty dark places. Having Sam’s innocence and awkwardness interpreted as Seussified prose is a truly inspired choice in this dark yet hilarious short play.

Okay, first of all, when a play has "Zeus" in the title and "goose" in the synopsis, you may cringe a little at the possibility of an upcoming "bow-chicka-wow-wow" moment. Relax. It doesn't go there.

What does happen in this play is some expertly crafted dark comedy and a touch of glitch-in-the-matrix flavored paranoia that lands somewhere in that area between horror and comedy.

Wow! Hazel is definitely a do-it-yourself kind of gal! Whether it’s gardening or… other things you normally would call a professional in for! I don’t want to give too much away, so just go ahead and dig in!

First of all: heed the "bi-lingual" bit in the subject matter keywords. There are huge chunks of Spanish here with no translations.

For a play that focuses on the issue of suicide, Kevin and the River Flan manages to feel fairly light and breezy. Brandon Urrutia's sense of humor and some mythical whimsy keep things from wallowing in the muck of its depressing themes of suicide and mental illness. If you're bi-lingual (or not quite. Two years of Spanish in high school and little Duolingo before a trip to Barcelona got me through this), KatRF is well worth a read.

Pangea is meant to work as a standalone play, but if you’re on NPX anyway (and you are), reading Marianas Trench first is definitely the way to go.

The world building in this play is off the charts, but Scott Sickles never loses focus of the relationship between his two protagonists at the heart of this play. When the world is going down in flames, the hand you hold matters. Or will humanity be saved?

On to part three!

The setup sounds like we’re heading into horror territory, but instead this is a very heartwarming tale about helping lost souls, living or deceased.

Yes, there's a message here about society's obsession with normalcy even when said normalcy is a hot mess, but don't pass this one by simply because you may not be in the mood to be on the receiving end of a stern finger-wagging. It's absolutely hilarious to read and, given the potential for sight gags, would be even better to see staged. Damn good stuff!

This fun-sized horror comedy would be a perfect fit for a Halloween themed short play festival. The nonplussed attitude of the two main characters in the face of unspeakable terrors is hilarious and leaves you wondering what an average day must be like for these poor, long-suffering souls.

Teachers should be paid more.

I was willing to give this a recommendation on title alone, but damn, this is funny! Yes, there's some cringy, gross stuff happening here. But Brandon Urrutia doesn't attempt to mine humor from the gross stuff, but rather the relatable, even lovable characters' reaction to the gross stuff. This is a super strong "recommend".