Recommended by Greg Mandryk

This is a beautifully written play about two strangers whose lives have been upended and who find themselves adrift. The two never even learn each other’s names (nor do we), but Joshua Piper illustrates how sometimes casual exchanges between fellow travelers can have a positive impact while even blood relatives can feel disconnected. Very well done!!

Neil Radtke has miraculously condensed the essence of all forty-seven SAW movies into a tight ten-minute play and then thrown in some hilarious gags for good measure. Save yourself eighty-six and a half hours of movie watching and read SEEN instead!

If you're new to NPX or only visit once in a blue moon, you may want to steer clear of this one. But if you're a regular, you should be familiar with most of the folks getting a shout-out in this delightfully wacky meta masterpiece. If nothing else, you'll come away with some stellar suggestions for your reading list.

Here's a fun one. Two bro-dudes are hanging out at the bar having a few brews. But what lies beneath the surface of these two best buds? A yearning for their friendship to blossom into something deeper? Or... maybe just a desire for more beer and a better sports team. Sometimes the face beneath the mask looks exactly like the mask.

A lot gets explored in this excellent one-minute comedy.

This is an effortlessly charming short play with two instantly likable characters. I see it already has a handful of productions under its belt and I hope it receives more.

Wow! Fantasy isn't a genre that gets a lot of love in theatre these days. But Daniel Prillaman has a vision and any theatre willing to stage this (and its sequels) will earn my utmost respect. More likely, they'll keep producing musical versions of 80s and 90s flicks. But the inner D&D nerd in me hopes they'll come around and tell tales of knights and swashbucklers and kingdoms in peril. A fella can dream.

Anyway, this is good stuff. You should give it a read.

This is classic Busser: silly, fun, and completely unapologetic! Put this in the hands of some talented comic actors and you’ve got a sci-fi flavored highlight for your one-act festival.

Look, my attention span is nothing to brag about. If I even manage to finish reading a full-length script, it should be considered high praise. I not only finished Marianas Trench, but I'm eager to dive into the second part of Scott Sickles' Second World Trilogy, Pangea.

Yes, I entered into this foolishly hoping it would read like a staged adaptation of The Meg 3: Megsistential Dread. Instead, it's a political thriller that, at times, feels like The Diary of Anne Frank, only standing in the road before us instead of in the rearview mirror. I'm glad it's getting produced.

John Busser aims for a Twilight Zone vibe and nails it. It's dark and creepy, but also opens the door for philosophical ruminations. If your existence were to be scrubbed from the collective consciousness of the world around you, what would be left?

Sometimes, the creepiest thing a horror writer can do is to present a fairly innocuous-seeming situation. We, the audience know what kind of show we're watching and know there's a sharp turn coming, but can only watch as the saps on stage, oblivious to the "horror genre" label slapped onto the reality they're living in, stumble toward dangers we can only guess at. DC Cathro gives us a young child and a teenager meeting in a junkyard after dark on Halloween, adds a subtle sense of dread, and spins it into a satisfyingly chilling conclusion!