Recommended by Larry Rinkel

It is very hard to bring off a play that relies almost totally on exposition, but somehow Williams has done it here. I'm not sure how - perhaps the elegiac tone, perhaps the vignettes representing the sometimes tormented and sometimes devoted relationship between the older and younger man, perhaps the sympathetic but unsparing characterizations of both - but the description as a "memory play" and a tribute to someone now lost is touching, involving, and emotionally true.

What a delightful, fresh, and original play. Chris Barlow is evidently a recent MFA, but please don't hold that against him. "Equity" moves along with consummate grace and mastery, with three generous roles (The Man From the Bank especially), and a deftly plotted story line that by the end feels both unexpected and inevitable. Pay particular attention to the Dramatis Personae and how their names should be displayed in the program, as that's an essential element of the comedy. And please produce this gem of a play before pool boy Sam paints his next painting!

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "brotherly love." Are newly related step-brothers Kip and Stan really gay, or are they just "experimenting"? Is clueless Mom as dumb as she sounds, or does she really believe the goo she sees is "white cheddar"? This play is a lot of fun, not least the non-stop double-entendres from the "Nigella" voice on the TV. Ah, to be 17 again. At least in my advanced years I can still pop a few tablespoons of kernels in the hot-air popper.

Diana was of course the Roman goddess of the hunt, and DeVita has re-created her as the archetypal predator who uses busts of Papa Hemingway to get her kicks spying on gay men having sex. This is a wonderfully deft farce full of unexpected twists and turns as Ms. Black-White and her murderous, amoral partner Percy seem at long last to be vanquished, only to re-emerge like the phoenix. Not the least of its pleasures are the effortless dialogue, the visuals referencing social media, and the precisely imagined locations centered (though not exclusively) on NYC. Kir Royale, anybody?

Two boys - Owen (the astronaut), introverted and unsure of himself, and Jasper (the alien), cocky and assertive - find themselves falling in love so long as it's from the safety of a laptop screen. But when Jasper attempts to visit Owen in "real life," Owen's fear overwhelms him and the chance for friendship and more is left in doubt. Will the boys come together at the end? The resolution is unsure in this beautifully written, well-paced one-acter (about 45 minutes by my estimate), but I'd like to think the outcome is positive for both.

There are works you admire mainly for their artistry, and others that grab you by the gut for their searing honesty. "Paletas" falls into the second group, with its unsparing depiction of Franky Gonzalez's father as well as himself. Suicidal thoughts, extreme depression, and uncontrollable obesity dominate the first half. But there is humor too, especially in the account of the birth of Franky's son, and hope at the end when Franky pledges to become a better father to his son than his father was to him. It would be interesting to see what the "performer" adds to this monologue.

Letting go of the past means taking a chance. Best friends Pauline and Esther, who can't let go of the husband she lost several years ago, finally try someplace new and to Esther's surprise, a potential romance finds its way to her - thanks in part to a sly waiter. A gently drawn, family-friendly comedy.

This is a very simple play, suggesting the possibility of renewal and reconciliation. In it, an out-of-town visitor arrives at a B+B in Vermont hoping to learn about her mother, and finds her parents are actually the divorced proprietors of the B+B. It's a gentle, understated piece, somehow very American down to the apple pie and small-town New England setting, and it reminds me somewhat of the atmosphere of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town."

The trickiest aspect of adaptation is deciding how much of the original the audience benefits by knowing, and how much the adaptation stands on its own. Here Franky Gonzalez has taken Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" and converted Bérenger, Daisy, Jean, and rhinos in France into Bernardo, Dalia, Juan, and hippos in Colombia. With a serving of arepas. It would take some side-by-side analysis to trace how Gonzalez plays with the original, but having not read the Ionesco in many years, I can affirm that this new version with its humor, excitement, and cunning dialogue more than stands on its own hippo-feet...

What a clever idea - a one-minute send-up of a classic fairy tale. I hope Molly Wagner does more of these, since it's a great start to what could be a wonderful series.