Recommended by Larry Rinkel

I thought Jones's "Two Tongues" was very good; this one is even better - a powerful, compact, sometimes comic study about three black men unaware they are free even in 1865, and one woman who knows. And still the slaveowners and their dogs are heard offstage, unwilling to let the former slaves go. One of the four returns to the safety of the plantation, while the others continue to freedom and the unknown. The title is about the way these slaves were dehumanized by being given comic names. Jones's "Playwright's Thoughts" ought to be distributed with each program.

Set during the presidency of Andrew Johnson, this play is more a set of twin monologues than a dialogue between the white ex-slaveowner woman and the black female ex-slave. Jones plainly sympathizes with black "Mammy," yet he treats the white woman without caricature. The play is largely written in verse, and among its stronger touches is how the dialogue between the two speakers intertwines at the same time neither is directly aware of the other. As with his powerful "Biscuit-CB-Whatshisname," Jones emphasizes how the black slaves were dehumanized by being deprived of their genuine names.

This long one-act is not only about teenagers, but for teenagers, in that it is not so complex to be above a young person's understanding, nor so simple as to be pat or superficial. The young protagonist Dean is for most of the play friendless, isolated, and an apparent trouble-maker at school because of his surly and hostile disposition. His parents and stepfather are of little help. But it takes a girl (Lucy) to break through Dean's self-erected cage and open him to the possibility of freedom. I'm reminded of Blake's phrase about our "mind-forged manacles."

Once again, Rachael Carnes contributes eight pages of inspired silliness. Two black holes about to collide, who may or may not also be characters in a play, who may or may not also be characters who are gay, who may or may not be directed by another character whose hair may be grey. Or Einsteinian white. (I mean his name is Albert and he speaks with a German accent, hint-hint.) One thing is for sure, you need some pretty massive actors for the two main parts. Or maybe not.

Prim grammar-school teacher Mrs. Hammermill (love the name) has her hands full with Corbett, who doesn't give the answer expected when she asks the class what letters can also be words. You know: I for eye, C for sea, P for (well), and one more that shocks poor Mrs. Hammermill to her core, yes indeed. A cute little monologue about teachers and their sometimes unpredictable students.

This is so sweet. How often does a young guy lose his virginity, and how often does he memorialize the occasion by taking his lover to a 12-course meal at a 3 Michelin-star restaurant near San Francisco that he can barely afford? Well, me neither, but Weaver does a charming job portraying the unworldly, unsophisticated, slightly gauche young man whose desire to please his girl is so sincere that he comes across as totally unpretentious. Impossible to know where this relationship will go, but this one exquisite meal is a perfectly realized moment in time.

Updated and freely adapted from "Love Letters Made Easy" by Gabrielle Rosiere (1919, public domain), this charming play consists of thirteen brief vignettes separated by spoken choral interludes, almost like a set of 5-10 minute plays loosely organized around the theme of love letters. Despite the often gentle tone, there is more bite here than may meet the eye. The cast requires a minimum of six actors but may be played by many more (as in a production I saw on Feb. 9, 2019, off-off-Broadway in New York City).

An old Jewish married couple, fighting like — an old Jewish married couple. Feeling the ravages of age, fighting over the smallest things, the man getting too old to drive safely, both living in their memories that come across not as "exposition" but the characterization of an old couple who can only live by remembering their youth. And a fling the younger Sam resisted involving a room number written on a lilac ticket by a temptress with a great tush. Confession, forgiveness, love, fidelity are at the heart of this little gem, where even Bernie Madoff gets in there.

A lovely little love story about two girlfriends reuniting after one of them has tried to go the straight route and found it didn't work. Watch how Minigan surely but patiently shifts the change in their relationship and uses the motif of the two lesbian swans as a kind of catalyst. And if you have any doubts about the depths of Violet's devotion to Ellie, check how far Haverhill is from Boston on a map.

The contrast is sharp between these two black women downing champagne together - one a well-to-do jive talker, the other a well-educated chemist who just moved to DC. But they're both looking for a connection at the same time they are both resisting one. Will they get past their mutual defenses and Stef's obsession with STDs to hook up? Will Nicole try that call again or just give up? The play's not saying!