Recommended by Larry Rinkel

One would not expect a young man to write so convincingly about the pain and difficulty of childbirth, but though I am also a man, I feel Hernandez has done just that. Slowly paced, understated, and highly poetical, this play pits a woman unable to conceive against a woman who wishes to abort, with an enigmatic young girl both literally and figuratively between them. Images of wildflowers, water, a pomegranate, and Internet searches dominate the poetic texture here. In tone and subject matter, this play reminds me of Lorca's "Yerma," that great play about the pain of conception and motherhood.

A zany, manic, cartoonish, often hilarious satire on a kind of Steve Jobs-led corporation (ACME: A Company that Makes Everything, except nothing works). ACME is told with diamond-sharp, rhythmic dialogue, and a fast-paced, wound-up plot. It’s like a comic book come to life complete with a demon bird, a wily coyote, a void, a death ray, upgrade patches, just the usual shit in everyday corporate America, headed by Walter Avery the megalomaniac CEO. Technically challenging to stage, but no wonder it was picked up (solely from the director's browsing NPX) by a Long Island theater for their 2019 fringe series.

An exquisitely charming vignette about three stages in our journey through life and what we come to learn as we age, and how we look back on our younger selves. Though the character(s) is/are gay, his/their experience can apply to anyone, gay or straight. Steven Martin has an effortless gift for characterization, dialogue, and pacing, and I'd love to see this performed. The title, for the math-challenged among us like myself, refers to . . . .

This 5-minute play makes cute fun of the fascination we all have with attractive bodies, in this case an attractive nearly naked male body, and of our even greater temptation and fear to discover what's underneath that "nearly" part. It might be fun to think of how we'd react if the sexes were reversed, and the play hints at that. The play is also enhanced by our awareness that the actors know they're on a stage with an audience participating vicariously, and raises the question: wouldn't some of us too like a peek at what's inside those shorts?

A nice little play that contrasts generational attitudes between vets from WW2 (male) and Afghanistan (female), and shows some signs of incipient tolerance from the older homophobic male towards the two gay girlfriends. The very last line, I think, can stand a number of ambiguous interpretations.

Tension builds in this competitive Scrabble game as a white red-haired challenger debates whether to play the obvious derogatory word against the black champion. A very clever and suspenseful 10-minute exploration of how a member of the dominant culture both uses and fears language to characterize minorities of all kinds - only to find himself outplayed and outwitted at the perfectly timed blackout.

This is so funny. You just have to read it. Beiieve me. There have been Trump-inspired plays, but this trumps all. I don't know even how to describe it. Ever heard of a disembraining machine, getting your brains schlorped, and a bear named Beatrice all set against an assassination plot? Now you will. Make sure not to miss Scene Eight and Eleven-Sixteenths; it's the best of all. Theaters, get busy casting, 'cause you'll need the entire French and Russian armies.

What do the books we see in our local Barnes & Noble (or insert bookstore of your choice) really think about us and their own fates? What if you're the poetry book sitting on the shelves passed over, unread, and unbought? And who has it worse - you, or the YA pop culture action thriller who'll sell in minutes only to be forgotten, donated, or even recycled? In O'Grady's clever little play, I guess when you're the smart unpopular kid (I mean "book"), you don't mind shaking things up a little for the dumber popular kid (I mean "book").

How do you handle your parents' death when they've left you nothing and have asked you to burn all their possessions? How do you handle things when your best friend is helping you pack and chooses this inopportune moment to come on to you? This touching short needs careful direction, as both young men's speech patterns are fragmentary, with a lot left unsaid.

I can only start by remembering the times where I took my mother for granted, but unfortunately she's gone now so I can't make amends. A wickedly funny but uncomfortable piece about how the bovine males in the family can do nothing for themselves, expect mom to do everything for them, and barely notice when she packs up and leaves. Some funny stage business too where the actors "perform" directly for the audience. And how son Rodney's taking a shower when no toilet paper is available, is a place I don't want to even imagine. What's next - "Toothpaste"?