Recommended by Larry Rinkel

Highly original and totally beyond rational explanation. Ian creates a delightfully witty animal fable that calls on concepts of math and physics that are completely over *my* head, but then again most things are and that doesn't matter a bit. This is pure fantasy, cerebral but humorous, and I hope it gets a lot of recognition.

A poetic and beautifully written fantasy suggestive of an adolescent boy's initiation from childhood to sexual awakening. Weaver leaves open the possibility that this could be either the sleeping boy's dream or a supernatural magic realism. The play is ambiguous: are the three young women innocent initiators of a passive, semi-nude boy's first sexual awareness, or are their motives more sinister and self-serving? There are suggestions of sirens, vampires, Dracula, plus an unseen cautionary voice. "I don't have good intentions." "Shouldn’t someone say again how wrong this is?" "But it's fiction, a fantasy." "Sugar on our tongues."

As with her "In Training," Rachael again masterfully caricatures the often insane world of work. In "Sh%t Train" or "Sh#t Train" (however you wish to spell it), the poor employee has no idea if (s)he's coming or going, as the employer is such an expert at gaslighting and giving mixed signals. I have no idea how Rachael came to know the boss I worked for in my last job, because she nails him (or her).

Everett Robert's compelling take on the date rape issue, "Superstar" leaves open the question of whether a rape actually took place as both the boy and girl passionately insist on their innocence and how the other ruined his or her life. While it may be tempting according to one's prior assumptions to take sides, the success of the play for me is how it presents a believable case for each of the two characters.

This exciting short play (for 5-100 actors) defies all conventional ideas of staging and the practical. I'd have no idea how to stage or direct it. Still, it deserves to be known and the author encouraged as a genuinely original and compelling voice. Images of violence, blindness, amputation, and sex permeate the piece, with an author who is obviously enjoying the pleasure of surreal and grotesque metaphor-making. I want to read more of his work.

Every mom should write plays with her young son. I can't tell which family member is responsible for what in this adorable short, but how many times will you encounter a British raccoon like Chauncey who's been dumped by his girlfriend Cheryl but learns his real friend is his emotional companion person? Chauncey may not be the most sanitary member of the animal kingdom, but at least he washes his pretzels. Do you?

"New York is so confusing." Rae Binstock's quatrilingual, dual time-frame "drama américana (en zvey aktn)" subtly depicts the marital/relationship struggles, employment difficulties, and cultural clashes of Lower East Siders struggling to assimilate and speaking Yiddish, Chinese, and Spanish (supertitles optional) as well as English, both today and 100 years ago. Reminiscent of Stoppard's approach in "Arcadia," Binstock sets various scenes simultaneously in the present and past, suggesting both parallels and contrasts. Among my favorite parts are when Jewish Yetta and Chinese Li communicate haltingly, speaking their own languages and writing in limited English about Li's sick little boy.

People from India are not often represented in drama, and Kushner memorably depicts the culture clash between Indian immigrants and teenage Tino’s Italian-American family from New Jersey. Kushner's language contrasts Tino’s poetical visions of space with more mundane interchanges as the characters debate whether Tino can donate bone marrow to the seriously ill half-sister he has never met. The most memorable character is Tino’s father San, a true Archie Bunker for our time, who is blinded by his many prejudices at the same time he wants the best for the son he adores.

"I just can’t believe that my wife—my darling bride of fifteen years—chopped off my best friend’s foot while he was still alive." This hilariously macabre little play, which I was fortunate to see at the Secret Theatre in 2017, treats cannibalism and jealousy with grotesque humor and unlike so many "10-minute plays," never wastes a word.

If you are seriously interested in the darkest fantasies in the mind of a clam or oyster, you will not find them here. As with others of her plays, Rachel Carnes loves to tease her audience with a whimsical, half-surreal treatment of her subject matter that doesn't always make logical sense but works anyway. How else can you interpret a play with characters named Blennie, Grunyon, and Lancelet playing out a police interrogation where the "cops" talk about shampoo, pleated pants, and jazz concerts, and also offer the "prisoner" a Snickers bar and ice cream?