Recommended by Cam Eickmeyer

Absolutely fantastic short play. The characters are so authentic we immediately empathize with them and feel the tiredness, frustration and challenges of early parenthood. The horror elements, and trust me, they are terrifying, are deepened by these very real characters. The ending is just perfect!

A delicious short play with a charming heart. The sporting hitmen are agents of the cruel world but that doesn't mean they have to be completely cold. Seeing this would be worth the wait.

I'm glad my NPX browsing led me to this play, much the same way Charlie and Arroyo found their way to the same park bench. There are numerous deep and beautiful lines, but the power of this short play is in the honesty of the character's connection. The dialogue puts you right on the bench with them as they briefly share everything with each other.

Mabey's control of language, setting and emotion puts the reader or viewer in the trailer with an estranged mother and son. The furniture is sparse, but the decades of trauma fill the space completely, almost to the point of spilling out. Two incredibly complex and deep characters tackle an enormous and complicated topic in a perfectly crafted story. Love this piece.

I'm old and therefore don't have all the confidence when using this phrase, but I think this play personifies "meet cute". The twist of one man's blindness personifying the other's different type of blindness is so well handled that the script just flows like a beautiful scent on the breeze.

This fun short play has a lot going on. On the surface is a veteran bank robber walking through the plan for a heist. Below that is an examination of how thinking about "the thing" can sometimes scratch the itch when doing "the thing" is not allowed. The question is, at what point does the plan become action despite one's best efforts to stop short?

Very creative short piece. We're always told to say more with less and Pause takes that to the extreme. I think actors would also love this challenge.

I think a lot of white people have moments like this, when the prominence of privilege in our lives is revealed as the stunning shortfall of our society. I hope people have these moments, and perhaps watch plays like this one, to wake up and change. If not now, when? The best time to change was yesterday, the second best time is now.

What an amazing short play! Where better to stage a discussion of Time than in a prison cell in the dead of night. This line absolutely took my breath away "You alright locking yourself up if you got the key."

Beautiful and powerful.

Saw this play on the list for a horror fest and absolutely see why it was selected. Grotesque, funny, shocking and somehow still super sweet!