Recommended by Jennifer O'Grady

Among the many things I love about Scott Sickles' plays are their humor and theatricality and the way they always lead us to surprising and profound places. What a beautiful ending. This would make a fantastic addition to any short-play festival.

I love Arianna Rose's plays and this monologue is so powerful, visceral and truthful. I love the brilliant and poetic conjunction of watching fireworks--all that light and noise, the here-and-then-gone of it all--with a character in deep mourning for someone they've only recently lost. Beautiful.

Hilarious! The job interview from hell--but is it? With a super-satisfying ending.

Wonderfully dark and very funny short play about some familiar fairy-tale characters having a group-therapy session that goes horribly wrong. I laughed out loud at many of the lines and the surprising things the characters say (and do!). I'd love to see it on stage!

Powerful, painful, and beautifully written monologue. I also love that its character is a 60+ woman.

What Sickles is able to do here in just sixty seconds shows his great skill as a playwright. I don't wanna provide spoilers--suffice it to say that this is a timely and appropriately unsettling play that lingers long after reading and would undoubtedly be even more powerful on stage.

"I adore Emily Hageman's plays. This tiny (60-second) play contains few words and fabulous stage directions ("It's a stampede." "LEADING LADY and FRIEND 1 & 2 enter and the waters part") all of which perfectly encapsulate the high-stakes moment when the high-school cast list is posted, and with a lovely, happy and hopeful ending to boot. Perfect for all ages.

Charming and funny one-minute play about expectations and assumptions. So enjoyable!

McLaughlin's short play wonderfully explores variations on motherhood and human connection though the characters of two women, initially strangers to each other, who are watching their young children navigate a playground. Audiences everywhere will be able to relate to this play!

Lovely ten-minute two-hander about love, in this case a young daughter and her father, a relationship rarely explored on stage as beautifully as in Kimmel's play. Moving and theatrical.