Recommended by Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos

Admittedly, I’m one of those drivers who hurl abuse at the GPS system when driving, so I found this two-hander particularly funny. Hopefully, I’ll never have to deal with one that’s been recently updated in this way. A really fun short everyone who drives can relate to. Loved it!

Three things I love - pineapple, noir, and the unexpected. And Charles Scott Jones gives me all three in this fun, slightly off kilter short play. I especially enjoyed pondering the wife’s motivations and her ability to manipulate Finn. Two well-formed characters and a simple set makes this short a great choice for any festival.

Mother looms large in this short though she never makes an appearance. These siblings have endured her tyranny for the last time. And this is a Christmas photo that will change the family forever. Fully fleshed out roles for two teens that would be wonderful for school competition or for a Christmas-themed play festival.

Dellagiarino Feriend’s full-length play, “Come Again” features characters that are fresh, endearing, with a premise that’s timely and critically important. What she does so well here is the switching back and forth between high humor and sobering reality. It’s a really funny play about a really terrifying subject. It’s a marvel how she is able to deftly weave in so many relevant complicating factors that illuminate the complexities of the climate crisis. Race, class, regionalism, religion, capitalism, each receive their due. This is the kind of smart, effective theatre I like to see. Well done...

You got to feel for Sandy, our central figure, and the predicament she finds herself in. AGAIN. Donnelly’s anecdote to the “same old, same old” Christmas programming (which, by the way, thank you for addressing!) is really something quite…the opposite. I enjoyed the hopeless, disgruntlement of our promotional copy writer for the theater who’s forced to promote the same show every year (no, not THAT show). But the meat in this piece is the subtext, which added much depth and richness to an otherwise light and comical monologue. Well done.

As I've said before, you know you love a play when you wish you'd written it yourself, or you want to be cast in it. For me, this play is both! The premise is brilliant, the resulting dialogue is hilarious, the generational pokes go both ways, and Martineau even throws in some social criticism for good measure - like a good playwright does. What a delight this play would be to see fully staged. It will likely have a long tenure on the list of my most favorite shorts on NPX. Highly recommend!

Reminiscent of Sarte’s “No Exit”, “The Burning” throws four characters together to manage a hot, snowy night trapped in a Swiss chalet. Poetic, dark, surreal and far from predictable, this short play packs plenty of action in its 10 minutes. And Gray sets an exquisitely macabre mood, too. Excellent choice for a night of dark and gloomy theater. I’d love to see it performed.

Goldman-Sherman packs a gut punch in this short monologue about anxiety and fear manifesting as very real physical pain. What a great choice for a competition. Almost guaranteed you’ll not see another like it. Really well done.

What struck me first about Sapio’s play, GHOSTS, was its dialogue. Realistic and effortless, the language felt authentic and natural. Some of the best I’ve read in that regard. It was easy to hear these characters speak. What I enjoyed thinking about after having finished the play was the way Sapio exploited ghosts and its meaning. The story gives us traditional/classic ghosts, but also the ghosts of former selves, the ghosts of the undead, the ghosts of trauma, and the lingering presence of ghosts of a physical place. So many interesting staging possibilities, too. An enjoyable read.

You can just feel the magnetic pull of the whiskey sour for our speaker. Nice build of anxiety for the listener/reader as we wait to see how she’s going to get herself out of this precarious situation. Well done.