Recommended by Dan West

This beautifully composed piece about the Ospedale della Pietà during the time of Vivaldi strikes all the right notes. Brynn Hambley's writing has a unique choral-like quality as she examines the lives and growth of her four musically virtuosic, yet physically disabled/disfigured, young heroines. In an era that is both entranced and repulsed by them, they seek to create a world of their own where they can be both seen and heard with equal amounts of adoration. And find out that's not always easy.

Three characters find themselves trapped in the dark with no explanation of where they are or how they got there (and the audience is left right there with them). Are they dead? Or is their situation much more insidious? And who, if anyone, can be trusted? As the parent of a blind child, I found the premise of this play intriguing and fully engaging from beginning to end. I really want to "see"/experience this boldy experimental piece in live performance.

A fun and intelligent 10-minute play about neighbors, international borders, and monetary policy. Ross Tedford Kendall’s “Micronation” playfully takes on our modern political world without ever feeling preachy or didactic. This definitely would make a great addition to any evening of short comedic plays.

Three adult children await their elderly mother’s hospital release knowing that one of them is going to have to bring their fractious and disagreeable matron home with them when they leave. Paris Hebert-Taylor presents and witty and sympathetic portrayal of the three siblings as they negotiate responsibility and struggle to balance their own individual lives and needs against a filial loyalty to a woman that both brought them into the world and caused many of their difficulties in it.

The life of the working actor is not all fun and games. Sometimes you nail it and just know you’ve landed the role, sometimes you’re not sure how you did, and sometimes it’s an unmitigated disaster. (Maybe even all three?) In this 10-minute comedy, James Kelsey Nelson runs his three characters through a gamut of emotions as they wait to find out which of them ends up as Madame (or is it MaDAME) Skretzky. Fun stuff.

We all know what it’s like working on a deadline. Sometime we do our best work and sometimes not. In this outrageous “inside theater” play, four offbeat company members brainstorm their next season, with the intent of getting things hammered down before lunch. From Cats to Dogs to minimalist classics the laughs keep coming in rapid succession. I thoroughly enjoyed this 10-minute comedy by James Kelly Nelson.

In Dust and Echoes, Nicholas Sweet explores the human price of fame- both ancient and contemporary. Phoebe and Will are anthropologists/lovers who have made a discover that will change the worlds understanding of Egyptian antiquity. This discovery has the power to either make their careers or destroy their relationship forever. On the eve of the exhibit's debut, their lives re-intersect; but is it for better or for worse? I really enjoyed reading this play.

If you are looking for easy answers, you will not find them here. What you will find in Georgia Xanthopoulou’s The Void Space is two lost souls trapped in a pulsating liminal space with lots of unanswered questions. Questions as to where they are and why. Question of where they came from and of who they might have been and of where they may be going. Are the in hell? Purgatory? The womb? I have my thoughts. But in a void space do answers really matter? An intriguing piece.

Stu is a prison neophyte. Vince his veteran cell mate. We can one watch in dread (and a bit of awe?) as the Vince deftly breaks Stu’s will, leaving him a quiver mass of putty ready to be molded in the older man’s hands - without him lifting a finger and barely rising from his bunk. A taut and expertly crafted ten minute thriller.

This dark science-fiction comedy hits on many different levels - aiming its sharp social commentary at everything from commercial culture to actorly ego to the meat industry to our warlike primate instincts. Mike Oberman is the new Harvek Human, the face of our alien overlords human-based meet product, but might he also be the last best hope for human kind? An outrageously funny one-act play.