Recommended by Matthew Weaver

I hold Ruben Carbajal, and his writing, in very high esteem. It is plays like this, and monologues like this, that completely prove me correct in this regard.
JENNIFER FINDS GOD is important and compelling and necessary. It provides we in the audience that sort-of immediate catharsis of seeing someone so dogmatic and rigid awaken to an honest reality.
Include this monologue in your festival, your collection ... your worship service. I highly expect it will (deservedly) be the monologue that dominates the discussion. And such an important conversation for teenagers to be able to have safely!

And here Hageman writes about survivor's guilt, and trauma, and what do you do with such big feelings? Such feelings of hopelessness? Of rage?
You talk about it. You let others know they're not alone. And you keep talking about it.
If people get uncomfortable, if they get mad -- GOOD.
Hageman's words will change the world, are changing the world. I think she would be the first one to wish she didn't have to write THESE words, to change the world this particular way.
I'm very glad she wrote this play. I wish she didn't have to.

I have said before on here, and I will keep saying until I am blue in the face: Emily Hageman's words are so important. MOLLY BRAGG is a shining, devastating example of this.
This play could/should/must be shown in every classroom and every political venue. Lawmakers should go to bed with it ringing in their ears and be forced to watch it when they wake up in the morning. Better that than still more needless, senseless, stupid headlines about the latest school shooting.
And it should be shown to those still processing such trauma. Emily Hageman gets it.

Sam Walsh is your new favorite playwright you just haven't read yet.
the stranger is a lovely, thoughtful play that wears its heart entirely on its sleeve. Walsh takes the unique tactic of literally revolving her whole play around a quiet man who is uncomfortable with showing emotions. In her capable hands, both Roy and the people surrounding him are three-dimensional, fully realized real people who just happened to wander onstage.
She also is a theatrical magician, deftly managing scene changes in ways that would make even the most grizzled, world-weary stage technicians jolt anew with revived spark and wonder.

Time and again, Gonzalez puts his entire heart upon the page and the stage, and HEART STOP is absolutely no exception. Self-examination? Gonzalez gives us BLOOD. This is raw, and brilliant, and raw, and demonstrates why he is one of the most vibrant voices working in theatre today.
As much pain and self-recrimination as Gonzalez shares, each word comes laced with love - for his family, for his craft, for audiences fortunate to see this work in progress unfold before our very eyes. May we all prove equal to the exquisite privilege as he bares his very soul to us.

Pitch-dark play, about an auspicious ... achievement doesn't seem QUITE like the right word here.
Like all of Lawing's plays, DEADLIEST INTERSECTION IN IDAHO will certainly make an audience think. Perfect for any one-minute play festival, natch, as well as to punctuate/accentuate any evenings revolving around driver safety. (Show it to your teenagers in driver's ed and college students before they make the trip to/from college!)
Or go the extra mile and (safely, please) stage this at the intersection in question! Lawing is always good about creating theater that makes a point.

Theater is for everyone, so we say, but a lot of theater, let's face it, can be off-putting if you're not a diehard enthusiast.
But then here is this lovely monologue from Steve Martin about how, sometimes, if you look past the largeness of theater, at its very core, at its very heart, at its very truth, if you just listen, there's something for anyone to find a connection.
As with all of Martin's words, this is very elegant and very moving. I like it because it's like Don got thrust up on stage or he felt compelled to speak.

Delightful! Adorable! Sickles plays with the magic of the theater in a way very much reminiscent of Steven G. Martin's BENNY V. (very much a compliment) as three performers unearth the true origins of the casserole and its mysterious inventor, Elmire Jolicoeur, COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ABRIDGED style. Resource book enthusiasts, in particular, will find much to be turned on in LAYERS!
It's smart, it's funny, it's sexy, it's laugh-out-loud cryingly funny and movingly heartfelt - no surprise from a writer of Sickles' caliber, but here he truly outdoes himself. Quite possibly his magnum opus amongst magnum opi.

A fascinating observation of the dynamics between several neighbors as they go about their daily lives - fending off neighborhood perverts, caring for the stray cats around the building, grieving the loss of a loved one, exploring the sparks of new attraction.
Hehir also captures the uneasiness of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding further layers of discomfort as Salome, Tara and Chris navigate the tricky nature of their own histories.
Hehir does an amazing job of harnessing the way PEOPLE ACTUALLY TALK, capturing each conversation as a single moment wholly formed by all those that came before.

Just as she did with the stunning FREEPLAY, here Hehir captures the mundaneness of a politically charged environment - an abortion clinic at Christmastime, in the middle of a blizzard. Secret Santa gifts are exchanged. Someone gripes about the smell of a co-worker's food. Old grudges and feuds are unearthed. It's real life, right there on the stage and on the page, and Hehir - and her audience - know it's just as fantastic and compelling and worthy as anything else. If anything, in Hehir's capable hands, it's moreso.