Recommended by Matthew Weaver

Just because somebody's dead doesn't mean the love triangle ends. And it also doesn't mean a controlling partner's reach can't tighten ... Donnelly delivers a witty haunting, with a neat resolution: I always love stories where one's partner quickly makes light work of one's excess emotional baggage.

Nora sneakily and delightfully/deliberately delivers a timely history lesson as she entertains us, a play on words within a play of words. An excellent, living monologue that captures and delivers so much.

A very brave, no-holds barred monologue, one of those works in which the writer clearly holds up his heart within his words and hopefully, in doing so, both finds peace and passes some sort of peace on to others in their own situations. Braverman pulls no punches and speaks only truths, and we in the audience are very fortunate that he trusts us to receive his story. Thank you, Paul.

Somehow, I feel, only Gatton could have written this play, in which there are no winners and no losers, just humans stumbling their way through past hurt and uneasy alliances. (Never mind the fact that the humans are elves in this instance.) Oh, yes, and it's also FUNNY. A fantasy steeped in reality, told by a very talented playwright indeed.

An ERSTWHILE by any other name would still smell as sweet. The clock is counting down, the stakes are high, and what is a playwright like Lipschutz to do but raise them higher??! More plays/movies about heists should end this way. Warms hearts even as it pilfers them.

An ERSTWHILE period piece that unveils secrets and layers (while at the same time, keeping them), underlining the heartbreak of the time and era. Hilder's characters speak very polite, refined language under the eyes of everyone around them, and his dialogue/writing conveys the passion beneath their words. Include this play in your festival if you want to give voice to the voiceless past.

We love a good Persephone retelling around here!
Xanthopoulou has delivered what should be a mainstay for monologue festivals (and audition monologues), as the Queen of the Underworld delivers a lyrical, balanced tribute to the harmony her two divided worlds create in concert with one another.
If Xanthopoulou isn't on your radar, correct that error. Here is an excellent place to begin.

The erstwhile Son of God lies low around Christmas time with new, unwitting disciples. Much like the original guys, they are taking on new names and new lives in this low-key comedy. In a nifty contemporary spin on an already nifty contemporary spin, they're willing to give as much as they receive. The Gospel according to John P. Bray. I'd read that Bible.

A classic whodunnit made even better by the fact that the victim solves it for themselves. A very clever set-up, delivered with humor and grace.

I really appreciate how Bluestein-Lyons approaches this take on "erstwhile," with a couple no longer, still discovering all the ways that they have influenced one another, even before they fully knew each other. And also that even though they have an even deeper connection than they realized at first, that relationship is still allowed to end/be over. (For now, at least.) It's the tougher choice, perhaps ultimately the right one, and the strongest.