Recommended by Matthew Weaver

Staggering. Punches you in the gut and leaves you breathless on the floor.
So important.
Produce this play. Please.

It is a scary, scary thing to realize that your parents are making all of this up as they go along. That everyone is making it up as we go along. Sometimes, your instinct is to lash out, or take flight.
Gonzalez continues his inspiring trend of holding up the scariest, most terrifying, darkest corners of his - of our - soul and exposing them to the light. As any true artist must. And Gonzalez is. Artist. Artist. Artist.
And in doing so, he finds ... not forgiveness, but compassion, which is almost as good. Perhaps it is even better.

If you're a fan of Canfield's THE WINDOW (and if you are not WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??) will find just as much to love here in her modern-day reflection on the classic Tortoise and the Hare story. The whole thing is sort of a WAITING FOR GODOT with Aesop's classic characters - except it's arguably better than anything Aesop OR Beckett could've come up with. Yeah, I said it!!!
You might as well read this play now because you're going to be seeing it produced a LOT. Canfield is a treasure and this is a gift.

What would you do if an alligator suddenly appeared at your picnic and stole all your guacamole? Well, wasn't the alligator there first, really? O'Grady harnesses her powers of observation about animal perspectives into this piece that manages to be both utterly charming and utterly sobering.
I like that the alligator's appearance doesn't just cause us to consider our encroachment upon its territory; it also signifies the end of Corey and Cameron's relationship. The stakes are both large and environmental and small and felt on a personal level. Exactly the sort of storytelling where O'Grady is comfortable and excels.

Martin takes a characteristically deep dive into material that will leave the audience as thoughtful as an audience ought to be after consuming a Steven G. Martin play. Why does Terry eat a family-size package of cookies? Is it any of our business? Well, no, but we in the audience will have some thoughts one way or another.
Without so much as saying so, Martin turns the audience's eye in upon itself: Does one reason Terry offer make more sense to us than another? Whether we're on Terry's side or not, 38 REASONS will certainly leave us thinking.

A very strong monologue for any performers looking for one that will offer them the chance to show many different facets. McBurnette-Andronicos' monologue here is spooky, it's matter-of-fact, it's questioning, it's Gothic, it's a confession. And very much unlike anything else a performer is likely to bring to a competition or festival.
Give it to your performers who are just dying to be WEIRD and WONDERFUL and DARK up on stage. Give it to the performer who hasn't quite had the chance to spark just yet, and watch them ARRIVE.

Such a valuable play, and now is the perfect time for it, too. I had heard so many good things about this play from the likes of Laura Pittenger and Franky Gonzalez (read them!).
Here we get to spy on our conservative neighbors as they slowly unravel right in front of us. Arbery offers his characters sympathy and affection, while never losing sight of the dangerous undercurrent beneath their thoughts, and of our political divisions.
Whole classes could be taught about Emily's final monologue. It is a masterpiece.
This whole play is an argument for why art exists at all.

Irresistible from the first moment, an irresistibility that never lets up. We get hints that every character here has an active existence well beyond what Smith puts on the page, and it's a full-roundedness that elevates the things we get to see. It's as though Smith - and we the audience - are spying on all the characters as they meet, fall in love and mourn.
This play is SO WEIRD. And it's so WONDERFUL. And heartbreaking. And wow, someone should produce this lovely, lovely play, like, yesterday.

Goldman-Sherman bares her soul as only she can. She unveils her own history, resulting in an experience as universal as it is profound.
Yes, this is the conversation we all long for with our own parents. But, as in life, reality intrudes and blurs the lines. Goldman-Sherman holds up seemingly the prototypical ideal and examines it, examines her/our longing for it.
DREAM TALK is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking, with the playwright's signature wit and candor.
May it bring some semblance of peace to all who come across it, from creator to audience fortunate enough to bear witness.

We've all done this. Laid eyes upon someone who, for whatever reason, we find utterly compelling, so much so it almost feels like they were placed upon this earth just for us, and finally, finally, finally our love story can truly begin.
Sickles is intimately acquainted with this feeling. That fact rings clear and true with this breathtaking account of one such instance.
We've all known such yearning, such unfulfilled passion. And Sickles here offers us all a chance to relive it all - the joy, the pain, the desire - and perhaps still hope just a little bit longer.