Recommended by Claudia Haas

A smartly written play, debate, conversation that gives you an appreciation for those that speak without yelling, question without judging and listen when its hard. A thoughtful discourse emerges from a mild flirtation. A play where love goes beyond the attraction between people and jumps to love of the earth, love of faith, and love of the search for new knowledge.

This is one clever mash-up of Halloween and Christmas. I love how Plummer takes all of Dickens tropes and improves on them. Funny with just enough irreverence to make you wonder where it’s going. The ghosts take center stage and really need their own play. Merry Ghostmas to the lucky cast and audience.

I confess I am a Norkin fan - so I will read anything he writes. As a (former) hiker, stairways are a pathway to anywhere and everywhere. Norkin points this out as we ponder where they lead, and do we follow? And where does imagination lead and does reality follow? In one minute, Norkin gets us thinking and the thinking never ends. Does the pathway end? Where does it go and dare we follow?

Just a gorgeous play of truths imbued with magic, of love infused with guilt and of hope infused with hope. Gonzalez offers hope and despair side by side. You know who you root for.

Fun, silly but truthful (really talk to someone in Human Resources). The transitions give the actors some fast thinking onstage and the premise may seem like satire.., until you think about it.

What a fun cat-and-mouse play. Two grand role for actresses, a whodunit, clever dialogue, theatre, and the Staten Island Ferry. Who could ask for anything more?

As someone happy to sit under a tree and wonder about all those things the tree witnessed, Plumridge’s play fills all the gaps. I love that “nothing happened” has been turned upside down to reveal that something DID happen and indeed - something is always happening. A play about the lively connections that go unnoticed but are there - even if a stone does not commemorate that.

Black and white. Gray - oh those gray areas. Middaugh finds the gray area and delves into it. When do you compromise? Why do you compromise? An incisive look at how the world spins round in shades of gray with a welcome dose of humanity.

Across a Crowded Room covers a relationship so intimately and poignantly, you feel as if you are old friends with this couple. A winning sonnet about taking chances, trusting your instincts and going for the brass ring even if you don’t think brass rings exist. Hartland writes the perpetual circle of hope that if you’re fortunate - you can live in. A reminder of how stardust is a force and if we’re lucky we carry this force with us.

Aside from being sufficiently scared, I am intrigued. What happens to humans as opposed to robots if their information is not what it seems? Yes, I laughed. And then I paused. And then I thought about living this past year in the world and now I stop at conclusions. Summarizing is suspect. Knowledge is off-putting. All these things are streaming through my brain because John Busser wrote a play. Science fiction? Maybe. You decide.