Recommended by Claudia Haas

Syran has confirmed my fear that if I am sent to Hell, I will spend eternity at the DMV trying to prove I once existed. The play is chock full of clever tidbits but that ending - oh the ending. Proof positive the DMV exists in a circle of Hell.

A tale of a bird, a lesson in sensitivity, and an opening for a grand discussion all wrapped up in one minute. The silence at the end is so telling. Well done.

There’s some serious “good girl-bad girl” vibes in this remarkable play about expectations, proms, cool, and teen girls. McClain captures an accurate description of the confusion of the teen years and provides a beautiful two-hander of nuance, nostalgia and truths. Dear high schools: produce this.

Morey Norkin just gave me Hanukkah in July and it couldn’t be more lovely. Yes, I am sentimental and yes, I shed a tear. Norkin conjured up love and memory of sweet holidays past and those memories are always welcome - even in July.

There’s everything to love here. The wit of 007, the eye-candy mixture of heroes and villains, Dame Judi Dench, and of course, Great Britain’s first-ever vampire bear on a mission to save the world. But the tie-in to the beginnings of Bear gives the story its beating heart. Plumridge’s mixture of the clever with sweet truths has made this series a joy to read. I now wait for it to arrive at a theatre near me. I’m ready to buy a ticket.

What a refreshing change of pace to see such a glowing and positive relationship between a mother and a daughter. Yes, this short play brought me joy.

So many of us have had this conversation. It never fails to punch you in the gut. O’Grady’s short and bittersweet does just that.

And again, Plumridge seamlessly weaves history into a bear story. Some clever tidbits as to movie watching habits are peppered in with the grand (and scary) adventure of stuffed animals run amok, lightning, and a true scare-bear. Current events mixed with wishful fantasy (Melissa!) make for a many-layered, satisfying read.

Soltero-Brown offers up a trilogy of (slightly demented) love stories for the (slightly demented) romantic. We jump from a mash-up of Shakespeare and Restoration Comedy to a southern “William Faulkner’s version of ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’”, and end with the existential questions of the universe. The verse in the first play is a hoot - as if all the clowns in Shakespeare got together to outwit each other. We jump to southern discomfort and end with universal angst - all in the name of love. A rollicking, romp of romance born to be staged. Check it out.

Truth can be stranger than fiction. Lawing takes all the bizarre truths from the 1904 Men's Marathon and fashions a gold-medal farce that has "winning" all over it. Nothing will stop these men: not dust, not lions, not even rotten apples. It's chock full of surprises but what really stayed with me is the camaraderie of the men that give the play its heart.