Recommended by Claudia Haas

I think I may hear Danny DeVito in my current script. Shatnerize may be too much…, but I don’t know. Should I know? Richer’s script is ripe with every question an actor has asked a writer combined with the writer thinking, “say what?” Collaboration is a mystical mystery and as Stoppard once noted (not verbatim) - “it works. It’s a mystery how.” Some truths, great fun, and a valentine to theatre.

A cautionary tale? A truth? Could we be going there? In our fractured world, Levine offers a solution to what is drudgery for the privileged. Are you a human if you are bio-engineered? Truthfully, the play scared me to death. Because I could hear politicians defending the abuse. Would love to see this taken up in schools and universities.

I never was much for garden gnomes. Didn’t think my yard needed them. But now that I know the amazing chemistry between the gnomes, their marvel comic back stories, their myths, I will be first at the garden store tomorrow. Sickles has opened my eyes Which are now wide-open and cannot blink.

The metaphors fly as the pieces of a relationship that once fit suddenly won’t lock anymore. An exquisitely crafted play that mirrors the solving of the jigsaw puzzles onstage slowly unfolds - until it lays bare what’s missing from their lives. As each character and puzzle piece declares it space, we come to an unexpected and moving final moment. Preuss offers up a lot of heart and insight into the puzzles that are relationships.

As someone who has had this same (scrumptious) epiphany more than once, this is so relatable. Audiences will roar when they see where Lermond leads. And where Lermond leads, you will follow. Another tasty morsel from this playwright whose work always resonates.

A silly little ditty (I have a rhyming problem) that’s fun for all ages. The combination of wit and farce is irresistible. With the opportunities for physical humor, the play just sparkles and crackles (more rhyming problems). Don’t worry about the rhymes, just do it.

Love, bluebonnets never die. They return year after year as a reminder. A reminder that love lasts and returns. A reminder that memory is strong. Sweet and strong. We have been there. We will always be there.

Steve Martin has made me a believer in the one-minute play. You can feel the setting, the time of night, the expectation, the hope, and the inevitable all in a scant minute. And you know the backstory without any explanation. Beautifully done.

This will give you minimal time to think. Think fast because there’s not a lot of time. Not even as much time as Dzubak suggests. Root for him, pray for him, but can you grant the gift of time?

Riveting and terrifying, Berger explores the unknown scars that grow after trauma. No easy answers are given, but the mystery of what time, fear, and unwanted knowledge can do to your psyche grips you tightly. And it doesn’t let go even when the play ends.