Recommended by Claudia Haas

Hill wrote a play that is a beginning. There are no easy answers and none are given. The play illustrates ways to address bullying and acknowledges hard truths: there is no one-size-fits-all answer. And solving the problem all by your lonesome also backfires. Upper elementary students and middle schools would especially benefit from both being in the play and as audience members. Silence can be deadly. The play gives you a safe place to speak.

Motherhood in all it’s guilt and glory is center stage. Motherhood through an African-American lens gets even more complicated. With “ideal,” nannies, the “ideal,” motherhood, Thompson creates a world where it is impossible to be a mother. And you laugh - because it is true. It is real. Stereotypes have truth. Stereotypes can be truth. Blistering satire on motherhood in our new age of enlightenment.

Weaver finds the confusion, the lust, the need for teenage leaders in a silent but oh so loud Five Boys on the Beach. Each character is carefully constructed with an arc that uplifts and breaks you. This is a treasure trove for young performers who will find their characters in relationship to one another. Weaver shows us that some of the most powerful moments onstage are in silence.

The play is never what you think which I love and it’s what I thought I knew but I didn’t. Carbajal captures the essence of teenage-hood - who knows what they think and what you think. But you don’t. A puzzle of what’s right, what’s correct, and what’s real gives way to rebellion: a kidnapping, a kiss, and maybe there’s a revelation. Such a bullseye for teens and their audiences. Carbajal captures the essence of a busy teenage brain.

Partain’s revenge-comedy gives you the slings and arrows of zingers. Yes, dating is treacherous, maddening, sexy, lustful and filled with traps. What’s the answer? Build a better trap. And you watch in delight as the characters do so.

An outlandish and original premise is at work here. Twin sisters who share a mammary gland are working the ins and outs of trying on a bikini with amazingly different results. And wait till they attempt to leave the dressing room ... A Shared Mammary presents endless opportunities for physical clowning and imaginative staging in a confined space. Bonus: The play has two strong, comedic female characters.

“Not everyone blooms.” And that is the exact moment where you start wishing and cheering the characters on saying, “Bloom. bloom.” A slice of life of what “could have been” with an ending of “what may come” gives for a poignant, satisfactory play of love and yearning. Sickles has the knack for finding the humanity in his characters and he delivers this in spades.

Kimmel hands us a holiday feast. The matza may be meager but it was done with care and in the end - the bakery got what they expected. Even if they hoped for more. Using Passover and matza to highlight class differences, Kimmel gives us the class differences that have existed throughout time but personalizes it with the hopes of laborer and the outlook of the rich. The answer lies not in the wishes of the worker but in the reality of the situation. The outcome gives us the good of humanity while acknowledging our shortcomings.

The Harry Potter series imagined a world where house elves were unionized. Burch takes this idea further and has the elves debating whether to go “on brand” with Mattel or Hasbro or stick with good old Santa. Over a poker game, the elves fight over their cute status versus their slave labor position. Burch keeps it lively and makes you wonder what could happen if the elves hijacked Christmas. Oh wait! Maybe they did.

This hit me in the gut. Where do the bullies go when there is no school? Or - what do we find about the bullies when honest communication is possible? A beautiful moment of wanting to do better, wishing for forgiveness without knowing if it is warranted. Do new times give rise to new relationships? Can we find the “good” in the “difficult?” Minigan gives hope in these sheleting-in-place days.