Recommended by Claudia Haas

With so many alternative Christmas festivals around, it’s no wonder this is finding a home. In the best spirit of Christmas, it celebrates love and denial which are not strangers at Christmas. It could be a self-help book about how to come out on Christmas Day. Complete with laughter and guts.

Talk about a ticking clock: it’s all here - regret, maybe love, lust, romance, sweetness wrapped up in comedy. And you so root for “Me” and you hope - a lot. Read it. Produce it.

Short, succinct and scary. Throw restraining orders out the window as stalkers do. The fact that it takes place at an airport shows you how leaving town is not even the answer. The “forgiveness” line bites.

“World doesn't need any more followers.” And so begins a needed friendship, a needed family and a meeting of minds and hearts. A quick, honest look at the not-to-distant past with the realization that as far as we have come we cannot slide back. A slice of life of our collective humanity.

You know those kids. You know the tattoo arguments and you root for these teens to do what they really want to do and not what peer pressure dictates. A charming look at (maybe) first love and fitting in. This short is a lovely way to showcase four teen actors.

Where was Sickles when I was teaching teens? A sweet but honest look at adolescent love, longing, perfection - or not - in all its foibles. There’s a hint they will grow up. There’s a hint that Miracle is stuck. Who knows? At fourteen, anything is possible.

A playwright’s life in one minute. Accurate. Really, theatre’s still do RTF’s. Have a minute? Have a laugh.

So many of us have been there. Succinct and truthful. Audiences will appreciate.

If you ever wanted to know what a poem can evoke, it’s here. In a scant twenty minutes, breaking into a teacher’s desk for information bings up questions of humanity, dysfunctional families, history and privilege. A gripping two hander for teens, the play and the characters give us some smart insights into diverging worlds with no easy answers but room to explore.

I love Simon’s stories for young audiences. She can take the simplest presence and expand it using what is good in all living creatures. A plum feast is your reward for taking this play and bringing it to the young. (And there’s a gentle reminder for us adults - simple, sweet and surprises are always welcome.)