Recommended by Steven G. Martin

A snob meets her comeuppance. Andrea Aptecker quickly sets a tone for this 10-minute dark comedy, but it quickly melts away in a flood of haughty arrogance and snide behavior, all in the name of faux expertise.

An immensely satisfying play.

A tidy play with tidy characters whose tidy lives may soon shatter, as hinted at by the chaos instilled in Prillaman's fine end stage direction. Something's going to happen ...

Ridiculously funny premise and execution. These gleefully malicious fruits get their say.

Writing a story that moves from light to dark is impressive, but so is moving through varying degrees of darkness. I really enjoyed how Jackie Martin takes "Cookies for Bethany" from a dark comedy of errors to a brief, objective portrait of a sociopathic character.

When DC Cathro prepared to write "Massage Envy," he surely conducted research into the Seven Deadly Sins. And upon reading all he could about the subject, he threw it away and said, "I can go further."

Another beautiful fingerprint of a play to identify LGBTQIA lives. For being set on Armageddon, it's remarkably funny, even as Lars is heartbroken over his unrequited love for Benno.

I love Scott Sickles' LGBTQIA+ characters because they are living what lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed people live: all the joy, fear, self-doubt, gaslighting, hate, and love that LGBTQIA people face. Non-LGBTQiA audiences may understand the characters and feel empathy toward them. But they are not universal, they are specific and of themselves.

I greatly enjoyed Almost Adults Productions (Santa Fe, NM) virtual reading of Sickles' play.

Pure, comic silliness! Andrea Aptecker's light comedy makes good use of the virtual meeting/Zoom format, and I'd love to see the students' misadventures with making the angel food cake batter. Light-as-air fun!

"The Spot" is a story best told via live theatre. It's a gentle, although bittersweet, fable about accepting growing older. It's also a reminder of the importance of communing with nature. There are fine roles for older actors, too.

The cadence of back-and-forth in this short drama is sharp. Statement, response, counter-response that reveal a lot about these 50-something characters, and perhaps not who an audience might expect. Realistic drama, told well.

Hageman shows more empathy for Jason by just adding the slightest of dimensions to him -- that he loves and wants the best for that dog -- that I think most people, let alone playwrights could muster. It's also an upsetting dimension that reflects back on Jason's flaws.