Recommended by Claudia Haas

Soucy asks us, what if we choose love? What if? Terse and tense, you sit at the edge of your seats, wondering what is worth dying for! A good question. Asked and answered.

“I can live with maybe.” Such a telling statement and only maybe true. Depression is double-edged and Kantor reveals the edges. Kantor poses friendship as hope and who knows? Maybe it is,

Christmas traditions can have baggage. They also hold memory - ready or not, here they come. Cokinos gives us both. Laughs? Yes. Sadness? Of course. Family, holiday, a tree topper, and change are all tangled like your Christmas lights after a year in storage. Untangling can be therapeutic. Wistful and sweet,

“I had a wonderful dream where I walked in a field of wildflowers with my cat.” Martha alternates between terror and hopes of playing the violin again. I am stressed by world politics but I am warm and fed and nobody is dropping bombs on me. Read these missives from a nineteen year old girl who already knows too much of death and destruction because of one man’s callous dismissal of humanity. It’s today in real time. “Where have all the flowers gone? …. When will it ever end?”

I love seeing silence onstage used theatrically. Plumridge offers up a delectable, sweet meeting of two who deftly communicate with nods … and flasks. A surprise and a treat awaits you. Silent Vows shows us that communication is a many-splendored thing.

DeFrates takes a nursery rhyme, turns it upside down and spins a tale of - lost love? Moonstruck? Forbidden love? You decide. Part whimsy, all heart - this moon above a garden will have you longing for the possibilities. And the impossibilities.

A play about authorship, ownership, and who owns the product. Many surprises as a writer writes about writing. Bicknell gives us secrets, lost chances, and new hopes in a play that dazzles with “what if.” The Author teases us and while we are mesmerized, she pulls a surprise. Theatrical and thoughtful.

A lot goes on in this seemingly breezy conversation between Rory and Lola. A subject not talked about (probably not considered cool with teens), Leilani Larson approaches the subject as Rory does - that asexuality happens and nothing needs to be assumed. There is a beautiful moment that happens as Lola overhears a conversation that I won’t spoil for you. Read it, produce it and let it happen for you.

“Hell is other people” or maybe “Heaven is other people.” A ticking clock, high stakes, and a hard look at the “others” in our lives, Fenton lays out the groundwork for surprises,

Good and evil. Two sides of the same coin? Weaver offers a seemingly glib exchange between the two. But nothing is glib. And nothing is easy. Even with God and the Devil - nothing is black and white. A huge play in a small amount of time. A huge wish that this small conversation exists.