Joanna Lynne Staub

Frank Carter famously authored self-help books. But Alice, his 16-year-old daughter, finds cold comfort in his positivity platitudes when he tragically never comes home one night. As she puzzles out the events of the day that changed her family forever, Alice’s relentless search for the facts reveals a more complicated truth.

The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and the pacification of the Erinyes. The trilogy—consisting of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides—also shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theatre trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC. The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. Oresteia originally included a satyr play, Proteus, following the tragic trilogy, but all except a single line of Proteus has been lost.

A young writer’s life turns upside down when her girlfriend drops some unexpected news. Fifty years later, four artists feel the reverberations of that moment—and its unexpected consequences—as their lives intersect in pursuit of creative passion and legacy. In this bold, imaginative work, Christina Anderson, “a gifted playwright you want to pay attention to” (Variety), dissects the universal act of creation to inspire the dreamers and idealists in us all.