Barbara Ashford, Spellcast

Spellcast

Barbara Ashford

Daw, May 3 2011, $15.00

ISBN: 9780756406820

Following losing her job and the ceiling plaster in her New York apartment caving in, Maggie Graham decides to spend a weekend in Vermont to get away before regrouping. When she learns of summer stock roles performing at the Crossroads Theatre in a barn just outside Dale, Maggie shocks herself and decides to audition. She is further stunned when she obtains roles in three shows.

Maggie muses how she has come full circle; having left the stage years ago only to return. She finds the troupe odd yet endearing. However, Maggie is most disturbed by director Rowan Mackenzie, who she has never seen leave the Crossroads Theater and never casts a person in the role they plan to try out for; instead he somehow knows what the person needs to perform on stage and in life.

Maggie keeps this wonderful whimsical witty tale focused as her past (she feels she failed professionally and personally) has impacted her present belief she is a loser and how she feels about her lack of a future. The theater proves healing and mesmerizing as it casts a spell on Maggie (and the audience). The otherworldly elements subtly enhance Barbara Ashford's tender look at a second chance at making dreams real.

Harriet Klausner