Stagelights Collection:
(2024)(A book in the Alydia Rackham's Collections series)
A collection of stories by Alydia Rackham
THE LAST SCENE
Anne studied to be a speech therapist, and she lives in a little apartment in New York, actively searching for a job in a non-scary school system. She has a steady, reliable boyfriend named Jim. She also has premonitions. She secretly calls them “Pictures,” and she’s never been able to stop even one from coming true. Now, her dad has suggested she try out for a role in a play written by his old college friend—a play about a time-traveling, mad scientist. And the last scene is always improvised. Battling her doubts and inexperience, Anne tries out, and is stunned when she gets the part of the female lead. As production begins, Anne is pulled into the orbit of a luminous, fiendishly innocent young actor named Peter Wren, who teaches her how to fire her own imagination, and leads the show into mind-blowing popularity. But what happens when Anne begins to care deeply for Peter and the show, at the expense of her relationship with Jim? And what does she do when she begins to have Pictures of Peter’s reckless drug abuse?
GHOST: RETELLING THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
When Christine Daae` became a member of the chorus of the Paris Opera after the death of her father, she never imagined she would find comfort in a tenuous friendship with an aloof stagehand who always remains cloaked and masked. Nor did she ever expect that her childhood sweetheart, Raoul de Chagney, is now the owner of the opera—and both Raoul and her mysterious friend seem to be guarding terrible secrets. Before long, Christine is drawn into a spectacle of spell-binding drama, haunting music and spectacular theatrics, all woven together by treachery and tragedy, building to an inevitable finale that may destroy everything Christine has come to love—unless she can unravel the mystery behind the Phantom of the Opera.
STARDUST: THE TIGHTROPE
Edith Ambrose’s life shatters in three days. Her father has run away with another woman, and her fiancé has broken their engagement. Now, Edith feels like a stranger in her own little town. Every pursuit that used to bring her joy—tennis, singing, and playing the piano at the movie theatre—brings a flood of painful memories. In an effort to escape, she moves to Hollywood to live with her eccentric and wealthy aunt, and begins taking stenographer classes. But one fateful evening at an ice-cream parlor, she meets Charlie Carnivall: a brilliant young actor/director for silent films. And to Edith’s shock, he invites to sign her on as his next leading lady. As she is swept up into this burgeoning, circus-like universe of motion pictures, will Edith’s past haunt and sabotage her future? Will Charlie’s hidden wounds and insecurities destroy everything they are trying to work for? Or will the magic and unlimited possibilities of motion picture—along with the strength of their dreams—set them both free?
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Anne studied to be a speech therapist, and she lives in a little apartment in New York, actively searching for a job in a non-scary school system. She has a steady, reliable boyfriend named Jim. She also has premonitions. She secretly calls them “Pictures,” and she’s never been able to stop even one from coming true. Now, her dad has suggested she try out for a role in a play written by his old college friend—a play about a time-traveling, mad scientist. And the last scene is always improvised. Battling her doubts and inexperience, Anne tries out, and is stunned when she gets the part of the female lead. As production begins, Anne is pulled into the orbit of a luminous, fiendishly innocent young actor named Peter Wren, who teaches her how to fire her own imagination, and leads the show into mind-blowing popularity. But what happens when Anne begins to care deeply for Peter and the show, at the expense of her relationship with Jim? And what does she do when she begins to have Pictures of Peter’s reckless drug abuse?
GHOST: RETELLING THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
When Christine Daae` became a member of the chorus of the Paris Opera after the death of her father, she never imagined she would find comfort in a tenuous friendship with an aloof stagehand who always remains cloaked and masked. Nor did she ever expect that her childhood sweetheart, Raoul de Chagney, is now the owner of the opera—and both Raoul and her mysterious friend seem to be guarding terrible secrets. Before long, Christine is drawn into a spectacle of spell-binding drama, haunting music and spectacular theatrics, all woven together by treachery and tragedy, building to an inevitable finale that may destroy everything Christine has come to love—unless she can unravel the mystery behind the Phantom of the Opera.
STARDUST: THE TIGHTROPE
Edith Ambrose’s life shatters in three days. Her father has run away with another woman, and her fiancé has broken their engagement. Now, Edith feels like a stranger in her own little town. Every pursuit that used to bring her joy—tennis, singing, and playing the piano at the movie theatre—brings a flood of painful memories. In an effort to escape, she moves to Hollywood to live with her eccentric and wealthy aunt, and begins taking stenographer classes. But one fateful evening at an ice-cream parlor, she meets Charlie Carnivall: a brilliant young actor/director for silent films. And to Edith’s shock, he invites to sign her on as his next leading lady. As she is swept up into this burgeoning, circus-like universe of motion pictures, will Edith’s past haunt and sabotage her future? Will Charlie’s hidden wounds and insecurities destroy everything they are trying to work for? Or will the magic and unlimited possibilities of motion picture—along with the strength of their dreams—set them both free?
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
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