The Hollow Bride

In the Great Recital, everyone has a role. Every road has a difficulty. Every wedding is a scene. Mab Hollow has just been cast as the Bride, which would be an honor if she hadn't read ahead — the Bride dies in Act Five. To survive, Mab has to do the one thing the Recital has never allowed: improvise. She assembles an unauthorized party: a retired Chorus who can only speak other people's lines, an innkeeper the Recital keeps failing to write in, and a fox who is a very small amount of a god. Every broken cue grants Mab a new skill, and every new skill makes her harder to cast, and the Stage Manager — a tired young man named Wick who has never once been allowed onstage — is beginning to suspect he's falling for her. On the last night, she is offered the two choices a script allows. Mab is going to choose a third, and the audience is coming with her.