A popular radio personality has become a TV treasure, thanks to her on-air charisma and down-to-earth advice. Along the way, fans have loved her stories of “my son the genius,” a never-seen character who has become a trademark part of her show’s identity. At home, however, the reclusive son is actually a bitter critic of his mother’s exploitation. What happens when convincing the son to appear on air becomes the key to keeping her top place in daytime TV?
This family drama uses the background of media celebrity to explore one uniquely modern path to success. It paints both a critical and a sympathetic portrait of a bright, ambitious woman whose talents and desire for validation lead her down that path. Her husband and son grapple with their own need for privacy in a world where everyone connected with a celebrity is fair game for public consumption.

Sims Glendenning is at a crossroads. Once the most celebrated writer of his generation, he and the 20th Century have both turned 50. Sims, in Hollywood to film an adaptation of his work, can’t seem to finish anything, and he fears his best work is behind him. When Sims engages a handsome young priest to serve as "technical advisor" on a new script, his mid-century anxiety may just be soothed by a conversion to Catholicism. But is he attracted to God or to the priest?
Sims shares his rented home with his wife, Claire Morgan, a famous character actress. Their household is completed by Basil Steele, once Sims's lover and now his faithful, if acid-tongued, secretary. To the outside world, theirs is a conventional arrangement. However, Claire returns from her latest shoot having fallen in love, truly in love, with producer John Grant. If Sims carries off his conversion, divorce from him will be difficult.
There are two other complications that could only happen in Hollywood, circa 1950. First, Sims is being brutally treated by a blackmailing young hustler who threatens to expose his sexual exploits, possibly sending Sims to prison. And it seems that, just as Claire has found real love with John, the House Un-American Activities Committee has called him up for a “chat.”
As each character is forced to look at the layers of lies and secrecy that he or she has lived with, their desires collide with one another. Threatening to reveal the lies could lead to ruin. Living with the secrets may no longer be possible. Only the least likely of this menage holds the key to everyone’s future: Basil Steele.

Divinity Place synopsis

August 1941

Jean is bursting with news – she and her fiancé Buddy have decided that tomorrow’s the day they get married. Despite Jean being Catholic and Buddy being Presbyterian, they’ve got a priest to agree to marry them. At this very house at 1330 Divinity Place, Philadelphia, PA.

This throws the household into a tizzy. Jean’s cousin Ceil, surrogate mother to a brood of cousins and sisters, has to get the house ready in twelve hours. Jean’s sister Marguerite insists that they invite their shrewish guardian, Aunt Mary. Jean’s best friend Caputo is hugely pregnant. And Jean’s brother’s fiancée, Jinx, is fuming – she thought her wedding would go off first.

Scene 2: the morning of the wedding. Father Brendan, the young priest who agreed to perform the ceremony, has been sent off to the harbor to bless some ships. Monsignor Aloysius McDonough, known to all as “Holy Joe,” arrives to announce that no wedding can take place until Buddy signs a form promising he’ll raise their children Catholic.

But Buddy won’t sign. His word has to be good enough. And Jean’s behind him. No amount of pressure from Holy Joe, or Buddy’s mother (who sneaks down the street while her husband is asleep) can budge Buddy. He believes that you have to have faith. In people as well as God.

A mixture of sentiment, farce and a gentle social message, the play is perfect for college theatre groups, as it has six good roles for young women and three good roles for young men, plus some tasty character roles.

Christmas season: the worst for those in mourning. Wylie is a grief counselor in the middle of his own grieving for his late husband, Val. Val may or may not have ended his own life. Wylie’s friend and fellow counselor Fee sees through Wylie’s wisecracks but can’t seem to help her friend cope with his loss. She’s got problems of her own, including a troubled son and an even more troubled client who has just texted her in crisis. Fee’s son arrives, convinced that Fee has been abducted – or worse – by her disturbed client. Amidst all this chaos, Wylie is visited by a series of Yuletide “ghosts” (really his own personal demons): his late husband, a cranky embodiment of all Wylie’s anxieties, a possible real ghost of Fee (if she’s been murdered), and even his grieving cat, who comes out from under the bed to match Wylie wisecrack for wisecrack. This modern-day Christmas carol ends with all the real people starting to face their own limitations and the “ghosts” beginning to fade away.