DAUGHTER IN THE DARK

     Daughter in the Dark is a coming-of-age tale of a priest's secret daughter growing up in 1960s San Jose with a mother addicted to sleeping pills. Through twenty-two chapters it follows Jane, an outcast for not looking like her siblings and in charge of her substance-abusing mother's care, from childhood to adulthood as she juxtaposes her harsh reality against the golden age of television.

     The first act begins with Mom in a sanitarium, then delves back in time to explore what got her there. It follows Jane into her teen years where she struggles with school and jobs - all while procuring prescription drugs for her mother and being abused by her father. The narrative offsets this heaviness with humor and innocence, shifting between Jane's life at home and her experiences with boys and secondary characters in her social circles.

   The first act concludes when Jane is sixteen. During one of her mother's near-overdoses, she lets slip an explosive revelation - that Jane's real father wasn't the man who'd been abusing her all those nights with a belt but a priest.

    The second act continues with Jane's attempt to build bridges with her secret family. It follows her into young adulthood, where she encounters sexual harassment in the workplace, body dysmorphia, and the repercussions of her unbearable secret, ultimately denied access to her biological family.

    The story's third act chronicles Jane's evolution into a functioning independent adult despite the adversity of the first two acts. It concludes with her mother's death and the birth of her own children, breaking the cycle of trauma she once feared would be her fate.