Event

Independence

Oldest daughter, Kess, has returned to the family home in Independence, Iowa after a four-year absence. Summoned there by middle sister, Jo, because mother Evelyn is once again exhibiting "crazy" behavior, Kess is reluctant to be drawn back into the family's uniquely dysfunctional drama.

Youngest sister, Sherry, at the age of 19, is three weeks shy of finally graduating from high school, her commencement postponed because of an unwanted pregnancy some years before. Sherry's wisecracking demeanor masks her unresolved emotions about the matter which inevitably surface now that Jo is unmarried and pregnant, too a "curse" that seems to befall all the women of the family, save Kess, who, yes, Mom, is still a homosexual.

The play elicits much laughter amidst the darker undertones of how all three daughters struggle to find a way out of the house and into their own, much-needed "independence" from Evelyn.

Blessing is a prolific playwright whose best known work is A Walk In The Woods, nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and Broadway's Tony award. Other plays include Eleemosynary and A Body Of Water and Whores, to name a few. He currently heads the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.