Broadway Book Club: "By Any Other Name" by Jodi Picoult

Every two months, EAG's Broadway Book Club members from around the country meet to discuss their latest pick, which is always a novel that takes place in the world of the performing arts! Anyone who has read the book is welcome to join.

We will be meeting both in-person at Guild Hall (1 East 29th St, NYC 10016) and online on Zoom.

Please RSVP by emailing karen@actorsguild.org. (Let her know if you will be attending in-person or logging on to the Zoom.)

Join us this June to celebrate our 50th book read together: By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

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Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.

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PS: EAG will get 10% of sales if you buy your book at this link: bookshop.org/a/80943/9780593497210