Defying Gravity Paperback - 2010

Scenery: Exterior with set pieces and projections

This free structured look at the 1986 Challenger disaster places the teacher who died with six others as they hurtled into space at the center of an exploration of our need to reach beyond ourselves and dare the universe. Defying Gravity artfully interweaves the past with the present and the lives of participants and bystanders, drawing parallels among painter Claude Monet's artistic quest, the zest of the teacher selected to the first civilian astronaut, the perspectives of her grieving daughter, the aspirations of elderly tourists who drive their Winnebago to Florida to watch the space shot and dream of hotels in space, the guilt felt by a NASA mechanic and his girl friend's fear of heights.

"Flies high in its attempt to describe man's fascination with space and its conquest.... You will certainly not be bored." N.Y. Post.

"[A] clever and uplifting fantasy ... [with] ear catching musings about art, religion and the outer limits of human possibility." N.Y. Times.

"A lovely piece.... It floats gracefully in the big blue yonder of the imagination ... letting Anderson's delicate, tender and human attitude toward her characters come through.... One by one they rise out of their earthbound selves ... to look down on the world from a new perspective." N.Y. Daily News.