Posing as People: Three Stories, Three Plays

by Orson Scott Card, Scott Brick, Assron Johnston (Narrator)

Science fiction is rare in theatrical form, but with Posing As People, three unforgettable sci-fi stories by Orson Scott Card are adapted into powerful stage plays by three different writers.

"Clap Hands and Sing" shows us a lonely, but rich and powerful, old man who has only one wish before he dies: To go back in time and take an opportunity for love that he once let slip by. But what will it do to the young girl who used to love him?

"Lifeloop" pretends to be reality TV 24 hours a day. In fact, they're really actors. But when your character is you, without any break, how exactly do you have a "real" life? And how can a fellow actor tell you that he loves you, when that's what the script also calls for him to say?

"Sepulchre of Songs" is about a heartbreakingly lovely girl who lost her arms and legs many years ago, and now yearns to be free, not just of the rest home where she lives, but of her body. Is the alien being who wants to trade places with her real or the product of her own imagination? And can her therapist's growing love for her keep her from fleeing, either into space or the dark recesses of her own mind?

Posing as People includes performances of the plays as well as readings of the original stories.

Genres: Fiction

204 pages, Audio CD

First published January 31, 2005

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Alice Paterra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to his other work, but still good.