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Act 1 Synopsis

The scene opens on Diana Goodman, a sharp yet over attentive mother, waiting for her son Gabe, a smart, dashing boy who doesn’t seem to like to follow curfew. Her daughter Natalie, a girl who doesn’t seem to be very happy despite the fact she is a piano prodigy, storms in very upset looking for comfort from her mother. Noticing the chaos, Diana tries to help her family, which soon goes downhill when sandwich fixings are flown every which way. Dan, the genuine father of the Goodman family, sees Diana all bewildered and rushes to help her as Natalie hurries of the school so she can take advantage of the piano practice room where, not after long, she is interrupted by Henry, a classmate of Natalie who obviously wants to be much more than that.

Over the next few weeks Diana pays lots of visits to Doctor Madden, a hansom younger man who is quite the rocker, while Dan waits in the car trying to figure out how he is going to deal with his own problems. It is at this time that the Goodman family finds out Diana struggles from bipolar disorder along with hallucinations and it has been going on for 16 years. The doctors do whatever they can to modify her medicine until she is stable. Meanwhile, Henry and Natalie get closer and closer until, finally, Henry tell Natalie that he loves her and they kiss not knowing that Diana had been watching. Diana then realized Natalie is not going to be a teenage forever and she has already missed too much of it, so she gets rid of the medication.

A for weeks later, the Goodman family all sit down excited to have a family meal when Diana comes out of the kitchen holding a Birthday cake and singing for Gabe. Despondent, Dan explains to Diana that Gabe has been dead for years now. Natalie ru...

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...na crazy causing her to hurry back to Doctor Madden.

Diana starts questioning what would happen if the treatment was not working. Doctor Madden insures her that he relapse is common and she shouldn’t worry, she should just get more ECT but Diana refuses and goes home.

When she gets home she tells Dan that she is going to devoice him. She explains that she needs to start taking risks and learn not to always rely on Dan to catch her when she falls. While Dan sits at home wondering why Diana would do this Gabe appears to him and tells him that he would stay with Dan. It is then, for the first time, Dan calls his some by his name. Soon after, Natalie comes home to her dad sitting by himself looking depressed she sits next to him and tells him that everything will be okay. Dan then goes to Doctor Madden to talk about Diana but ends up venting about his own issues.