Alina Adams Turns Soap History Into Bold Fiction in Go On Pretending
“What if an African-American actor works on the radio version of Guiding Light… but the show transitions to television, and now he can’t go on because audiences will see he’s not white?” she posited. “That’s where the drama starts.”
From there, the tale spans three generations—from 1950s America and the USSR, all the way to modern-day Rojava, Syria. “Emma grows up in Moscow, the child of American defectors… and then she returns to the U.S. and sees the world through very different eyes,” Alina said. “And then finally, there’s Emma’s daughter Libby, who grows up in the U.S. hearing stories about her revolutionary grandmother—and decides she wants to be just like her.”