By Any Other Name

1581 . Emilia Bassano is allowed no voice of her own, but finds a way to secretly bring her work to the stage. Yet by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history. His name? William Shakespeare. Present day Manhattan . Young playwright Melina Green is determined to see one of her shows make the stage, but it appears a woman’s voice is still worth less than a man’s. So inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, she takes a lesson from history and submits a play under a male pseudonym . . . Women have long been written out of history, but have they held the pen all along?