The Chicago Gypsies

Carolina Lee, called "Charley," is the youngest actress in the company that suddenly finds itself stranded, and she becomes a "drop-in" at the local school, where "recess is more like a Roman coliseum"

Here is a play that connects rich, fully realized characters from three generations

Audiences warm to Charley's temperamental actress-mother; her loving, song-and-dance-man of a father; and Charley's "illegitimate adopted grandmothers"

While set in the Depression, the "Chicago gypsies" stubbornly see their way through these "worst of times" to the "best of times" in a regenerative reunion that makes these odd yet ordinary people shine with the miracle of loving, quiet survival