Community Action

As a response to the increasing violence in our culture, the widening ideological divides, and the growing gap in economic well-being, there is greater awareness that a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. But even as we acknowledge the need to build community, the dominant on-the-ground practices about how to engage people, civically and organizationally, remain essentially unchanged. We still believe community is built with better messaging, more persuasion, and social events for people to get to know each other better. All of which is naïve.

When 12-year-old Jax Ember signs up to help at the run-down Trillberry Community Theater, he expects bad lighting and old costumes... not flickering ghosts, creepy whispers, and warnings scrawled in dust. But something — or someone — is haunting the stage. An actress vanished decades ago during rehearsal. Now her story is clawing its way back into the spotlight. Alongside his best friends Maya and Leo, Jax will have to outsmart spooky shadows, decode forgotten clues, and face down a phantom with unfinished business... all before opening night.