PORTLAND — Portland Stage, 25A Forest Ave., will present the world premiere of “The Half-Light” by Monica Wood from Feb. 26 through March 24.

A chance encounter presents a tantalizing question for a college secretary: Can anyone be trained to see the dead? Her dogged pursuit of an answer leads to a far more earthbound challenge when a colleague is felled by grief. A heartwarming drama about love and purpose that examines the ghosts that live within us all. “The Half-Light” was developed as part of the 2018 Little Festival of the Unexpected at Portland Stage.

Monica Wood is a novelist, memoirist and playwright. Her most recent novel, “The One-in-a-Million Boy,” has been published in 22 languages in 30 countries and won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the New England Society Book Award. She is also the author of “When We Were the Kennedys,” a New England bestseller, Oprah magazine summer-reading pick, and winner of the May Sarton Memoir Award and the 2016 Maine Literary Award. Her novel “Any Bitter Thing” was an ABA bestseller and Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes “Ernie’s Ark,” which has been excerpted on NPR’s “Selected Shorts” and selected by several towns and cities as their “One Book, One Community” read; “My Only Story,” a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award; and “Secret Language,” her first novel.  Her widely anthologized short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on public radio.

Wood also writes books for writers and teachers. Her nonfiction has appeared in Oprah, New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Parade, and many other publications. Her first play, “Papermaker,” debuted at Portland Stage in an extended run, its bestselling play ever.

For more information, call 207-774-0465 or visit www.portlandstage.org.