After showcasing her talent as the lead in her high school's production of Grease, Tasha Schuh began to dream of a career in theater. No one knew that the stage itself would steal her dream-and almost her life-during a rehearsal for the next big show.

Just days before her opening night performance in The Wizard of Oz, sixteen-year- old Tasha took one step backward and fell sixteen feet through a trap door. On that day, Nov. 11, 1997, she landed on the concrete floor of the historic Sheldon Theater, breaking her neck, crushing her spinal cord, and fracturing her skull. She would never...