Erica Durham

The Bread Factory is the scene for rehearsals of the Greek play Hecuba. But the real theatrics are outside the theater, with the town invaded by bizarre tourists and mysterious tech start-up workers. There is a new normal in Checkford, if it is even really Checkford any longer.

After 40 years of running their community arts space The Bread Factory, Dorothea and Greta are suddenly fighting for survival when a pair of celebrity performance artists from China come to Checkford and build an enormous complex down the street, catapulting big changes in their small town.

PBS is bound for Broadway with a three-hour primetime documentary series that tracks the real life stories of America’s top high school musical performers, vying in the ultimate competition to find the nation’s best young theater stars. Part competition, part performance, and part non-fiction drama, the series starts in regional competitions, where judges select the best performers in the country. The 60 finalists then descend on Broadway, where they plunge into the eye of the theatrical storm for one intense week of rehearsals, coaching, mentoring, performance and competition. The week culminates in The National High School Musical Theater Awards , a one night, star-studded event held at the Minskoff Theatre in New York. Here the judges select and anoint the nation’s leading male and female high school musical theater performers. Follow the build-up and the heartbreak, the drama and disappointment. It’s BROADWAY OR BUST, on PBS.