Nan-Lyn Nelson
Lea, an adventurous and free-spirited thirteen-year-old, lives in idyllic Upstate New York with her academic parents. On the day her family prepares to relocate to Houston, her life takes a drastic turn. Just before their departure, in a tragic misstep, Lea is goaded into a fight with fifteen-year-old Bill. Acting out of frustration, she gets hold of a gun and fires in Bill's direction, causing him to fall into a deep shaft. Without knowing what became of him, Lea is forced to leave with her family. Twelve years later... Lea, who has repressed the memory of those tumultuous events, is an emotional wreck. Her memories of that fateful evening slowly drift back and torment her.
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.
A teenage con artist tricks a desperate mother into hiring her as a live-in companion for her autistic daughter.
