A Tabor Heights story before the stories.

Joel Randolph had worked as set designer and technical director for the Allegheny Alpine theater doing summer stock for years. He was happy with his life, but ready to settle down and start his career as a teacher.

Then Emily Keeler joined the cast and crew. Just a few years before, she had been a rising starlet in Hollywood. Then she simply vanished. Yet here she was doing summer stock, accompanied by her five-year-old daughter, Max, and her elderly Aunt Maxine.

As Emily and Joel worked together and became friends, they shared pieces of their lives with each other, their heartaches and dreams. Joel didn't want to lose Emily, Max, and Maxine when the summer ended, but he had to go to Butler-Williams University, and Emily had to go on to her next acting job. They kept in touch and missed each other. As Joel got to know the town of Tabor Heights, a dream took root in his heart: a community theater that he called Homespun. When Emily came to BWU as a guest speaker, Joel dared to share his dream with her. And ask her to stay.