Out of desperation for money to attend a prestigious art school, an ambitious teenager joins a group of con-artists to forge her way to the top of the black market.

SYNOPSIS:

LILIAN MENDEZ is a talented teenage artist who lives amidst the hustle of New York City in 2013. While her precocious ambition is obvious, her desire to attend Ashton Academy (the most prestigious art school in the world), masks the innate curiosity she has about her estranged father. This consistently puts her in conflict with her rigid mother EMILIA, who would scold the very thought of a colored pen. Emilia takes on a more personal case than anything she defends in the court room. Lilian wants to find a way to afford Ashton Academy, but she needs to recognize that she can’t do it alone. The main tension remains whether Lilian will find the help she needs or end up as collateral damage in a story that’s bigger than her.

As Lilian struggles to earn the money to attend Ashton Academy, she collides with REY; a middle-aged con artist who has the street smarts but lacks the skill for the black market. Lilian gets a crash course in being a thief, but continues to wonder about the long forgotten paintings Rey keeps hidden. Friendships suffer as her priorities are skewed and morals are blurred. Lilian realizes she won’t get the training necessary to prepare her for Ashton Academy by relying on the classroom. Emilia agrees to assist her client with a personal request though it forces her to confront ghosts of her past. Thanks to her “criminal studies,” Lilian more readily notices the lies people tell, but resists confronting her own.

With all the players at their marks, the show begins at Ashton Academy. Emilia though guarded and uncomfortable at the school, keeps her word and fulfills her client’s request. In disguise, Lilian enters as a potential student. Meanwhile Rey works the back end to get his hands on the mysterious box. A slip-up on Rey’s end forces Lilian to improvise. She throws an over eccentric tantrum and gets kicked out of her pretend interview. Before she’s thrown out, Lilian spots a painting with the same signature as found on the work in Rey’s office. With the supposed evidence of a parental tie, she’s motivated to gain Rey’s approval, despite his selective fatherly compassion. Without the box or the promised money for a job well done, Lilian makes a deal with Rey: she will act as a Fence and a Forger to help him find the box, if he will be her reference when she applies to Ashton Academy for real. A phone rings at the FBI building in D.C, where an agent working late, receives the request for backup on a sensitive case in New York.

MASTER OF PIECES