Lymus-Sanders delivered this opening scene more like an actor acting than a grief-stricken woman. In Sunday's show, which started 15 minutes late, Eileen B. MORE ON STAGE: Andrea Bocelli, 'Phantom of the Opera' and Cirque du Soleil are all in town for Valentine's Day She speaks with urgency, not wanting to be just 'some poor old woman crying on your evening news, and then nothing.' The rest of the show skips around in time, from Lena enlisting a friend of Tray's (DuJuan Cole) to find out what led up to his death to family scenes involving Tray or his Starbucks job. She wants the world to know that her grandson was not caught up in gangs, that he was working nights and weekends saving for a car. She especially wants to reconnect with her daughter Devine, Tray's younger sister played by Kaylee Tupper Miller.īut it all begins with the shooting as grandmother Lena, who had to assume the child-rearing role when everyone else was either addicted or dead, faces the audience and shares her pain. Merrell, a stepmother in recovery, is tutoring him to write an essay for the application. Tray is an aspiring boxer who is applying for a scholarship. Playwright Kimber Lee has tweaked some details, such as making Tray Thompson 18. The story is based on the short life of Tray Franklin, 20, who was fatally shot in 2012 in Brownsville. MORE ON STAGE: American Stage opens new series with timeless 'A Raisin in the Sun'
