Black Americans

In many ways, the action of the play is built around the experiences of a group of black characters – specifically, a family consisting of mother, father, daughter, and mother’s sister. Other black characters with connections to that family are referenced and eventually appear, but in circumstances that set them apart from other members of the family in some significant ways. Within that family group, there is one character who is arguably more significant than the others. This would be Keisha, the teenaged daughter of Beverly and Dayton, and niece to Beverly’s sister Jasmine. Keisha plays the most defining role in the play’s climax, and in the coming-to-conclusion of the play’s plot and thematic development.

However, the action of the play’s second act is played out and defined by a quartet of non-black characters. While the attention of those characters is directly focused...