My Brother’s Keeper tells the story of Danny, a black kid arrested on a drug deal, and his court-appointed lawyer, Teddy (a woman). Danny is under considerable pressure to cooperate with the authorities, including from his own lawyer, but he resists. This play channels some experiences I had on my day job as a court reporter. My concern when I wrote it, and now, is whether black actors would find the black characters I wrote demeaning. The actors who did the show for me originally didn’t, and one of them staged the play at her own theater in Mt. Vernon.
