This collection includes two related one-act plays: DAUGHTER and SON. In DAUGHTER, a mother tries to reckon with injuries suffered by her daughter while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq. In SON, on the occasion of his sister's wedding, a man struggles with haunting flashbacks to the war and the bomb he dropped on a wedding party. "DAUGHTER is not only the best play of the five, but it's also the most accomplished. Medley writes about an African American mother dealing with the suicide of her daughter after she returns home from Iraq having her face blown off. DAUGHTER is a deep,...

Wendy, whose secret birth name is Zena, is a negro-identified woman who is passing for white. Suddenly, on a white hot day in August, she crosses paths with her black husband from the past. "Wendy and Brian Sims, self-described 'night school loners from Fort Wayne, ' on a roll at the big Detroit auto trade show of 1957, have just been crowned 'Autorama Couple of the Year.' With Brian's career in orbit as his company's leading salesman of automotive accessories and plate glass, and lovely, Southern-belle Wendy basking in the glow of her burgeoning pregnancy, these two 'comers' are destined to...

Race and science collide in Cassandra Medley's trenchant drama. Claire is a melanin scientist. She believes people of color are genetically superior - physically, mentally, in every way. Her daughter Kalima, a molecular geneticist at Johns Hopkins, knows otherwise, but to discredit her mother would destroy the relationship that each woman values the most. Forced to choose between science and family, between her future and her family, Kalima must decide where her loyalties lie. "The dramatically compelling argument spins off sparks about stem cell research, race and the Human Genome Project....