REDD

REDD is a two act melodramatic play that takes place in the fictitious town, Chewbacca Creek, in rural Kentucky in 1955. The entire play in presented in the spacious home of Redd Johnston, a retired tobacco farmer. He is a black man who has acquired more than any other man in his “neck of the woods.”
Redd is a tyrannical father who manipulates the lives of his family. He is a powerful and uses his influence and his house as means of control. His feet are so bad that he is limited to how much of his grand estate he is actually sees.
At the plays opening Redd receives a telephone call from Charley Martin who was recently released from prison and returned to Chewbacca Creek to reunite with his twelve year old daughter, Shannon. Since the age of two, Redd has been raising her as his own child telling her that her parents died in a house fire in Detroit.
No one is allowed to answer the telephone but Victor Lee, Redd’s Grandson. He is a cunning fourteen year old who worshiped the ground “Daddy Redd” walks on. Redd orders him to secrecy about the caller telling him that the man on the telephone is dead, knowing that Victor Lee is scared of ghost. He is loyal to his Grandfather and would never jeopardize his trust or losing the quarter he’s paid nightly to soak his feet, in which he has concocted a potion to keep sore.
The house is also occupied by Redd’s mentally unstable wife, Miz Johnston, his son Victor and Victor’s wife Pearl, who is never seen. His daughter, Etta Mae has returned home after separating from her aging husband Mr. Willie, Lexington’s first negro house trainer. Etta Mae still believes that all glitter is gold.
There are multi secrets under Redd’s roof including the mysterious house guest Pee Wee Dawson, and unbeknownst to Redd is VICTOR’S CASIO, Chewbacca Creek’s hottest night spot located in the basement.