The Praying Grandma

Cast

MELVIN LOUIS JENKINS
FELICIA JENKINS
BRICELYN JENKINS
GRANDMA JENKINS
TIM JOHNSON
REVEREND JONES
ONE DEACON
PREACHER’S WIFE
ONE DEACONESS
SHIRLEY MAE JENKINS (VO)
STEPHANIE
THE PAINTING

Synopsis (pilot episode)

The setting is a living room, side porch and small yard of the JENKINS home on a busy street. It is a two-story wood frame house in Durham NC; an older place, well-appointed, simple with middle-income style. A doorway, upstage right leads onto a porch which hosts potted plants, few chairs and an outdoor writer’s workstation. At the left is the partially opened door to a master bedroom. In the upstage left corner is small hallway leading to a kitchen; in the right foreground is a sofa, coffee table and dining tray tables. Situated left is a TV stand and old non-smart television. Books align the lower shelf of the tv stand and adjacent bookshelves. The windows are in the right wall; paintings rest on the floor on each side of the windows.

People are reeling in the post COVID climate with uncertainty on many levels. Jobs are plentiful but people seen to be restless; networking and connections are typically the avenues toward decent successes, as always but now seemingly more so. Children, particularly teenagers are comfortable enough to express themselves to peers and adults with a confidence which comes from clear directives of modern technology. They are aware and self assured however social media has made the art of interactions awkward.

Challenges of an aging population affect all. Most black folk typically don’t throw grandparents into nursing homes; they rather take turns, if able, to care for their elders.