A QUESTION OF FAMILY

SYNOPSIS

Successful businessman Preston Warren and his new wife Terry have tried to have a child to no avail. He is in his early fifties, and while Terry is in her early forties, she has given up the dream of her being able to conceive. Preston has an adult, though estranged daughter, Jennifer,  by his deceased first wife, so he can at least produce  the sperm to fertilize Terry's eggs through Invetro Fertilization. Things do not go as planned, in fact, an unthinkable mistake and attempted cover-up ensues that will compromise the couple's marriage.  

Struggling actress, Jennifer Warren, has seen all those "egg donor" ads in the show business trades, and though  she is desperate for money, it never occurred to her that anyone really took them seriously. It amounted to giving one's children away. How could she foresee the very topic would force her to confront her issues with her father   and the stepmother he married so soon after her mother's death? She discovers that her own father and his new wife are the couple in the sensationalized news story of the ‘test-tube baby mix-up’.  Victims of a terrible I.V.F. mistake, they were given a black couples’ fertilized eggs, as well as their own. One of their twins is black… the  other white.

While trying to make it as an actress in New York, Jen waits tables at a midtown restaurant, along with her zany roommate Georgia Richards, a struggling cabaret singer. Jen, encouraged by her agent’s belief in her talent,     hopes to land the lead role in the new Eric Rotha play. Although her audition goes well, Jen doesn’t get the part.     It doesn’t help to know that the famous playwright and director wanted her for the lead, but were out-voted by    their bottom-line producers who wanted a Hollywood name.

On a visit home, Jen becomes acquainted with her stepmother, Terry, whom she once resented. To Jen’s surprise, Terry is in denial over the issue of the genetic parent’s rights as she has already bonded with her black ‘Baby Michael’. Preston Warren makes every effort to reconcile with his daughter. Jen gives her support to Terry’s  growing realization of the need to face her situation and decide the fate of her black twin. A visit to the home of     the genetic parents, who have been conducting their own search for their only child, brings everything into perspective, both for Terry, as well as Jen.

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